Color metaphors for race
Encyclopedia
In some societies and among some anthropologists, color terminology (or colour terminology) was used to label races, sometimes in addition to a non-color term for the same race. Identifying races in terms of their skin color has been common since at least the Physiognomica
falsely attributed to Aristotle
.
Other scientists were more cautious about such categorization, and Charles Darwin
argued that the number of categories, or in this case the number of different colors, is completely arbitrary and subjective. For example, some claimed three distinct colors, some four, and others have claimed even more. In contrast, Darwin argued that there are gradations, or degrees between the numbers of categories claimed, and not distinct categories, or colors.
One of the earlier uses of the concept of “black” as a metaphor for race was first used at the end of the 17th century when a French doctor named François Bernier
(1625–1688), an early proponent of scientific racism
, divided up humanity based on facial appearance and body type. He proposed four categories: Europeans, Far Easterners, Lapps, and Blacks. The first major scientific model was created in 18th century when Carolus Linnaeus
recognized four main races: Europeanus which he labeled the white race, Asiatic, which he labeled the yellow race, Americanus, which he labeled the red race, and Africanus, which he labeled the black race. By adding the brown race, which he called "Malay" for Polynesians, Melanesians
of Pacific Islands, and aborigines of Australia, Linnaeus' protégé, anthropology founder Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
(1752–1840), came up with the five color typology for humans: white people
(the Caucasian
or white
race), more or less black people
(the Ethiopian or black
race), yellow people (the Mongolian or yellow race), cinnamon-brown or flame colored people
(the American or red race) and brown people
(the Malay or brown
race). Blumenbach listed the "races" in a hierarchic order of physical similarities: Caucasian
, followed by American, followed by Mongolian
, followed by Malayan, followed by Ethiopian.
Rand McNally
's 1944 map of races describes Amerindians as being the copper race or copper people.
According to conservative
writer Dinesh D'Souza
, "Blumenbach's classification had a lasting influence in part because his categories neatly broke down into familiar tones and colors: white, black, yellow, red, and brown."
".
, and could vary widely in the same community. Thus, it could not provide a satisfying way to classify ethnic groups, much less "races." Following World War II
and the discredit of such racial classifications, more and more biologists and anthropologists began to question the concept itself of "race." Thus, The Race Question
statement by the UNESCO
, in the 1950s, proposed to substitute the term "ethnic groups" to the concept of "race," arguing that human communities were defined as much by cultural traits (language, religion, etc.) as by biological characteristics (skin color being only one of them, along with blood type
s, which did not recover previous racial classifications, etc.).
and African-American writers Langston Hughes
("That Word Black"), Maya Angelou
, and Ralph Ellison
, among others, wrote that negative symbolisms surrounding the word "black" outnumber positive ones. They argued that the good vs. bad dualism associated with white and black unconsciously frame prejudiced colloquialisms. In the 1970s the term black replaced Negro in the United States.
or to albinism
and which can affect power and prestige. In 1930s Harlem
Slang such gradations were described by a tonescale of "high yaller [yellow], yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown". These terms were sometimes referred to in blues music, both in the words of songs and in the names of performers. In 1920s Georgia
, Willie Perryman followed his older brother Rufus in becoming a blues piano player: both were albino Negroes with pale skin, reddish hair and poor eyesight. Rufus was already well established as "Speckled Red", Willie became "Piano Red". The piano player and guitarist Tampa Red
from the same state developed his career in Chicago, Illinois, at that time: his name may have come from his light skin tone, or possibly reddish hair.
More recently such categorization has been noted in the Caribbean
. It is reported that skin tones play an important role in defining how Barbadians
view one another, and they use terms such as "brown skin, light skin, fair skin, high brown, red, and mulatto". An assessment of racism in Trinidad
notes people often being described by their skin tone, with the gradations being "HIGH RED – part White, part Black but ‘clearer’ than Brown-skin: HIGH BROWN – More white than Black, light skinned: DOUGLA –part Indian and part Black: LIGHT SKINNED, or CLEAR SKINNED Some Black, but more White: TRINI WHITE – Perhaps not all White, behaves like others but skin White". In Jamaica
albinism has been stigmatized, but the albino dancehall
singer Yellowman
took his stage name in protest against such prejudice and has helped to end this stereotype. The West Indian region uses the term "coolie" for all people of east Indian descent. In Trinidad, however, use of the term is considered extremely offensive.
, persons of Caucasus
or Asian descent and other people having black hair are often referred to as Black (not because of skin color). "White", apart from its racial meaning, is also a term denoting opponents of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War
(see White movement
for this usage) and "Red", apart from its racial meaning, means Communists
or Bolsheviks while "Green" often means Ecologists
.
Sometimes, Belarus
and Belarusians
have been referred to (in Western languages, not Russian) as "White Russia
" and "White Russian
s", which can be misleading; see those articles for discussion in more depth.
(yellow) is a common surname, but does not refer to the East Asian race as was popular in Western languages until recently. However, the Yellow Emperor
was a legendary founder of China. Yellow is also identified with the "center" cardinal direction
(blue-east, red-south, white-west, black-north) while China is known as Zhongguo
"middle kingdom".
White (白 bai) means "plain" or "free of charge" in many common expressions and was not traditionally used to refer to Europeans or descendants, who were usually identified as "洋人" (yáng rén, "people from [across the] ocean") or some variety of "barbarians" with reddish or pinkish skin colors (e.g. Minnan ang mo
, "red-haired"). Contemporary Chinese
, has, however, adopted Western usage to a large extent. Black (黑 hei) is typically applied to those of African race today. However, the term "black resident" (黑户) also refers to unregistered rural migrants in cities (as in black market).
Names of ethnic minorities sometimes contain colors, not to indicate skin color, but simply for identification, possibly based on traditional clothing or geographical direction.
The Five Races Under One Union
theory of national unity can be visualized through an old ROC flag and a variant which emphasized Han administration while de-emphasizing the top-to-bottom hierarchy found in the original flag. Red - Han, Yellow - Manchu, Blue - Mongol, White - Hui and Black - Tibetan.
White
백 baek, used with 인 in to make 백인, baek-in, literally means white-person in Korean
, cognate
to Chinese bairen 白人 and Japanese hakujin 白人. 흑 heug is used to describe persons of African descent, 흑 heug literally means black in Korean
(i.e. 흑인, cognate to Chinese heiren 黑人 and Japanese kokujin 黒人).
. These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
, stylized medicine wheel
s are typically depicted with four colors associated with not only cardinal direction, but also with color of race:
by carrying a Flag of the Races (also called the Flag of the Human Race) with five horizontal stripes (from top to bottom they were red, black, brown, yellow, and white, representing respectively the American Indian race, the Negro race
, the Malayan race, the Mongolian race
, and the Caucasian race
). Gilbert Baker
is said to have gotten the idea for the rainbow flag
from this flag.
The early flag of the Republic of China
also featured five stripes standing for five ethnicities.
Physiognomica
Physiognomonics is an Ancient Greek treatise on physiognomy casually attributed to Aristotle but now believed to be by an author writing approximately 300 BC.-Ancient physiognomy before the Physiognomonics:...
falsely attributed to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
.
Other scientists were more cautious about such categorization, and Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
argued that the number of categories, or in this case the number of different colors, is completely arbitrary and subjective. For example, some claimed three distinct colors, some four, and others have claimed even more. In contrast, Darwin argued that there are gradations, or degrees between the numbers of categories claimed, and not distinct categories, or colors.
Western classifications
One of the earlier uses of the concept of “black” as a metaphor for race was first used at the end of the 17th century when a French doctor named François Bernier
François Bernier
François Bernier was a French physician and traveller. He was born at Joué-Etiau in Anjou. He was the personal physician of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for around 12 years during his stay in India....
(1625–1688), an early proponent of scientific racism
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
, divided up humanity based on facial appearance and body type. He proposed four categories: Europeans, Far Easterners, Lapps, and Blacks. The first major scientific model was created in 18th century when Carolus Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
recognized four main races: Europeanus which he labeled the white race, Asiatic, which he labeled the yellow race, Americanus, which he labeled the red race, and Africanus, which he labeled the black race. By adding the brown race, which he called "Malay" for Polynesians, Melanesians
Melanesians
Melanesians are an ethnic group in Melanesia. The original inhabitants of the group of islands now named Melanesia were likely the ancestors of the present-day Papuan-speaking people...
of Pacific Islands, and aborigines of Australia, Linnaeus' protégé, anthropology founder Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was a German physician, physiologist and anthropologist, one of the first to explore the study of mankind as an aspect of natural history, whose teachings in comparative anatomy were applied to classification of what he called human races, of which he determined...
(1752–1840), came up with the five color typology for humans: white people
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
(the Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
or white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
race), more or less black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
(the Ethiopian or black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
race), yellow people (the Mongolian or yellow race), cinnamon-brown or flame colored people
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
(the American or red race) and brown people
Brown people
Brown people or brown race is a political, racial, ethnic, societal, and cultural classification, similar to black people and white people. Like these, it is a metaphor for race based on human skin color, reflecting the fact that there are shades of skin colour intermediate between "Mediterranean" ...
