Dark Vilification

In 1233, Pope Gregory IX instigated the first Papal bull of his papacy called the Vox in Rama. It is a decree condemning the satanic cults apparently present in Germany. The Vox in Rama is mostly known for its association of cats with witchcraft. The Papal bull describes the activities of the satanic cult as witches worshipping the devil. The satanic figure being a shadowy half cat and half man figure. Over the years, the Vox in Rama shaped how cats, and especially black cats, are perceived in European society. The animal that used to be praised as a sacred animal in paganism became a representative of hell. This demonization led to an outburst of violence against black cats. The persecution was so violent that it prevented the efficient killing of rats and mice, allowing the bubonic plague to spread. Moreover, the idea that black cats are evil or bring bad luck is deeply rooted in popular culture as the figure of the witch with her black cat is still used for Halloween. For a long time, black cats were persecuted for a reason that was a pure invention to prevent the spreading of paganism and other religions than the mainstream one. Even if all cats were targeted, it is interesting to see how black cats were even more demonized and how long this persecution lasted. This can be linked to the symbolism linked to colours.

Colours play an important role in how the human brain perceives things. Depending on interpretations and periods, colours can be used for both good and evil. Black is seen as an intimidating colour, projecting authority and a symbol of power and sexuality. In almost all cultures, black represents death. It is associated with the feminine side of all things, the ‘‘Yin’’. In terms of the Christian church, it represents everything bad. It is the witches attracting, luring through seduction the believers into following the devil. It is the mystery arousing and seducing the senses. In opposite, white is a symbol of youth, innocence and purity. It is associated with the masculine side of all things, the ‘‘Yang’’. It symbolises everything good, the heavens. The definitions given to black and white permits a dichotomy in society, a division into two contradictory entities: good and evil. In Christianity, this dichotomy permitted to control the masses into following a life without sins by avoiding everything representing evil and following the ‘‘white light’’ . But throughout the years, this definition given to colours and this dichotomy installed what could be, unconsciously or not, in part responsible for colourism and racism.

For context, colourism is a prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favouring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin, as stated in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and racism is defined as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles; and a political or social system founded on racism. If the attack of black cats were part of the imagery and symbolism, it also reveals a problematic surrounding the definition of the colour black. In Human History, black represented the night, which was unknown to men. With the discovery of other countries, white Europeans encountered black populations and applied that mindset and colour definition to them. This definition of colour has been feeding racism for centuries. When looking for the definition of the colour black in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definitions give key-words like ‘‘thoroughly sinister’’ or ‘‘evil’’ , ‘‘indicative of condemnation’’ , ‘‘connected with or invoking the supernatural and especially the devil’’ , ‘‘characterized by hostility and anger’’ . It highlights the problems surrounding the words association.

Furthermore, Professor Adam Alter from the New York University conducted different studies on the tendency they called ‘‘bad is black’’ effect. He demonstrated the link created between black and something negative in people's mindset. For example, the studies showed how media tends to run darker photographs of celebrities and politicians when accused of transgression or during a scandal. This phenomenon is also used in history books in the United States; pictures taken during the segregation and marches for Black people rights are printed in black and white when they were originally in colour so that the audience perceives them as something that happened a long time ago. When analysing the content and image used to illustrate articles, they discovered a relationship between the written content and the accompanying photograph. Indeed, articles containing negative content were more likely to appear alongside a darker coloured photograph. Moreover, the researches demonstrated the psychological link between darkness and badness, skin tone and the perceptions of a person, like whether a person committed a criminal act or not. Adam Alter develops the idea that categorical labelling is a human capacity that is used to understand the world we live in better. It was at the same time essential for the development of the human species but it is also responsible for societal issues that we are facing. He then shows that labelling and its cognitive effects studied in the 1930s have linguistic relativity, meaning that the words we use to describe what we see are not passive, they are affecting or determining what we see and perceive.

Likewise, Daisy Grewal, a senior research scientist for people analytics at Intuit in Mountain View in California with a B.A in psychology from the University of California and a PhD in social psychology from Yale University, develops on Adam Alter's article. Based on colourism, the researches show that people tend to perceive someone with darker skin as more likely to have committed an immoral act. It is the “bad is black” effect that Adam Alter develops. It highlights the link between skin tone and perceptions of whether a person committed a criminal act or not. There is a persistent belief that darkness and badness tend to go alongside. In Adam Alter’s researches, the psychological link between darkness and badness was demonstrated. They ran experiments where participants had to choose between headshots to identify a perpetrator of an immoral act and the other one of a virtuous act. They were shown two headshots of different men, one headshot was artificially darkened and the other one lightened.

The participants also had to indicate the ‘‘colour of the soul’’ of each man represented on the headshots. The participants had a spectrum of colour ranging from black to white and had to choose a shade that would represent the soul of the man that committed the moral act and the one that committed the immoral act. This exercise that might seem a little odd is supposed to be a ‘‘metaphorical representation of how closely participants associate colour with badness, apart from either skin tone or race’’, to quote Daisy Grewal. The researchers proceeded to measure the participants’

racial attitudes and ‘‘feelings’’ towards people of colour like Native Americans, African Americans and Muslim Americans. Finally, the results emphasized that participants that showed more negative feelings towards people of colour chose the artificially darkened headshot as the culprit of the immoral act. This might seem unsurprising but what is really interesting is that no matter what racial attitudes the participants had, the headshot that was chosen as the criminal was more likely to have a darker coloured soul. The participants who thought the soul of the criminal was darker was more likely to think that the man who committed the immoral act was the darkened headshot. This highlights the fact that dark skin is associated with evil in the mind of people who saw a link between darkness and badness. It proves that people associate dark skin with negative personality traits. The research also proves that the reverse is true: light skin is more likely to be associated with positive adjectives than dark skin.

This ‘‘bad is black’’ effect is deep-rooted in human nature and psychology. Definitions in the human language tend to associate darkness and wickedness. Daisy Grewal says that ‘‘Across time and cultures, we tend to portray villains as more likely to be active during night-time and to don black clothing’’. She finally underlines the fact that ‘‘these mental associations between colour and morality may negatively bias us against people with darker skin tones. If this is true, it has far-reaching implications for our justice system. For example, eyewitnesses to crimes may be more likely to falsely identify suspects who possess darker skin.’’ With governments biased against people of colours like the US, it creates problems at the root of the country. The US is based on the idea that the constitution and the laws established did not include people of colour. Even if the laws were changed and revoked it is still at the basis of it and how it was created.

It is a case of institutionalized racism; ‘‘racism that has become part of the normal behaviour of people within an organization’’. Racism is inherent to the US government that was based and built on slavery. As an example of an organization within the government, we can talk about the police and for what purpose it was originally created. In the South, the police were created to control the slaves since the economy depended on them. The police were purely present for the preservation of the slavery system. They were called ‘‘slave patrols’’ and their roles were to chase runaway slaves and prevent riots. The first one of those slave patrols was created in Carolina in 1704. These slave patrols stopped during the Civil War since the army was the main form of law enforcement. During the Reconstruction after the Civil War where slavery was abolished, the police had a role closer than the one we know today. But many local sheriffs kept a similar function than the slave patrols with reinforcing the segregation and the disenfranchisement of freed slaves. Despite the evolution in terms of laws and also moralities, racism is clearly still institutionalized and there are many names to give to prove that racism in the US and everywhere else in the world is not business of the past. It is a present concern for everyone and is something that has been conditioned in the human brain for centuries so that society knows no evolution in terms of basic human rights.

Composed by,

Cécile Fardoux, Undergraduate of English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen