<p>I don't think this is an entirely appropriate forum for this question, but as there is no general sociocultural (or even better African studies) forum on StackExchange it seemed like the best available option.</p>

<p>In a widespread and diverse collection of languages (e.g. English and Japanese, which are about as diverse as you can get), there is a cognitive-linguistic metaphor where the color white represents good and the color black evil. This association is at times used in a racist way to say that whites are good/safe and blacks are evil/dangerous, and the times it's not clear whether or not such an implication is being made are frequent.</p>

<p>Some languages, like English, give hints that this association may be due to black representing night, which even today is associated with danger and the sinister (and far more so in pre-modern societies). How then do African cultures (especially pre-modern ones - and of course I'm talking about those African races/ethnicities who are "black") relate night, dark colors, and their own skin tone conceptually to avoid the association between their skin tone and evil? I can think of a few different options, but all of them are just guesses as I'm not well versed in African culture and philosophy (linguistics is my thing, though I'm also not extremely knowledgeable Niger-Congo and other native African languages).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-02T17:40:03.013Z
Have you tried [linguistics.se]. I bet they can tell you more about it :)
Robin Kramer-ten Have
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-27T06:43:54.907Z
This question has also been discussed on Quora, with this (rather minimal) response
https://qr.ae/pvltg1 Considering the significance of this question, I find it remarkable that I can find no research on Google Scholar that covers this question. Though this only considers English and Chinese there may be interesting leads in the reference list, and the etymological divide between these languages could make the conclusions generalisable:
https://research.edgehill.ac.uk/ws/files/23042487/Tham_Sowden_et_al_Conceptual_Colour_Associations_authors_accepted_version.pdf
Daniel Boyd
<social-psychology><linguistics><cross-cultural-psychology>
White/Black Metaphor in African Societies?
Justin Olbrantz
# White/Black Metaphor in African Societies?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-07-31)

I don't think this is an entirely appropriate forum for this question, but as there is no general sociocultural (or even better African studies) forum on StackExchange it seemed like the best available option.

In a widespread and diverse collection of languages (e.g. English and Japanese, which are about as diverse as you can get), there is a cognitive-linguistic metaphor where the color white represents good and the color black evil. This association is at times used in a racist way to say that whites are good/safe and blacks are evil/dangerous, and the times it's not clear whether or not such an implication is being made are frequent.

Some languages, like English, give hints that this association may be due to black representing night, which even today is associated with danger and the sinister (and far more so in pre-modern societies). How then do African cultures (especially pre-modern ones - and of course I'm talking about those African races/ethnicities who are "black") relate night, dark colors, and their own skin tone conceptually to avoid the association between their skin tone and evil? I can think of a few different options, but all of them are just guesses as I'm not well versed in African culture and philosophy (linguistics is my thing, though I'm also not extremely knowledgeable Niger-Congo and other native African languages).

**Tags:** social-psychology, linguistics, cross-cultural-psychology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you tried [linguistics.se]. I bet they can tell you more about it :)  
> **username_2**: This question has also been discussed on Quora, with this (rather minimal) response https://qr.ae/pvltg1 Considering the significance of this question, I find it remarkable that I can find no research on Google Scholar that covers this question. Though this only considers English and Chinese there may be interesting leads in the reference list, and the etymological divide between these languages could make the conclusions generalisable: https://research.edgehill.ac.uk/ws/files/23042487/Tham_Sowden_et_al_Conceptual_Colour_Associations_authors_accepted_version.pdf  

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