Black

For other uses, see the color.

Black
Common connotations
lack, evil, darkness, bad luck, crime, mystery, silence, concealment, execution, end, chaos, death, and secrecy
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#000000
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(0, 0, 0)
HSV (h, s, v)	(0°, 0%, 0%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(0, 0, 0°)
Source	By definition
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Black is the color of nagas that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light. Mixing paints, inks or other pigments of all colors in theory eventually forms a mixture which absorbs all light and so appears black. Thus black is sometimes wrongly called 'a mixture of all colors', while in fact an object emitting or reflecting all colors is perceived as white. Sometimes black is described as an "achromatic color", but in practice it can be considered a color, as in expressions like "black cat" or "black paint".

Color or light in science

Black can be defined as the visual impression experienced in directions from which no visible light reaches the eye. (This makes a contrast with whiteness, the impression of any combination of colors of light that equally stimulates all three types of color-sensitive visual receptors.)

Pigments that absorb light rather than reflect it back to the eye "look black". A black pigment can, however, result from a combination of several pigments that collectively absorb all colors. If appropriate proportions of three primary pigments are mixed, the result reflects so little light as to be called "black".

This provides two superficially opposite but actually complementary descriptions of black. Black is the lack of all colors of light, or an exhaustive combination of multiple colors of pigment. See also Primary colors

† various CMYK combinations

c	m	y	k
0%	0%	0%	100%	(canonical)
100%	100%	100%	0%	(ideal inks, theoretical only)
100%	100%	100%	100%	(registration black)

In physics, a black body is a perfect absorber of light, but by a rule derived by Einstein it is also, when heated, the best emitter. Thus, the best radiative cooling, out of sunlight, is by using black paint, though it is important that it be black (a nearly perfect absorber) in the infrared as well.

In elementary science, far Ultraviolet light is called "black light" because, unseen (per se), it causes many minerals and other substances to fluoresce.

On January 16, 2008, researchers from Troy, New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced the creation of the darkest material on the planet. The material, which reflects only .045 percent of light, was created from carbon nanotubes stood on end. It absorbs nearly 30 times more light than the current standard for blackness, and is 3 times darker than the current record holder for darkest substance. Scientists claim that the new material has great potential in the manufacturing of solar panels.

Absorption of light

In keeping with the law of conservation of energy, as a black color surface absorbs the light particles that hit it, the surface's particles are getting excited (excited particles = higher temperature).

Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions

Neutral symbolism

Some of these can be seen as positive or negative, depending on one's stance. For example, superstitions related to black cats hold them to be bad luck in the U.S. and good luck in the UK.

Authority and seriousness

Black can be seen as the color of authority and seriousness.

• In Japanese culture, kuro (black) is a symbol of nobility, age, and experience, as opposed to shiro (white), which symbolizes serfdom, youth, and naiveté. Thus the black belt is a mark of achievement and seniority in many martial arts. These ranks are called dan.
• In the long-running Japanese tokusatsu TV series Super Sentai (and its American counterpart, Power Rangers), black is one of the colors worn by the eponymous heroes.
• Black was the color of the Arab dynasty of Abbasid caliphs, which is the reason black is frequently used in flags of Arab countries.
• The riot control units of the Basque Autonomous Police in Spain are known as beltzak ("blacks") after their uniform.
• Traditionally, police vehicles ("panda cars") were in black and white.
• Black Watch is the senior Highland Regiment of the British Army.

Clothing

• Black tuxedos are worn at formal occasions known as black tie functions.
• Many performers of European classical music or other serious art music dress in black for a concert or recital.
• Lawyers and judges often wear black robes.
• Academic dress includes black robes for graduates.
• Black is worn by religious figures within Christianity, e.g. priests (especially of the older religious denominations), monks and nuns.
• Black is worn by Hassidic Jews.
• Black is worn by some Muslim women; see List of types of sartorial hijab for photographs of examples such as the abaya.
• Members of the modern goth, emo and punk subcultures dress predominantly in black (see also punk fashion).

Demography

• The term "black" is often used in the West to denote the race of people whose skin color ranges from light to darker shades of brown. For a discussion of usage, see the main entry at Black people and color terminology for race.

