The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100632   Message #2022117
Posted By: George Papavgeris
11-Apr-07 - 09:15 AM
Thread Name: BS: Where has all the hostility gone ?
Subject: RE: BS: Where has all the hostility gone ?
I agree with Bee, Azizi. There are so many "innocent" (of racism) uses of the word "black", even if some have a negative meaning, that make your proposition impractical at best.

a) Backballing someone (ostracising) - to do with the colour of pebbles used to vote someone "out"
b) Having black thoughts (from the mourning connotation of the colour)
c) Beating someone black and blue - from the colour of bruising
d) Shouting till black in the face - from the darker colour of the pre-apoplectic, as the surface bloodvessels fill up
e) Black Sunday (Monday etc) - again, a mourning link
f) Black/dark mood - ditto
g) Blacking out (fainting, or a room) - darkness, lack of light, loss of consciousness
h) Black Sea - from its dark colour
... and so on. None of the above have any racial origin, link or connotation and no sensitivity to them can be reasonably justified. And I emphasise the word "reasonably" here - as in "innocent till proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt".