I'd like to first focus on the cultural meaning of the color 'black'.

Rather than re-post the all of the exchange that I had with Jeri about the song which I shared in my first post to this thread, I refer folks who are interested in reading our entire exchange to the Nashville Students Jubilee Songs thread, particularly the posts that start here.

I believe that the "blackbirds" and "the crow" in that rhyme/song were coded references for Black people. I also believe {but less strongly than my first point} that these lines reveal attitudes about skin color differences among Black people.

Rather than incorrectly or incompletely summarize Jeri's first comment to that thread, I'm taking the liberty to repost it here:

"Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nashville Students Jubilee Songs
From: Jeri - PM
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 07:50 AM

White folks calls you black, but I say not;
Caze de kittle musn' talk about de pot.

This isn't talking about skin color, it's talking about the reason 'black' was a perjorative term. 'Black as the devil' - look at some old artistic portrayals of the devil - he was BLACK. He wasn't a dark shade of 'flesh', he was black as a cast iron pot or kettle. A person can have a black heart or soul, be in a black mood - in that context, it means evil/bad. When I was a kid (early 1960s), I was taught never to refer to someone as 'black'.

I don't believe the adjective, or the song, referred primarily to skin color, but to evil. '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.

Blackbirds and crows are black in color, so they must be evil. After all, they steal corn! I think the song is quite clever. It infers white men steal too, and so are as 'black' as the blackbird and crow.

~~100% opinion~~ "

-snip-

Here's one of the posts that I wrote in response to Jeri's comment:

"Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nashville Students Jubilee Songs
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 08:23 AM

"'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.

'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}. "

-snip-

As it turns out, I gave the wrong title for the book that I was referring to.

More on that book later.

But I'm curious if other people were raised with the image of the devil as the color black?