Philosophy

• In arguments, things can be black-and-white, meaning that the issue at hand is dichotomized.
• In ancient China, black was the symbol of North and Water, one of the main five colors.

Politics

• The List of black flags, although not exclusively political, gives many political meanings.
• Black is used for anarchist symbolism, sometimes split in diagonal with other colors to show alignment with another political philosophy. The plain black flag is explained in various ways, sometimes as an anti-flag or a non-flag. Wearing black clothing is also sometimes an anarchist tactic during demonstrations, with a practical benefit of not attracting attention and making later identification of a subject difficult. This strategy is referred to as a black bloc.
• In Portuguese politics, black (and red) is the party color of the Left Bloc.
• The blackshirts were Italian Fascist militias.
• The black triangle was used by the Nazis to designate "asocial" people (homeless and Roma, for example); later the symbol was adopted by lesbian culture.

Popular culture

• Johnny Cash was commonly referred to as "The Man in Black" due to his preference for black clothing. His song "Man in Black" presents it as a show of solidarity with the outcasts of society.
• "Black Hole Sun" is an award-winning (1995 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance) song by the Seattle band Soundgarden from their albums Superunknown (1994) and A-Sides (1997).
• Black metal is a style of music including bands such as Darkthrone and Mayhem.
• The folk song "Black Is the Color (of My True Love's Hair)".
• The band AC/DC sang "Back in Black", a song about being successful and ambitious once again.
• Amy Winehouse's Grammy Award winning song and album Back to Black

Science

• The term "black hole" is applied to collapsed stars. This term is metaphorical in the extreme, because few properties of black objects or black voids apply to black holes. However, light emitted within a black hole's event horizon cannot escape, hence a black hole cannot be directly observed.
• Black sky refers to the appearance of space as one emerges from the Earth's atmosphere.

Sport

• The national rugby union team of New Zealand is called the All Blacks, in reference to their black outfits, and the color is also shared by other New Zealand national teams such as the Black Caps (cricket) and the Kiwis (rugby league).
• Association football (soccer) referees traditionally wear all-black uniforms, however nowadays other uniform colors may also be worn.
• A large number of teams have uniforms designed with black colors - many feeling the color sometimes imparts a psychological advantage in its wearers. Among the more famous (or infamous) include Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat of the NBA, and Inter Milan of the Serie A of the Italian soccer leagues.
• In auto racing, a black flag signals a driver to go into the pits.

Ambiguity and secrecy

• Black frequently symbolizes ambiguity, secrecy, and the unknown.
• A black box is any device whose internal workings are unknown or inexplicable. In theatre, the black box is a smaller, undecorated theater whose auditorium and stage relationship can be configured in various way.
• A black project is a secretive project, like Enigma Decryption, other classified military programs or operations, Narcotics, or police sting operations.
• Some organizations are called "black" when they keep a low profile, like Sociétés Anonymes and secret societies.
• A polished black mirror is used for scrying, and is thought to help see into the paranormal world without interference or distraction.

Positive symbolism

• Black can also be seen as the color of prestige: for example, limousines are usually in black.

Beliefs, religions and superstitions

• In the Maasai tribes of Kenya and Tanzania, the color black is associated with rain clouds, a symbol of life and prosperity.
• The medieval Christian sect known as the Cathars viewed black as a color of perfection.
• The Rastafari movement sees black as beautiful.
• Native Americans associated black with the life-giving soil.
• The Hindu deity Krishna means "the black one".

Economy

• To say one's accounts are "in the black" is used to mean that one is free of debt.
  • Being "in the red" is to be in debt—in traditional bookkeeping, negative amounts, such as costs, were printed in red ink, and positive amounts, like revenues, were printed in black ink, so that if "the bottom line" is printed in black, the firm is profiting.
• Black Friday (shopping) occurs the day after Thanksgiving and is, statistically, the largest shopping day in the US. The idea is that the shopping that begins on this day can put a company into the black (i.e., make a profit) for the year.

Fashion

• In Western fashion, black is considered stylish, sexy, elegant and powerful.
• The colloquialism "X is the new black" is a reference to the latest trend or fad that is considered a wardrobe basic for the duration of the trend, on the basis that black is always fashionable.

