Black as Evil

[V.V. Raman]

Black and White

1. Steve Farmer may be right in suspecting the emergence of the negative
connotation to Blackness from an instinctive fear of darkness, and the
associated positive connotation to Whiteness, arising from the dispelling of
fear by light. Hence the contrasts between light and darkness in many sacred
writings.

2. However, this needs to be distinguished from the attribution of negative
characteristics to people with black skin color which we find in many
non-Back-African cultures. The origin of this could be the
unfortunate extensions and unwarranted analogies that people (ancient
and modern) tend to make from one set of experiences to another.

3. Likewise, feelings of awe provoked by the blue expanse of the sky or the
dark majesty of rain-bearing clouds sometimes prompted poets and myth-makers
(at least in Hinduism) to conceive God as blue or dark too.

4. Indeed, the root cause of a great many key ideas in traditional
religions and ancient worldviews may be seen in such facile and unconscious
generalizations from the actual Here to the potentially Beyond.

V. V. Raman
November 26, 2000