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In some societies, "color" terminology are used in racial classifications. These often originated from an arbitrary number of differences in human skin color, particularly in Western societies. Darwin argued that the number of categories, or in this case the number of different colors, is completely arbitrary and subjective. For example, some have claimed three distinct colors, some four, and others have claimed even more. In addition, Darwin argued that there are gradations, or degrees between the numbers of categories claimed, and not distinct categories, or colors. Color is sometimes used in quotes because, technically, white and black are not colors. ^[1]

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach came up with the five colour distribution of human races: White, Black, Yellow, Red, and Brown

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 Bernier divided up humanity based on facial appearance and body type. He proposed four categories: Europeans, Far Easterners, Lapps, and finally Blacks whom he described as having woolly hair, thick lips, and very white teeth.^[2] The first major scientific model was created in 18th century when Carolus Linnaeus 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

According to conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza, "Blumenbach's classification had a lasting influence in part because his categories neatly broke down into familiar colours: white, black, yellow, red, and brown."^[5] Gradually the "yellow" and "red" races got lumped together, and the brown race ignored because of its small population, yielding just three races commonly known as mongoloid, caucasoid, and negroid.^[6] The last term is derived from Negro which is a Spanish adjective for black.^[7] Some anthropologists added the brown race back in as an Australoid category (which includes aboriginal peoples of Australia along with various peoples of southeast Asia, especially Melanesia and the Malay Archipelago),^[8] and viewed it as separate from negroids (often lumping Australoids in with caucasoids) despite the fact that their skin is also dark.^[9] In the 1970s the term black replaced Negro in the United States.^[10] Debate continues to exist over whether the term black should be capitalized or not as are other ethnic labels.

The Martinique-born French Frantz Fanon and African-American writers Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Ralph Ellison, 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 some societies people can be sensitive to gradations of skin tone, which may be due to intermarriage or to albinism and which can affect power and prestige. In 1930s Harlem Slang such gradations were described by a tonescale of "high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown".^[11] These terms were sometimes referred to in blues music, both in the words of songs and in the names of performers. In 1920s Georgia, 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".^[12] The piano player and guitarist Tampa Red 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 Caribbean. It is reported that skin tones play an important role in defining how Barbadians view one another, and they use terms such as "brown skin, light skin, fair skin, high brown, red, and mulatto".^[13] An assessment of racism in Trinidad 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".^[14] In Jamaica albinism has been stigmatised, but the albino dancehall singer 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 Russia, persons of Caucasus or Kazakh descent are sometimes refered to as Black. "White", apart from its racial meaning, is also a term denoting opponents of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (see White movement for this usage).

Sometimes, Belarus and Belarusians have been referred to (in Western languages, not Russian) as "White Russia" and "White Russians", which can be misleading; see those articles for discussion in more depth.

Huang (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 Emperor was a legendary founder of China. Yellow is also identified with the "center" cardinal direction (blue-east, red-south, white-west, black-north) while China is known as Zhongguo "central country".

Hua (華), one of the most common terms for "Chinese", literally means "multicoloured" or "splendid".

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. Contemporary Chinese, 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 colours, not to indicate skin colour, but simply for identification, possibly based on traditional clothing or geographical direction.

• Red, Black, Blue/Green, White, Flowery (multicoloured) Miao (Hmong)
• the Bai (literally White) are a sedentary lowland people of Yunnan
• Black Bone and White Bone Yi
• The Qing dynasty Manchu military were divided into Eight Banners identified by colour and with ethnic associations

The Five Races Under One Union 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.

The word, 인종 een-jong, is used when describing a person's race, which also incorporates his or her skin colour. White 백 baek, used with 인 een to make 백인, baek-een, literally means white-person in Korean, cognate to Chinese bai ren and Japanese hakujin. 흑 heug is used to describe persons of African descent, (i.e. 흑인, cognate to Chinese hei ren and Japanese kokujin).

The five cardinal directions were historically identified with colours. This was common to the Central Asian cultural area and was carried west by the westward migration of the Turks. These directional colour terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.

• North: Black
  • Heilongjiang "Black Dragon River" province in Northeast China, also the Amur River
  • Black Sea: north of Turkey
  • Kara-Khitan Khanate
• South: Red
• 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 Aegean Sea, or the Mediterranean Sea
• Center: Yellow
  • Huangshan "Yellow Mountain" in central China
  • Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols

Among the natives of North America, stylised medicine wheels 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

1. ^ "Technically speaking, white is not a color at all, but rather the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum....Once more, black is not actually a color. Technically speaking, black is merely the absence of the wavelengths of the visible light spectrum." [1]
2. ^ The End of Racism by Dinesh D'Souza pg 123, 1995
3. ^ [2]
4. ^ The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, pg 402, 1996
5. ^ The End of Racism by Dinesh D'Souza, pg 124, 1995
6. ^ [3]
7. ^ [04/keita.pdf++Black+webster+Negro+equivalent+sets&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1]
8. ^ http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/Australoid
9. ^ http://apologeticspress.org/articles/2007
10. ^ http://www.poynter.org/content/content print.asp?id=51320&custom=
11. ^ Zora Neale Hurston's - Glossary of Harlem Slang "Tonescale"
12. ^ The Blues Collection issue 68, Piano Red, Contribution by Tony Russell, 1996
13. ^ Barbados - Post Report - eDiplomat
14. ^ RACISM IN TRINIDAD (pdf)