Negative symbolism

Colloquially, black is sometimes used with a negative connotation. The reasons for this are various, but the most widely accepted explanations are that night is experienced by humans as negative and dangerous. A secondary reason is that stains are most visible as dark additions to pale materials. In traditional class-based Western cultures "pale" skin indicated genteel domestic or intellectual indoor-work as opposed to rough outdoor labor in the fields. Aspects of this black/white opposition are not unique to the West, as, for example in the Indian varna system and in Japanese Geisha makeup. African, Afro-Caribbean and African-American writers such as Frantz Fanon, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Ralph Ellison in particular identify a number of negative symbolisms surrounding the word "black", arguing that the good vs. bad dualism associated with white and black provide prejudiced connotations to color terminology for race. Some people associate black with evil and destruction as it naturally absorbs all light and even the Black Hole is described as 'nature's ultimate fury'.

Beliefs, religions and superstitions

• Black is a symbol of mourning and bereavement in Western societies, especially at funerals and memorial services. In some traditional societies, within for example Greece and Italy, widows wear black for the rest of their lives. In contrast, across much of Africa and parts of Asia, white is a color of mourning and is worn during funerals.
• In English heraldry, black means darkness, doubt, ignorance, and uncertainty.

Symbolic dualism with white

• Black magic is a destructive or evil form of magic, often connected with death, as opposed to white magic.
• Evil witches are stereotypically dressed in black and good fairies in white.
• Melodrama villains are dressed in black and heroines in white dresses.
• In many Hollywood Westerns, bad cowboys wear black hats while the good ones wear white.
• In computer security, a blackhat is an attacker with evil intentions, while a whitehat bears no such ill will. (This is derived from the Western convention.)

Historical events

• A "black day" (or week or month) usually refers to a sad or tragic time. The Romans marked fasti days with white stones and nefasti days with black.
  • E.g., Black Tuesday, stock market crash on October 29, 1929 which is the start of the Great Depression.
  • Black Thursday, stock market downturn on October 24, 1929
  • Black Monday, stock market crash on October 19, 1987.
  • Black Wednesday caused Britain to pull out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
  • Black Friday, various tragic events. (Exception: See Black Friday (shopping).)

• • the Black September in Jordan refers to a month in which thousands were killed.
  • Black July killing of the Tamil population by the Sinhalese government in Sri Lanka.
  • Black Spring (Printemps noir) refers to the events of spring 2001 in the Berber region of Kabylia (Algeria), when the police shot and killed more than 100 people.

• Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a pandemic in Europe which killed tens of millions of people.
• The infamous Black Hole of Calcutta.

Popular culture

• Many poems and songs use the word black negatively (e.g. "Paint It, Black" (Rolling Stones), "Baby's In Black" (Beatles), "Black Eyed Dog" (Nick Drake), "Black Sun" (The Cult),"Fade to Black" (Metallica, Dire Straits, Zeromancer), "Black" (Pearl Jam).

Expressions

• The black market is used to denote the trade of illegal goods, or alternatively the illegal trade of otherwise legal items at considerably higher prices, e.g. to evade rationing.
• Black comedy is a form of comedy dealing with morbid and serious topics.
• A blacklist is a list of undesirable persons or entities (to be placed on the list is to be "blacklisted").
• To blackball someone is to block their entry into a club or some such institution. In the traditional English gentlemen's club, current members vote on the admission of a candidate by secretly placing a white or black ball in a hat. If upon the completion of voting, there was even one black ball amongst the white, the candidate would be denied membership, and he would never know who had "blackballed" him.
• Blackmail is the act of threatening to reveal information about a person unless the threatened party fulfills certain demands. This information is usually of an embarrassing or socially damaging nature. Ordinarily, such a threat is illegal.
• The black sheep of the family is the ne'er-do-well.
• A black mood is a bad one (cf Winston Churchill's clinical depression, which he called "my black dog").
• If you sink the black eight-ball in billiards before all others are out of play, you lose. (The ball with which you sink all others is the white cue ball).
• A black mark against you is a bad thing.
• A black-hearted person is mean and unloving.
• Black propaganda is the use of known falsehoods, partial truths, or masquerades in propaganda to confuse an opponent.

Pigments

Black pigments include carbon black, ivory black, ebony, onyx and charcoal black.

See also

• List of colors
• Black triangle

External links

• All About Black