(the Malay or brown
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....
race). Blumenbach listed the "races" in a hierarchic order of physical similarities: Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
, followed by American, followed by Mongolian
Mongolian race
The term Mongolian race or Mongol race could mean:* the indigenous people of Mongolia called the Mongols* the Mongolian peoples, a group of ethnic groups including other peoples speaking various Mongolic languages as well just as those particular Mongols that are the primary ethnic group in...
, followed by Malayan, followed by Ethiopian.
Rand McNally
Rand McNally
Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...
's 1944 map of races describes Amerindians as being the copper race or copper people.
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
writer Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh D'Souza is an author and public speaker and a former Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is currently the President of The King's College in New York City. D'Souza is a noted Christian apologist and conservative writer and speaker....
, "Blumenbach's classification had a lasting influence in part because his categories neatly broke down into familiar tones and colors: white, black, yellow, red, and brown."
Different races
Two historical anthropologists favored a binary racial classification system that divided people into a light skin and dark skin categories. 18th century anthropologist Christoph Meiners, who first defined the Caucasian race, posited a "binary racial scheme" of two races with the Caucasian whose racial purity was exemplified by the "venerated... ancient Germans", although he considered some Europeans as impure "dirty whites"; and "Mongolians", who consisted of everyone else. Meiners did not include the Jews as Caucasians and ascribed them a "permanently degenerate nature". Hannah Franzieka identified 19th c. writers who believed in the "Caucasian hypothesis" and noted that "Jean-Julien Virey and Louis Antoine Desmoulines were well-known supports of the idea that Europeans came from Mount Caucasus." In his political history of racial identity, Bruce Baum wrote,"Jean-Joseph Virey (1774-1847), a follower of Chistoph Meiners, claimed that "the human races... may divided... into those who are fair and white and those who are dark or black." Later, another binary racial classification system took hold de facto in the United States based on light skin people and dark skin or black people. According to Stephen Saris, in the United States there are two big racial divides. "First, there is the black-white kind, which is basically anti-black.". The second racial divide is the one is "between whites and everyone else" with whites being "narrowly construed" and everyone else being called "people of colorPerson of color
Person of color is a term used, primarily in the United States, to describe all people who are not white. The term is meant to be inclusive among non-white groups, emphasizing common experiences of racism...
".
Understanding of melanin
Racial classification according to skin color became more complex when anthropologists added other, less obvious characteristics, in their attempt to achieve a scientific classification of races. It was later found that skin color depended essentially from the amount of melaninMelanin
Melanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...
, and could vary widely in the same community. Thus, it could not provide a satisfying way to classify ethnic groups, much less "races." Following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the discredit of such racial classifications, more and more biologists and anthropologists began to question the concept itself of "race." Thus, The Race Question
The Race Question
The Race Question is the first of four UNESCO statements about issues of race. It was issued on 18 July 1950 following World War II and Nazi racism. The statement was an attempt to clarify what was scientifically known about race and a moral condemnation of racism...
statement by the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, in the 1950s, proposed to substitute the term "ethnic groups" to the concept of "race," arguing that human communities were defined as much by cultural traits (language, religion, etc.) as by biological characteristics (skin color being only one of them, along with blood type
Blood type
A blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells . These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system...
s, which did not recover previous racial classifications, etc.).
Symbolism and uses of color terminology
The Martinique-born French Frantz FanonFrantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon was a Martiniquo-Algerian psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and writer whose work is influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory and Marxism...
and African-American writers Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
("That Word Black"), Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
, and Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
, among others, wrote that negative symbolisms surrounding the word "black" outnumber positive ones. They argued that the good vs. bad dualism associated with white and black unconsciously frame prejudiced colloquialisms. In the 1970s the term black replaced Negro in the United States.
Tone gradations
In some societies people can be sensitive to gradations of skin tone, which may be due to intermarriageMiscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
or to albinism
Albinism
Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
and which can affect power and prestige. In 1930s Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
Slang such gradations were described by a tonescale of "high yaller [yellow], yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown". These terms were sometimes referred to in blues music, both in the words of songs and in the names of performers. In 1920s Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Willie Perryman followed his older brother Rufus in becoming a blues piano player: both were albino Negroes with pale skin, reddish hair and poor eyesight. Rufus was already well established as "Speckled Red", Willie became "Piano Red". The piano player and guitarist Tampa Red
Tampa Red
Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....
from the same state developed his career in Chicago, Illinois, at that time: his name may have come from his light skin tone, or possibly reddish hair.
