THE SUBCONSCIOUS PERCEPTIONS ON BLACKNESS

As a lover of social issues and different cultures, I sometimes discuss issues of that sort with my close friends and family members. Lately, I have also noticed that many pages on Instagram are being created to support blackness, and to break the common negative stereotypes of the general idea of the term. Pages like travelnoire and personal pages such as Melaniin Goddess, and Nyakim Gatwech are literally giving me life!

I am writing this article purposely to bring attention to our general idea of blackness as a society, in comparison to whiteness. I had a very long conversation with a close friend of mine about this topic, and we both agreed to the fact that blackness was subconsciously viewed negatively, as it is on the opposite spectrum with whiteness in comparison.

Now, don’t get me wrong, black on its own is viewed as elegant, or even as sexy as the color red. You can never go wrong with black. White on its own is also very unique. Neutrals are generally everything, especially in fashion and interior or exterior decorations.

However, I feel as though historical contexts and ideals have affected our views on these two colors when we compare them. For example, whiteness is compared to heaven, while blackness or darkness is compared to hell. Jesus and God are painted white, while Satan or death are sometimes painted or represented with black. In terms of stereotypes, Black people when compared to White people are… well, that’s a whole different story…

I think that it is okay to have these symbols. They represent what they represent. But I just want us to be aware that the representations of these colors have caused us to subconsciously compare them based on historical ideals. As a result, it has affected humans and other living things in certain ways that saddens me.

I dislike the fact that black pets are generally not adopted as often as other pets, or people automatically hating crows because of what they represent as black birds, while doves are seen as so glorious or simply a blessing. These are all birds though! Same idea goes with the representation of black cats.

On that note, I came up with this ‘All Black” project, where I dressed up in all-black, to help celebrate the beauty of blackness; from its representations, to its perfect creatures, to honoring one of the best Black marvel movies of all times, Black Panther (RIP, Chadwick Boseman).

The connotations of certain words can’t easily be changed, but our belief in humanity and historical knowledge can always help us become aware of and see the positive outcomes of everything, no matter what color it represents.

So with that, I leave you with this. Thank you so much for reading this blog post, and leave any comments or feedback below.

Photo Credit: Corey Denier