When I was a child I was taught in church that I have two natures within me constantly at war with one another. One good, one bad. To help me visualize this I was told to picture two dogs inside of myself. One black. One white. The black dog was my bad nature. The white dog was my good nature. Whichever dog I fed the most, I was told, would win out over the other because he would be stronger. I suppose the concept was alright, but why did they color the dogs black and white? Why did they color them at all?
Because A, you were a child, so the analogy needed to be simple in order to have an impact. and B. Because those two particular colors are polar opposites as far as colors go. Why do Asian Yin Yang symbols, which represent another polar opposite inside of us all, use the same colors (considering it goes well back before they even knew there was any other skin colors than theirs)? White in light, is all colors, black the absence of all light colors, in paint, they are the opposite. In both they are polar opposites. And, in making an analogy for children, if you are trying to represent opposites, then actual opposite colors are a good way. But, why is black used as bad, wah wah. Well, one of the very FIRST collective fears of all humans on this planet was the fear of the dark, the night. Predators came in the night, we have poor senses in the night, bad things come in the night. And what is the night, or darkness, well it's black in color,, the absence of light.
Of course, as I grew up, there were other negative things. Good guys wear white hats. Bad guys wear black hats. Black as night – boogie man, black cat, witches wearing black hats, and so on.
See above. Oh, and go and research it, but the association of negative things with the color black is consistant in African Cultures too. Huh, imagine that. Oddly, they had the same fears of the night and dark as everyone else.
I heard black people called n******. Heard jokes about them. Was told they were lazy, dirty, violent, over sexed. You name it, I heard it. I was even told by church people to stay away from black people. I do not and cannot remember hearing anything positive about black people during my childhood. Not anything.
And I've heard the same kind of things aimed at whites, Asians, Hispanic. There are arses in every ethnicity and race.