More recently such categorization has been noted in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. It is reported that skin tones play an important role in defining how Barbadians
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
view one another, and they use terms such as "brown skin, light skin, fair skin, high brown, red, and mulatto". An assessment of racism in Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
notes people often being described by their skin tone, with the gradations being "HIGH RED – part White, part Black but ‘clearer’ than Brown-skin: HIGH BROWN – More white than Black, light skinned: DOUGLA –part Indian and part Black: LIGHT SKINNED, or CLEAR SKINNED Some Black, but more White: TRINI WHITE – Perhaps not all White, behaves like others but skin White". In Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
albinism has been stigmatized, but the albino dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...
singer Yellowman
Yellowman
Yellowman is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay, widely known as King Yellowman...
took his stage name in protest against such prejudice and has helped to end this stereotype. The West Indian region uses the term "coolie" for all people of east Indian descent. In Trinidad, however, use of the term is considered extremely offensive.
Russia
In RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, persons of Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
or Asian descent and other people having black hair are often referred to as Black (not because of skin color). "White", apart from its racial meaning, is also a term denoting opponents of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
(see White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
for this usage) and "Red", apart from its racial meaning, means Communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
or Bolsheviks while "Green" often means Ecologists
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
.
Sometimes, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
have been referred to (in Western languages, not Russian) as "White Russia
White Russia
White Russia or White Ruthenia is a name that has historically been applied to a part of the wider region of Ruthenia or Rus', most often to that which roughly corresponds to the eastern part of present-day Belarus including the cities of Polatsk, Vitsyebsk and Mahiliou. In English, the use of the...
" and "White Russian
White Russian
White Russian may refer to:* White Russian , an alcoholic beverage* White movement members during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1923* A White émigré from the Russian Civil War...
s", which can be misleading; see those articles for discussion in more depth.
China
HuangHuang
Huang is a Chinese surname that means "golden yellow", or literally "yellow." While Huáng is the pinyin romanisation of the word, it may also be romanised as Huong, Houang, Hoang, Wong, Hwong, Vong, Hung, Hong, Bong, Eng, Ng, Uy, Wee, Oi, Oei, Oey, or Ooi, Ong, Hwang, or Ung due to pronunciations...
(yellow) is a common surname, but does not refer to the East Asian race as was popular in Western languages until recently. However, the Yellow Emperor
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor or Huangdi1 is a legendary Chinese sovereign and culture hero, included among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he reigned from 2697–2597 or 2696–2598 BC...
was a legendary founder of China. Yellow is also identified with the "center" cardinal direction
Cardinal direction
The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...
(blue-east, red-south, white-west, black-north) while China is known as Zhongguo
Zhongguo
Zhongguo is a Mandarin name of China, literally translating as "Middle Kingdom". .It is also the official name of the asteroid number 3789 in the outer main belt....
"middle kingdom".
White (白 bai) means "plain" or "free of charge" in many common expressions and was not traditionally used to refer to Europeans or descendants, who were usually identified as "洋人" (yáng rén, "people from [across the] ocean") or some variety of "barbarians" with reddish or pinkish skin colors (e.g. Minnan ang mo
Ang Mo
Ang mo or Ang moh is a racial epithet describing Caucasian , mainly in Malaysia and Singapore. It literally means "red-haired" and originates from Hokkien...
, "red-haired"). Contemporary Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, has, however, adopted Western usage to a large extent. Black (黑 hei) is typically applied to those of African race today. However, the term "black resident" (黑户) also refers to unregistered rural migrants in cities (as in black market).
Names of ethnic minorities sometimes contain colors, not to indicate skin color, but simply for identification, possibly based on traditional clothing or geographical direction.
- Red, Black, Blue/Green, White, Flowery (multicolored) MiaoHmong peopleThe Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
(Hmong) - the BaiBaiThe Bai or Baip are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They numbered 1,858,063 as of 2000....
(literally White) are a sedentary lowland people of YunnanYunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with... - Black Bone and White Bone YiYi peopleThe Yi or Lolo people are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China...
- The Qing dynasty ManchuManchuThe Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
military were divided into Eight BannersEight BannersThe Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed. They provided the basic framework for the Manchu military organization...
identified by color and with ethnic associations
The Five Races Under One Union
Five Races Under One Union
Five races under one union was one of the major principles upon which the Republic of China was originally founded in 1911 at the time of the Xinhai Revolution.-Description:...
theory of national unity can be visualized through an old ROC flag and a variant which emphasized Han administration while de-emphasizing the top-to-bottom hierarchy found in the original flag. Red - Han, Yellow - Manchu, Blue - Mongol, White - Hui and Black - Tibetan.
