"'Black' was a bad thing to call a person, because it indicated the darkness of their skin meant they had a 'black', or evil, soul."

-snip-

Maybe.

But when and why was the word 'black' associated with evil or bad?

True, black has been associated with evil for centuries, but it wasn't always so.

I've got a copy of a book called "Before Color Consciousness" which includes quotes of early Greeks praising Ethiopians.

I can't find the book as it's packed with other books in some box because of home renovation...I'll have to look for it and posts some quotes later today as I have to go to work soon...

**

When I was a child until I was a young adult, I thought that the devil was always depicted as being the color red or at least wearing red. I don't recall seeing any images of the devil {Satan} wearing black or being black in skin color.

It wasn't until my middle adult years that I read anything about the devil being black in color.

**

In the late 1960s or early 1970s, I recall hearing a poem written by a Black person that listed all the things in our society that were white and considered good-I can't remember the lines but it was things like the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, snow, Ivory soap [100% pure], Jesus [though he wasn't really white}, Cinderella, Rubunzel [let down your golden hair]etc...And then the poem ended with this line:

"White, white, white, white!
No wonder I hate myself."


**

Another quote from Jeri's post:
"A person can have a black heart or soul, be in a black mood - in that context, it means evil/bad."

I'm in a black mood. I have a black heart and I have a black soul. My complexion is black. And as far as I'm concerned, all of this is great!

It's all about context {who says what, when, and how}.