Now I See The Light

Thinking about blackness in everyday language

In our everyday language, we uphold the idea that blackness and darkness bring misfortune and negativity while whiteness and light bring good fortune and positivity.

I think of these ideas as darkphobia, or fear of blackness and darkness, and lightfilia, or love of whiteness and lightness.

We can become more conscious about our language, not in an effort to be politically correct, but to interrogate why we should equate darkness with anything bad and lightness with good.

Some people think it trivial to reflect on our use of language, but neuroscientists, philosophers, therapists, and linguists were on the right track when they pointed out how language forms the foundation of our reality. Let’s take the following terms:

A dark past

The idea dawned on me.

Many people might be thinking, “Aw, come on! This is unnecessary nitpicking!”

On the contrary, we should all be willing to question why certain figures of speech take hold and become part of what we call “culture,” since, in the end, our values and points of view permit them to persist.

I could entertain the idea that various religions pre-race worshipped the sun and light for propelling fruitful harvests and measuring the seasons, but as Marshall (2021) says, we need to address how these concepts operate today in our society. After all, how come the angels all over heaven gotta be white?

Muhummad Ali reflected on how darkphobia in language impacted him as a child,

What would it be like to use language in a way that is neither lightfiliac or darkphobic? Let’s look at some…

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