black/black- (adj.)

Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out that there are some 120 synonyms for "blackness" of which at least half are offensive. Almost all the 134 synonyms for "whiteness" are positive. "The symbolism of white as positive and black as negative is pervasive in our culture" (Robert B. Moore, in Paula S. Rothenberg's Racism and Sexism). The good guys wear white hats and ride white horses, and everybody knows what the bad guys wear and ride. Dictionary definitions of black refer in part to evil, the devil, disaster, condemnation, dirt, sullenness, and darkness while definitions of white refer to innocence, purity, harmlessness, good fortune, and lightness. Avoiding words that reinforce the negative connotations of black will not of itself do away with racism, but we cannot unhorse racism while the language constantly tells us that black is anything but beautiful. The following terms can be replaced by those in parentheses: blackball (ostracize); black comedy/black humor (satire, sinister/morbid humor); "black day in our nation's history" ("bleak" or "sad"); black deed (evil deed); blacken (slander, defile, defame; smirch, soil, tarnish); black eye (mouse, shiner; bad name); blackguard (scoundrel, villain, ne'er-do-well); blackhearted (wicked); blackjack (bludgeon); blackletter day (evil/tragic day); blacklist (denounce, condemn, proscribe, ostracize); blackly (gloomily, hopelessly); blackmail (hush money, payola, extortion, shake-down; extort, bleed, put the arm on, shake down); black mark (mark against one, blot on one's copybook); black market (illegal market/trade/trafficking); black moment (depressed/down/dire moment); blackout (lights out; moratorium; loss of memory/consciousness); black outlook (bleak outlook); black sheep (outcast, pariah, reprobate, renegade, idler, prodigal, born/family loser, ne'er-do-well, bad apple in the barrel, family rebel). Other terms can be circumvented but with difficulty: black arts, black book, black hole, black ice, black lie (contrast with a white lie), black magic (contrast with white magic), Black Mass, Black Monday (stock market crash of October 19, 1987), Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929). The Macmillan Publishing Company advises its writers to not only avoid the negative uses of black but to apply the word's positive uses as often as possible: black pearls are the most valuable; ebony is used only on the finest guitars; oil is referred to as "black gold"; black diamonds are essential to industry; black soil is richest. They also suggest reinforcing positive attitudes toward blackness in descriptions of African Americans: too often references to "their beautiful white teeth" replace descriptions of the authentic attractions of black hair, skin, eyes. See also black-and-white (adj.), blacklist (tech.), white (adj.).