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WESTERN CLASSIFICATIONS In the West, particularly the United States , the primary color metaphor for race is the classification of persons of Africa n ancestry as " Black " and persons of European ancestry as " White ". In Australia , Indigenous Australians are also called "black". The terms Negro , Colored , and Negroid also served as color metaphors for persons of Africa n ancestry except in some places, such as South Africa , where Coloured people were those of mixed racial descent. Even the Racial Slur " Nigger " has etymological roots denoting color. Similarly, persons of East Asia n descent were called " Yellow ". This term was most common during the late 19th Century , but it is still sometimes used. The Yellow Peril was a perceived threat from East Asian immigration. In Germany, "yellow peril" was translated literally into "gelbe Gefahr". Native Americans are called " Red ", " Redskin s" (generally considered a Racial Slur ), and "Red Indians". Other racial groups have fallen under similar classifications with brown being a general term for nonwhites. For instance, during the American occupation of the Philippines , Governor-General William Howard Taft referred to the native Filipino People as his "little brown friends". In the United States , color metaphors are so commonplace that many anti-discrimination statutes use the phrase "race, color, or creed". A branch of the civil rights struggle by African-Americans was known as the " Black Power " movement; by extension, a similar civil rights movement among American Indians was (much less commonly) referred to as "Red Power". The metaphors are used somewhat informally in academic writing as well as reflected, for example, in the title of Gary B. Nash's book ''Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America'' (1974). One point of objection to these terms for race is that they can be subconsciously associated with a color's other metaphorical meanings and reinforce positive and negative self-images. The numerous negative uses of ''black'' and favorable uses of ''white'' have led many people to promote alternate terminology for "black" people, for example " African-American ". Langston Hughes , Maya Angelou , and Ralph Ellison identify a number of negative metaphors in Western cultures associated with the color "black"; see Black - Usage, Symbolism, And Colloquial Expressions . RUSSIA In Russia , persons of Caucasus descent are called 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. INDIA The Sanskrit word for " Caste " is वर्ण () which has several literal meanings including "color".
CHINA 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 , while China is known as Zhongguo "middle country". ''Hua'' (華), one of the most common Terms For "Chinese" , literally means "multicolored", "flowery", 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 indentified as "people from the ocean" or some variety of "barbarian". 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 person" (黑人) 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.
KOREA The word, 인종 ''een-jong'', is used when describing a person's race, which also incorporates his or her skin color. White 백 ''baek'', used with 인 ''een'' to make 백인, ''baek-een'', literally means white-person in Korean . 흑 ''heug'' is used to describe persons of African descent, (i.e. 흑인). 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 Turks . These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
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