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I'd like to answer by presenting seven assertions followed by a question:

• Symbols have no inherent meaning; we assign meanings to them.
• Colors have no intrinsic meaning; we attribute meanings to them.
• Symbolic meanings accrue and persist over time, based on repeated widespread use in words and images.
• The meanings of widely understood symbols change slowly over time.
• We use "black" and "white" to describe to people with darker or lighter skin and separate them into different "races."
• We also use "black" and "white" as symbols of evil and good. We call this trope black and white morality.
• American and European cultures have a long history of white supremacy and racism, which persists today.

Even if we do not intend to be racist, is it possible for us to employ "the often-used black and white symbolism" without evoking the racist meanings it has accrued over centuries?

To be honest, the answer to this question wasn't obvious to me when I started writing this answer; not until I came across this amazingly well-researched and beautifully written article, Color Lines - A Chicago art class challenges the racist assumptions behind the color wheel by Olivia Gude, who is a community muralist and an assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Here are a pair of quotes from that article:

"Consider, for example, Joseph Conrad's classic novel of a European's encounter with Africa, Heart of Darkness. In the colonial worldview that Conrad examines, darkness is associated with the unknowable, the irrational, the primitive and the chaotic; light is a symbol of reason, order and progress. Such associations created the historical concept of "the white man's burden" to bring order and reason to "dark places" and thus the justification for the dominance of White cultures over peoples of color."

"Even if we succeed in dropping all art and literature that include offensive color symbolism from the school curriculum, our students will still encounter such symbolism daily in cartoons, traditional fairy tales and everyday expressions. The solution seems to be to help students understand the history of color symbolism and to deconstruct its use in contemporary culture."

I hope this helps.

I'd like to answer by presenting seven assertions followed by a question:

• Symbols have no inherent meaning; we assign meanings to them.
• Colors have no intrinsic meaning; we attribute meanings to them.
• Symbolic meanings accrue and persist over time, based on repeated widespread use in words and images.
• The meanings of widely understood symbols change slowly over time.
• We use "black" and "white" to describe to people with darker or lighter skin and separate them into different "races."
• We also use "black" and "white" as symbols of evil and good. We call this trope black and white morality.
• American and European cultures have a long history of white supremacy and racism, which persists today.

Even if we do not intend to be racist, is it possible for us to employ "the often-used black and white symbolism" without evoking the racist meanings it has accrued over centuries?

I hope this helps.

I'd like to answer by presenting seven assertions followed by a question:

• Symbols have no inherent meaning; we assign meanings to them.
• Colors have no intrinsic meaning; we attribute meanings to them.
• Symbolic meanings accrue and persist over time, based on repeated widespread use in words and images.
• The meanings of widely understood symbols change slowly over time.
• We use "black" and "white" to describe to people with darker or lighter skin and separate them into different "races."
• We also use "black" and "white" as symbols of evil and good. We call this trope black and white morality.
• American and European cultures have a long history of white supremacy and racism, which persists today.

Even if we do not intend to be racist, is it possible for us to employ "the often-used black and white symbolism" without evoking the racist meanings it has accrued over centuries?

To be honest, the answer to this question wasn't obvious to me when I started writing this answer; not until I came across this amazingly well-researched and beautifully written article, Color Lines - A Chicago art class challenges the racist assumptions behind the color wheel.

Here's just one quote from that article:

Consider, for example, Joseph Conrad's classic novel of a European's encounter with Africa, Heart of Darkness. In the colonial worldview that Conrad examines, darkness is associated with the unknowable, the irrational, the primitive and the chaotic; light is a symbol of reason, order and progress. Such associations created the historical concept of "the white man's burden" to bring order and reason to "dark places" and thus the justification for the dominance of White cultures over peoples of color.

I hope this helps.

I'd like to answer by presenting seven assertions followed by a question:

• Symbols have no inherent meaning; we assign meanings to them.
• Colors have no intrinsic meaning; we attribute meanings to them.
• Symbolic meanings accrue and persist over time, based on repeated widespread use in words and images.
• The meanings of widely understood symbols change slowly over time.
• We use "black" and "white" to describe to people with darker or lighter skin and separate them into different "races."
• We also use "black" and "white" as symbols of evil and good. We call this trope black and white morality.
• American and European cultures have a long history of white supremacy and racism, which persists today.

Even if we do not intend to be racist, is it possible for us to employ "the often-used black and white symbolism" without evoking the racist meanings it has accrued over centuries?

To be honest, the answer to this question wasn't obvious to me when I started writing this answer; not until I came across this amazingly well-researched and beautifully written article, Color Lines - A Chicago art class challenges the racist assumptions behind the color wheel by Olivia Gude, who is a community muralist and an assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Here are a pair of quotes from that article:

"Consider, for example, Joseph Conrad's classic novel of a European's encounter with Africa, Heart of Darkness. In the colonial worldview that Conrad examines, darkness is associated with the unknowable, the irrational, the primitive and the chaotic; light is a symbol of reason, order and progress. Such associations created the historical concept of "the white man's burden" to bring order and reason to "dark places" and thus the justification for the dominance of White cultures over peoples of color."

"Even if we succeed in dropping all art and literature that include offensive color symbolism from the school curriculum, our students will still encounter such symbolism daily in cartoons, traditional fairy tales and everyday expressions. The solution seems to be to help students understand the history of color symbolism and to deconstruct its use in contemporary culture."

I hope this helps.

• Q: Is the often used black and white symbolism inherently racist?
• A: Yes. Our classic light=good and dark=bad symbolism encodes our legacy of racism.
• Q: Should we avoid the use of black/white symbolism in our writing?
• A: It depends. Colors have no inherent meaning; they only have the meaning we attribute to them. You probably want to avoid reinforcing classic light/dark racist symbolism. However, you might choose to reinterpret light/dark symbolism in new ways.

I'd like to answer by presenting seven assertions followed by a question:

• Symbols have no inherent meaning; we assign meanings to them.
• Colors have no intrinsic meaning; we attribute meanings to them.
• Symbolic meanings accrue and persist over time, based on repeated widespread use in words and images.
• The meanings of widely understood symbols change slowly over time.
• We use "black" and "white" to describe to people with darker or lighter skin and separate them into different "races."
• We also use "black" and "white" as symbols of evil and good. We call this trope black and white morality.
• American and European cultures have a long history of white supremacy and racism, which persists today.

Even if we do not intend to be racist, is it possible for us to employ "the often-used black and white symbolism" without evoking the racist meanings it has accrued over centuries?

To be honest, the answer to this question wasn't obvious to me when I started writing this answer; not until I came across this amazingly well-researched and beautifully written article, Color Lines - A Chicago art class challenges the racist assumptions behind the color wheel.

Here's just one quote from that article:

Consider, for example, Joseph Conrad's classic novel of a European's encounter with Africa, Heart of Darkness. In the colonial worldview that Conrad examines, darkness is associated with the unknowable, the irrational, the primitive and the chaotic; light is a symbol of reason, order and progress. Such associations created the historical concept of "the white man's burden" to bring order and reason to "dark places" and thus the justification for the dominance of White cultures over peoples of color.

I hope this helps.