Korea
The word, 인종 in-jong, is used when describing a person's race, which also incorporates his or her skin color.White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
백 baek, used with 인 in to make 백인, baek-in, literally means white-person in Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
to Chinese bairen 白人 and Japanese hakujin 白人. 흑 heug is used to describe persons of African descent, 흑 heug literally means black in Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
(i.e. 흑인, cognate to Chinese heiren 黑人 and Japanese kokujin 黒人).
Central Asia
The five cardinal directions were historically identified with colors. This was common to the Central Asian cultural area and was carried west by the westward migration of the TurksTurkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
. These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
- North: Black
- HeilongjiangHeilongjiangFor the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
"Black Dragon River" province in Northeast ChinaNortheast ChinaNortheast China, historically known in English as Manchuria, is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The region is sometimes called the Three Northeast Provinces...
, also the Amur River - Black SeaBlack SeaThe Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
: north of TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... - Kara-Khitan KhanateKara-Khitan KhanateThe Kara-Khitan Khanate, or Western Liao was a Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in North and Northeast of modern day China...
- Heilongjiang
- South: Red
- Red SeaRed SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, south of Ottoman EmpireOttoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
- Red Sea
- East: Green or Blue (青 "qīng" corresponds to green or blue)
- West: White
- White Sheep Turkmen
- Ak Deniz "White Sea" in Turkish indicates the Sea of MarmaraSea of MarmaraThe Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...
, the Aegean SeaAegean SeaThe Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, or the Mediterranean SeaMediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
- Center: Yellow
- HuangshanHuangshanHuangshan may refer to:*Huangshan , a scenic mountain range and UNESCO World Heritage Site*Huangshan City, a prefecture-level city centered on the Huangshan Mountains...
"Yellow Mountain" in central China - Golden HordeGolden HordeThe Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
: "Central Army" of the Mongols
- Huangshan
North America
Among the natives of North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, stylized medicine wheel
Medicine wheel
Medicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone, and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center...
s are typically depicted with four colors associated with not only cardinal direction, but also with color of race:
- North: White
- South: Red
- East: Yellow
- West: Black
2000 US Census
In the 2000 United States Census, two of the five enumerated races are labeled by a color. In the 2000 US Census, the white race, refers to a "person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." In the 2000 US Census, the black race, also called "African American" on the US Census, refers to a "person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa." The other three races are not labeled by color.Flag of the Races
At college campuses during the 1960s, some people demonstrated for world peaceWorld peace
World Peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people. World peace is an idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. The term is sometimes used to...
by carrying a Flag of the Races (also called the Flag of the Human Race) with five horizontal stripes (from top to bottom they were red, black, brown, yellow, and white, representing respectively the American Indian race, the Negro race
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
, the Malayan race, the Mongolian race
Mongolian race
The term Mongolian race or Mongol race could mean:* the indigenous people of Mongolia called the Mongols* the Mongolian peoples, a group of ethnic groups including other peoples speaking various Mongolic languages as well just as those particular Mongols that are the primary ethnic group in...
, and the Caucasian race
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
). Gilbert Baker
Gilbert Baker (artist)
Gilbert Baker is an artist and civil rights activist who in 1978 designed the Rainbow Flag, sometimes called the Pride Flag, Gay Pride Flag, or, since the early 1990s, Queer Flag, that is often used as a symbol of gay pride in LGBT rights marches.-Biography:Baker served in the U.S. Army from 1970...
is said to have gotten the idea for the rainbow flag
Rainbow flag
A rainbow flag is a multi-colored flag consisting of stripes in the colors of the rainbow. The actual colors shown differ, but many of the designs are based on the traditional scheme of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or some more modern division of the rainbow spectrum .The...
from this flag.
The early flag of the Republic of China
Five Races Under One Union
Five races under one union was one of the major principles upon which the Republic of China was originally founded in 1911 at the time of the Xinhai Revolution.-Description:...
also featured five stripes standing for five ethnicities.
See also
- Human skin colorHuman skin colorHuman skin color is primarily due to the presence of melanin in the skin. Skin color ranges from almost black to white with a pinkish tinge due to blood vessels underneath. Variation in natural skin color is mainly due to genetics, although the evolutionary causes are not completely certain...
- MelaninMelaninMelanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...
- Scientific racismScientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
- Typological classification of races