In most societies and by some anthropologists,
color terminology was used to label races, sometimes in addition to a non-color term for the same race. Identifying races in terms of their skin color has been common since at least the
PhysiognomicaPhysiognomica is a pseudo-Aristotelian treatise seminal to Physiognomy, dated to the 2nd century BC.-Editions:*1587, ed. Andrinus Adamantius*1621, In Physiognomica Aristotelis commentarii, opus H. Tamburini diligentia in lucem editum Camillo Baldi...
falsely attributed to
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
.
Other scientists were more cautious about such categorization, and
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
argued that the number of categories, or in this case the number of different colors, is completely arbitrary and subjective. For example, some claimed three distinct colors, some four, and others have claimed even more. In contrast, Darwin argued that there are gradations, or degrees between the numbers of categories claimed, and not distinct categories, or colors.
Western classifications
Johann Friedrich BlumenbachJohann Friedrich Blumenbach was a German physician, physiologist and anthropologist, one of the first to explore the study of mankind as an aspect of natural history, whose teachings in comparative anatomy were applied to classification of human races, of which he determined...
(1752-1840), one of the founders of what some call
scientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to investigate differences between races, often to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. It is based on belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, typically with a hierarchy...
theories, came up with the
five color typology for humans:
white peopleWhite people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
(the
CaucasianThe term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia...
or
WhiteWhite people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
race), more or less
black peopleThe term black people usually refers to a racial group of humans with skin colors that range from light brown to nearly black. It also has been used to categorize a number of diverse populations into a common group. Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub Saharan...
(the
EthiopianAfricoid is a term of racial categorization with varying meanings, ranging from a synonym of black to a more restricted notion of African peoples....
or
blackBlack is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
race), yellow people (the Mongolian or
yellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–580 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of somewhat longer and shorter wavelengths...
race),
cinnamon-brown or flame colored peopleThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
(the American race or
redRed is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked human eye...
race), and
brown peopleBrown people or brown race is a political, racial, ethnic, societal, and cultural classification, similar to black people and white people. Like these, it is a metaphor for race based on human skin color, reflecting the fact that there are shades of skin colour intermediate between "Mediterranean" ...
(the Malay or
brownBrown is a color term, denoting a wide range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red or yellow with black. The term is from Old English brún, in origin denoting any dusky or dark shade of color....
race). Blumenbach listed the "races" in a hierarchic order of physical similarities:
CaucasianThe term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia...
, followed by American, followed by
MongolianThe term Mongolian race or Mongol race could mean:* the indigenous people of Mongolia called the Mongols* the historical racial category: the Mongoloid race...
, followed by Malayan, followed by
EthiopianAfricoid is a term of racial categorization with varying meanings, ranging from a synonym of black to a more restricted notion of African peoples....
.
The concept of “black” as a metaphor for race was first used at the end of the 17th century when a French doctor named
François BernierFrançois Bernier was a French physician and traveler, born at Joué-Etiau /Anjou. For 12 years he was the personal physician of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb....
(1625-1688), an early proponent of scientific racism, divided up humanity based on facial appearance and body type. He proposed four categories: Europeans, Far Easterners, Lapps, and Blacks. The first major scientific model was created in 18th century when
Carolus LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature...
recognized four main races: Europeanus which he labeled the white race, Asiatic, which he labeled the yellow race, Americanus, which he labeled the red race, and Africanus, which he labeled the black race. Linnaeus' protégé, anthropology founder Johann Blumenbach completed the model by adding the brown race, which he called "Malay" for Polynesians and Melanesians of Pacific Islands, and for aborigines of Australia. Rand McNally's map of races describes Amerindians as being the
copper race or
copper people.
According to
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
writer
Dinesh D'SouzaDinesh D'Souza is an author and public speaker who once served as the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University....
, "Blumenbach's classification had a lasting influence in part because his categories neatly broke down into familiar tones and colors: white, black, yellow, red, and brown."
Different Races
Two historical anthropologists favored a binary racial classification system that divided people into a light skin and dark skin categories. 18th century anthropologist Christoph Meiners, who first defined the Caucasian race, posited a "
binary racial scheme" of two races with the Caucasian whose racial purity was exemplified by the "
venerated... ancient Germans", although he considered some Europeans as impure "
dirty whites"; and "
Mongolians", who consisted of everyone else. Meiners did not include the
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s as Caucasians and ascribed them a "
permanently degenerate nature". Hannah Franzieka identified 19th c. writers who believed in the "Caucasian hypothesis" and noted that "Jean-Julien Virey and Louis Antoine Desmoulines were well-known supports of the idea that Europeans came from Mount Caucasus." In his political history of racial identity, Bruce Baum wrote,"Jean-Joseph Virey (1774-1847), a follower of Chistoph Meiners, claimed that "the human races... may divided... into those who are fair and white and those who are dark or black." Later, another binary racial classification system took hold de facto in the United States based on light skin people and dark skin or black people. According to Stephen Saris, in the United States there are two big racial divides. "
First, there is the black-white kind, which is basically anti-black.". The second racial divide is the one is "
between whites and everyone else" with whites being "
narrowly construed" and everyone else being called "
people of colorPerson of color is a term used, primarily in the United States, to describe all people who are not white. The term is meant to be inclusive, emphasizing common experiences of racism...
".
Understanding of melanin
Racial classification according to skin color became more complex when anthropologists added other, less obvious characteristics, in their attempt to achieve a scientific classification of races. It was later found that skin color depended essentially from the amount of
melaninMelanin is a class of compounds found in plants, animals, and protists, where it serves predominantly as a pigment. The class of pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. Many melanins are insoluble salts and show affinity to water...
, and could vary widely in the same community. Thus, it could not provide a satisfying way to classify ethnic groups, much less "races." Following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the discredit of such racial classifications, more and more biologists and anthropologists began to question the concept itself of "race." Thus,
The Race QuestionThe Race Question is a UNESCO statement issued on 18 July, 1950 following World War II. The statement included both a scientific debunking of race theories and a moral condemnation of racism...
statement by the
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
, in the 1950s, proposed to substitute the term "ethnic groups" to the concept of "race," arguing that human communities were defined as much by cultural traits (language, religion, etc.) than by biological characteristics (skin color being only one of them, along with
blood typeA blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells...
s, which did not recover previous racial classifications, etc.).
Symbolism and uses of color terminology
The Martinique-born French
Frantz FanonFrantz Fanon was a psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author from Martinique. He was influential in the field of post-colonial studies and was perhaps the pre-eminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization...
and African-American writers
Langston HughesJames Mercer Langston Hughes, was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry...
,
Maya AngelouMaya Angelou is an American autobiographer and poet. Having been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton, she is best known for her series of six autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adulthood experiences...
, and
Ralph EllisonRalph Waldo Ellison was an African-American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison was best known for his novel Invisible Man , which won the National Book Award in 1953...
, among others, wrote that negative symbolisms surrounding the word "black" outnumber positive ones. They argued that the good vs. bad dualism associated with white and black unconsciously frame prejudiced colloquialisms. In the 1970s the term black replaced Negro in the United States.
Tone gradations
In some societies people can be sensitive to gradations of skin tone, which may be due to
intermarriageMiscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups, that is, marrying, cohabiting, having sexual relations and having children with a partner from outside one's racially or ethnically defined group....
or to
albinismAlbinism is a form of hypopigmentary congenital disorder, characterized by a partial or total lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair, or more rarely...
and which can affect power and prestige. In 1930s
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
Slang such gradations were described by a tonescale of "high yaller [yellow], yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown". These terms were sometimes referred to in blues music, both in the words of songs and in the names of performers. In 1920s
GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
, Willie Perryman followed his older brother Rufus in becoming a blues piano player: both were albino Negroes with pale skin, reddish hair and poor eyesight. Rufus was already well established as "Speckled Red", Willie became "Piano Red". The piano player and guitarist
Tampa RedTampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an influential American musician....
from the same state developed his career in Chicago, Illinois, at that time: his name may have come from his light skin tone, or possibly reddish hair.
More recently such categorisation has been noted in the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
. It is reported that skin tones play an important role in defining how
BarbadiansBarbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent West Indian Continental Island-nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. For over three centuries Barbados was a colony and protectorate of the United Kingdom; and still currently maintains Queen Elizabeth II as head of state...
view one another, and they use terms such as "brown skin, light skin, fair skin, high brown, red, and mulatto". An assessment of racism in
TrinidadTrinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just 11 km off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of 4,768 km² it is also the fifth...
notes people often being described by their skin tone, with the gradations being "HIGH RED – part White, part Black but ‘clearer’ than Brown-skin: HIGH BROWN – More white than Black, light skinned: DOUGLA –part Indian and part Black: LIGHT SKINNED, or CLEAR SKINNED Some Black, but more White: TRINI WHITE – Perhaps not all White, behaves like others but skin White". In
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
albinism has been stigmatised, but the albino
dancehallDancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that developed in the late 1970s, initially as a more sparse and less political and religious variant of reggae than the roots style that had dominated much of the 1970s....
singer
YellowmanYellowman is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay, widely known as King Yellowman...
took his stage name in protest against such prejudice and has helped to end this stereotype. The West Indian region uses the term "coolie" for all people of east Indian descent. In Trinidad, however, use of the term is considered extremely offensive.
Russia
In
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, persons of
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
or Asian descent and other people having black hair are often referred to as Black (not because of skin color). "White", apart from its racial meaning, is also a term denoting opponents of the Bolsheviks during the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
(see
White movementThe White movement , whose military arm was the White Army aka the White Guard , and as the Whites comprised some of the politico-military Russian forces who unsuccessfully fought the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and...
for this usage) and "Red", apart from its racial meaning, means
CommunistsCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
or Bolsheviks while "Green" often means
EcologistsEcology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the interactions of these organisms with their environment....
or
GreenpeaceGreenpeace is a non-governmental organization for the protection and conservation of the environment. Greenpeace uses direct action, lobbying and research to achieve its goals. Greenpeace has a worldwide presence with national and regional offices in 46 countries, which are affiliated to the...
.
Sometimes,
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
and
BelarusiansBelarusians are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Belarusian language...
have been referred to (in Western languages, not Russian) as "
White Russia"White Russia" is a name that has historically been applied to various regions in Eastern Europe, most often to that which roughly corresponds to the eastern part of present-day Belarus including the cities of Polatsk, Vitsyebsk, Mahiliou....
" and "
White RussianThe term White Russian may refer to:* White Russian , an alcoholic beverage* Members of the White movement whose military arm is known as the White Army or White Guard comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and...
s", which can be misleading; see those articles for discussion in more depth.
China
HuangHuang is a Chinese surname that means "golden yellow," or literally "yellow." While Huáng is the pinyin romanisation of the word, it may also be romanised as Houang, Hoang, Wong, Vong, Hung, Hong, Bong, Eng, Ng, Uy, Wee, Oi, Oei or Ooi, Ong, Hwang, or Ung due to pronunciations of the word in...
(yellow) is a common surname, but does not refer to the East Asian race as was popular in Western languages until recently. However, the
Yellow EmperorHuang-di, or the Yellow Emperor, is a legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is considered in Chinese mythology to be the ancestor of all Han Chinese. He was one of the legendary Five Emperors. He was mentioned in the Shiji by historian Sima Qian . Tradition holds that he reigned from...
was a legendary founder of China. Yellow is also identified with the "center"
cardinal directionThe four cardinal directions or cardinal points are north, south, east, and west, commonly denoted by their initials - N, S, E, W. They are mostly used for geographic orientation on Earth but may be calculated anywhere on a rotating astronomical body...
(blue-east, red-south, white-west, black-north) while China is known as Zhongguo "central country".
White (白
bai) means "plain" or "free of charge" in many common expressions and was not traditionally used to refer to Europeans or descendants, who were usually identified as "people from [across the] ocean" or some variety of "barbarians" with reddish or pinkish skin colors (eg. Minnan
ang moAng Mo or sometimes Ang mo kow and Ang mo kui , also spelled ang moh, is a racial epithet that originates from Hokkien that is used to refer to white people in Malaysia and Singapore...
, "red-haired"). Contemporary
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, has, however, adopted Western usage to a large extent. Black (黑
hei) is typically applied to those of African race today. However, the term "black resident" (黑户) also refers to unregistered rural migrants in cities (as in
black market).
Names of ethnic minorities sometimes contain colors, not to indicate skin color, but simply for identification, possibly based on traditional clothing or geographical direction.
- Red, Black, Blue/Green, White, Flowery (multicolored) Miao
The terms Mong and Hmong refer to an Asian ethnic group in the mountainous regions of southeast Asia. Hmong are also one of the largest sub-groups in the Miao minzu population in southern China. Hmong groups began a gradual southward migration in the 18th century due to political unrest and to...
(Hmong)
- the Bai
The Bai are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They numbered 1,858,063 as of 2000....
(literally White) are a sedentary lowland people of YunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately 394,000 square kilometers . The capital of the province is Kunming...
- Black Bone and White Bone Yi
The Yi people are a modern ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand...
- The Qing dynasty Manchu
The Manchu people are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the seventeenth century, with the help of Ming rebels , they conquered the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which established a...
military were divided into Eight BannersThe Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed. They provided the basic framework for the Manchu military organization...
identified by color and with ethnic associations
The
Five Races Under One UnionFive races under one union was one of the major principles upon which the Republic of China was originally founded...
theory of national unity can be visualised through an old ROC flag and a variant which emphasised Han administration while de-emphasising the top-to-bottom hierarchy found in the original flag. Red - Han, Yellow - Manchu, Blue - Mongol, White - Hui and Black - Tibetan.
Korea
The word, 인종
in-jong, is used when describing a person's race, which also incorporates his or her skin color.
WhiteWhite people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
백
baek, used with 인
in to make 백인,
baek-in, literally means white-person in
KoreanKorean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
,
cognateCognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymological origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt and skirt, the former from Old English scyrte, the latter loaned from Old Norse skyrta, both from the same Common Germanic *skurtjōn-. Words with this type...
to Chinese
bairen 白人 and Japanese
hakujin 白人. 흑
heug is used to describe persons of African descent, (i.e. 흑인, cognate to Chinese
heiren 黑人 and Japanese
kokujin 黒人).
Central Asia
The five cardinal directions were historically identified with colors. This was common to the Central Asian cultural area and was carried west by the westward migration of the
TurksThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
. These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
- North: Black
- Heilongjiang
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
"Black Dragon River" province in Northeast ChinaNortheast China is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. It is separated from Russia largely by the Amur, Argun, and Ussuri rivers, from North Korea by the Yalu River and Tumen River, and from the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region by...
, also the Amur River
- Black Sea
ur a loser!The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to...
: north of TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
- Kara-Khitan Khanate
The Kara-Khitan Khanate, or Western Liao was a Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Chinese Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in North and Northeast China...
- South: Red
- Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
, south of Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
- East: Green or Blue (青 "qīng" corresponds to green or blue)
- West: White
- White Sheep Turkmen
- Ak Deniz "White Sea" in Turkish indicates the Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Black Sea and...
, the Aegean SeaThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, or the Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
- Center: Yellow
- Huangshan
Huangshan may refer to:*Mount Huang , a scenic mountain range and UNESCO World Heritage Site*Huangshan , a prefecture-level city centered on the Huangshan Mountains*Huangshan District, a district of Huangshan City, Anhui, China...
"Yellow Mountain" in central China
- Golden Horde
The Ulus of Jochi or the Golden Horde is an East Slavic designation for the Mongol—later Turkicized—Muslim khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus...
: "Central Army" of the Mongols
North America
Among the natives of
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, stylised
medicine wheelMedicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone, and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center...
s are typically depicted with four colors associated with not only cardinal direction, but also with color of race:
- North: White
- South: Red
- East: Yellow
- West: Black
2000 US Census
In the 2000 United States Census, two of the five enumerated races are labeled by a color. In the 2000 US Census, the white race, refers to a "
person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." In the 2000 US Census, the black race, also called "
African American" on the US Census, refers to a "
person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa." The other three races the are not labeled by color. Respondents who reported their race in the write-in section as "
colored" or "
negro" (Spanish for the color black) were automatically categorized as part of the black race.
Flag of the Races
At college campuses during the 1960s, some people demonstrated for world peaceWorld peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or peoples. World peace is a Utopian idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance which prevents warfare...
by carrying a Flag of the Races
(also called the Flag of the Human Race) with five horizontal stripes (from top to bottom they were red, black, brown, yellow, and white). Gilbert Baker is said to have gotten the idea for the
rainbow flagA rainbow flag is a multi-colored flag consisting of stripes in the colors of the rainbow. The actual colors used to differ, but many of the designs are based on the traditional scheme of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or some more modern division of the rainbow spectrum .The...
from this flag.
See also
- Human skin color
Human skin color can range from almost black to nearly colorless in different people. Skin color is determined primarily by the amount and type of melanin, the pigment in the skin. Variation in skin color is largely due to genetics...
- Melanin
Melanin is a class of compounds found in plants, animals, and protists, where it serves predominantly as a pigment. The class of pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. Many melanins are insoluble salts and show affinity to water...
- Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to investigate differences between races, often to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. It is based on belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, typically with a hierarchy...
- Typological classification of races
Typology in anthropology is the division of the human species by races. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, anthropologists used a typological model to divide people from different ethnic regions into races, Typology in anthropology is the division of the human species by races. During...