Posted by Ed Kiser on August 12, 2013 at 06:03:36 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: TarBoard moderation and Re: Re Ransome's working-class characters and the use of certain words posted by Peter Ceresole on August 12, 2013 at 00:45:38:
There seems to be a certain meaning to the adjectives, "black" and "white", not necessarily a racial distinction, but merely a relative comparison of goodness or badness.
Not that it always means this, but sometimes the usage of "black" and "white" is to imply the concept of "bad" or "good" respectively. To be having negative thoughts, or thinking of doing something bad, means one is in a "black" mood.
There is the expression, "black-listed", which has a negative connotation about it. A person on such a list is no longer allowed to do certain things that are desirable, but now are denied.
Nancy tipped the "Black Spot" to Captain Flint, expressing a degree of anger.
We sometimes say, "I got a Black Mark on my test today." That means, I flunked that test.
In an old Western movie, you knew who the good guys were and who the bad guys were because the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats.
However, there is the expression: "get it down in black and white" which does not have the good/bad concept as that means simply to get it in writing, the idea being that ink was black and could be printed on white paper.
Sometimes the idea of "black or white" simply defines a situation to be BINARY in nature, with no middle ground. It either is, or isn't. It is either right or wrong. There is no part way one or the other.
There is also the name, "Black Friday" which in the USA means the Friday after Thanksgiving (which always is on a Thursday) which is taken to be the start of the Christmas season when many stores are advertising Black Friday sales and Specials. In this usage, there is no implication of negative meaning at all. Hard to say where that name came from originally. The only negative part of Black Friday is having to fight through crowds of eager shoppers trying to catch the very short time offerings of special sale items.
One might think that "Black Friday" would be used to mean the Friday before Easter, because it was on a Friday that the Crucifixion took place, a time of horror and agony. But this concept is not the case, as that Friday is called by the Church to be "Good Friday". Go figure...
This concept of "black" being something negative or bad was a usage that was common long before there came the effort to replace the designation of "Negro" with "Black". Before this transition in meaning, the names used to refer to the Negroid Race were acceptable to call that group "Negroes" or "Colored people". I am referring here to the usages as I knew them in the USA.
In PM CH8, we have Dorothea waiting for the Doctor and she is thinking:
"If only it had been a story, things would have been simpler. In a story, villains were villains and the heroes and heroines had nothing to worry about except coming out on top in the end. In a story black was black and white was white and blacks and whites stuck to their own colours. In real life things were much more muddled."
It would be quite easy to hear a "racial segregationist" philosophy there in Dot's words. If this is indeed the intent of Ransome, again let us say, he wrote in a different time, about another time, which makes things a bit awkward to today's society.
As to whether Dot was making racial references or simply stating the binary nature of the made up world where things are either one way or the other, I am not sure of the implications of her usage.
It is quite a feature of human nature to think of two kinds of people: there is "us" and there is "them". "WE" do things one way, but "THEY" do things differently. This is not necessarily a racial designation. Perhaps we are using these terms to refer to the membership of the congregation of the church I go to, compared to the congregation that attends that other church down the street. Perhaps we use "us" and "them" to refer to those who live on this side of the THE GREAT POND in comparison to those who live on the other side of THE POND. No matter which side of that POND you are normally a part of, it is easy to say, "THEY talk funny." "They drive on the wrong side of the road." There is that collection of "us" that is a part of some group, and those not in that group are "them." In that regard, one might define that grouping as being the in-house gang and the out-house gang, with the obvious negative slant being applied to "them."
There will always be these designations. No law can remove the differences between US and THEM.
And there is it, in black and white...
Ed Kiser, Kentucky (kisered AT aol DOT com)