Thursday, January 16, 2014

Changing Perspectives 1 – Rethinking Black and White



In an effort to post blogs on a more regular basis, I’m going to try something a bit different.  I’ve got a fairly broad theme in mind – trying to look at the world from fresh perspectives, ones that might challenge or call into question ideas that we think of as “normal” or that we take for granted – and I’d like to explore it through several specific subtopics.  As you can probably tell from the title, I’m calling the overall theme “Changing Perspectives,” and the first subtopic I have in mind considers the connotations of the colors black and white.

“He saw things in black and white.”  This expression, in one form or another, is fairly commonplace, and the expression itself might seem relatively harmless.  It’s often just a figurative way of saying that someone places things in strict categories of right and wrong, or of good and evil.  The symbolic use of the words “white” and “black,” or, in some cases, “light” and “darkness,” in place of “good” and “evil” can be seen all over the place.  Just think of one of the passages that Christians read every Christmas Eve, as candles shine in darkened sanctuaries: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).  Think of all the books and movies in which the struggle of good and evil is portrayed as a battle between light and dark.  In The Lord of the Rings, for example, we have the black orcs, the black gates, and the black towers of Sauron pitted against the white city, the white horses, the white clothes, and the white hair of figures such as Gandalf and Galadriel.  Is this simply a harmless way to add a splash of color to epic conflicts of good and evil, or could the use of these shades have potentially dangerous consequences?

The sentence at the beginning of the preceding paragraph was taken from a book entitled Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author who died last year.  Things Fall Apart was Achebe’s first novel, and most of it chronicles village life in his home area, before the influences of colonialism.  Near the end of the story, however, white missionaries come into the picture, along with colonial officials, and some things, well, start to fall apart.  A major cause of the problem stems from the fact that the colonizers saw their ideas as “right”, or perhaps “civilized”, while the native people were seen as “uncivilized”, and possibly even “savage”.

In one of the last chapters, Achebe describes the mindset of a white district commissioner using the figures of speech that we see as commonplace, and, in doing so, he shows how such language can be dangerous: “He saw things as black and white.  And black was evil.  He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness.”  In this context, it becomes obvious that the expression “the children of light” refers to the white colonizers, while the phrase “the sons of darkness” corresponds to the Africans.  As we all know, this view of superiority, reinforced by our use of certain figurative language, lasted for many, many years, and it has caused terrible pain in the lives of so many.  Its effects are still seen today.

In The Economist’s obituary about Chinua Achebe, one of the Nigerian author’s essays was discussed as a way to highlight his impact on literature, and on worldwide perspectives.  The essay focused on Joseph Conrad, the author of the book Heart of Darkness:

“The real question,” [Achebe] wrote, “is the dehumanisation of Africa and Africans which [an] age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world.”  Re-reading “Heart of Darkness,” he explained, it became clear that he would never be on Marlow’s boat steaming up the Congo. He was one of the Africans Conrad described jumping up and down on the river bank, pulling faces. He realised how wrong it was – “terribly, terribly wrong” – to portray his people, any people, from that superior floating-past point of view. His essay changed Conrad’s place in English literature.

For a white person, like myself, it’s easy to look at expressions that use “white”/“light” and “black”/“dark” to represent “good” and “evil” and to see only a colorful figure of speech.  The idea of skin color might not cross my mind at all.  But, for someone whose skin is a darker shade, the expression might conjure up a long history of perceived inferiority and exploitation at the hands of the supposed “children of light”.  How does it feel for the color of one’s skin to be associated with one of the most common metaphors, if not the most common metaphor, for evil?  Personally, I don’t know, but some people just might.  Maybe we should think about adjusting some expressions…

P.S. – For the full article about Chinua Achebe in The Economist, click here:

P.P.S. – I love The Lord of the Rings.  It’s just the first example of white vs. black that came to mind…

1 comment:

  1. I think you can guess my feelings on this subject. Your blog brought to mind the class colors of my high school graduating class....ironically...Black and White......accompanied by our class motto of "United We Stand, Divided We Fall". As classmates, we felt very strongly about our closeness and unity.
    Although, I agree that some of these "old" expressions should change, I doubt that we will see this occur in the near future. However,maybe we have taken small steps toward a positive change with our personal feeling that all peoples should be equal and treated fairly and respectfully, regardless of race, religion, etc.....

    Love, Mom

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