(Published in ENRICH magazine, 2022)
IS IT TOTALLY in black-and-white if I say black is still the coolest color out there? Or is it simply an excuse used by slightly neurotic young adults to mask their low self-esteem?
Truth is, black is a color you love or hate. Or is it, love to hate? Wearing black either makes you feel a whole lot sexier or marks you as a person less than generous.
The ambivalence about the color black isn't new. Even the previous statement about black being a color is a misnomer. Technically, black isn't a color at all. It's a hue, or the pure form of any color.
Black is black because it absorbs all the wavelengths of light and converts these wavelengths into heat. So, don’t go out wearing black on a hot day, which seems like most days in the Philippines. White is also a hue and also isn't a color (for the opposite reason compared to black).
Black, however, commands an almost slavish loyalty as a wardrobe color among a segment of young Pinoy adults. Call them Goths, hip-hoppers, Millennials or something else. Black is a bewildering choice given how hot and humid this country gets during the hottest dry season months from March to May. Now why is that?
 |
| Hollywood goddess Audrey Hepburn in the classic Little Black Dress from Givenchy. |
The good about black
Black is a prominent color among a goodly number of young Filipinos as you can see on our streets. It also retains its cachet as a color of sophistication. Black is an attractive color after all, especially if worn with panache.
In color psychology, black is the color chosen by persons that want to impress others while steeling their self-confidence at the same time.
If a man wants to dress to impress, he confidently dons the classic Black Suit with tie (which Filipinos still refer to as the "Americana"). Or, he sports a head-turning, all-black rig to astonish all and sundry. “He’s so hot!” has both a figurative and literal meaning in this case.
Women with verve slip on the elegant little black dress (LBD) made immortal by Hollywood goddess, Audrey Hepburn, and flaunt their sexy allure with extravagant bling. The few Goth girls among us will naturally choose black for their predictably monochromatic and boring wardrobe.
About half of the women and 64% of men in a study agreed that black exudes confidence. This study on the psychology of black published in the United States also saw respondents rank black either first or second in having the most "good" attributes among colors.
Black was perceived as a "serious" and "reliable" color that boosts one's self-esteem. It was rarely seen or rated as a "bad" color.
A survey on how people perceived others based on the color of clothes they wore was taken in 2021 and involved 1,000 people. It found six in 10 respondents favored black as a color of confidence (or 48% of women and 64% of men).
It concluded that people in black were regarded by others as serious and reliable. Black dressers were also perceived as solid team players ideal for job interviews -- and also for first dates.
Among many Millennials (those born from 1981 to 1996) and some Zoomers aka Generation Z (1997 to 2012), dressing in black appears to be a symbol of confidence, credibility and self-expression. Black reveals their drive for recognition and power.
 |
| Goth girls in their favorite color -- black, of course. |
People that prefer wearing black take themselves very seriously and expect others to treat them accordingly. Millennials and Zoomers are quite alike in a lot of ways, and seem to share a preference for black as a fashion and emotional statement.
It seems black also reflects the drive of these people to persevere in the struggle for a better future. And who can blame them given the series of economic and emotional disasters inflicted on them by the Great Recession of 2008, COVID-19 in 2020 and Putin's War of 2022?
This trio of tragedies has stunted their education; left them with low paying jobs and denied many of them a shot at a more prosperous future. Black seems to have become the symbol of the youth's war against despair and failure.
On the other hand, the realization they might not be as prosperous as their parents has led to a jump in depression and other mental health concerns among Millennials and Zoomers.
Some of the young, especially those in the West, see black as the color of an activist liberalism that literally fights for justice, social equality and climate protection. Black is the uniform color of this global army of left-wing liberal activists -- even in the Philippines.
It is the de rigueur hue for the anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States called "Antifa" (a portmanteau of the German “antifaschistisch” or anti-fascist). Antifa men and women clad head-to-foot in black like Japanese "ninja" have gained fame (or notoriety) because of their violent street battles against neo-Nazis, white supremacists and alt-right racists in many American cities since 2017.
Antifa fighters choose to don black to create a bond of equality and camaraderie. This color choice has led to their other nickname: the "Black Bloc".
Black's association with heroism goes back to Medieval Europe, an era that lasted from about 500 to 1500 CE, when bards wrote of "Black Knights" and their exploits. The most famous Black Knight was King Richard the Lionheart of England who assayed the role in the immortal historical novel, Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott published in 1819.
Hollywood is one huge reason why a ton of Millennials and Zoomers still see black as the color of cool. And who doesn’t want to be a cool superhero in a stunning black costume? But today’s onscreen superheroes such as Batman and the X-Men began their crime-fighting careers as comic-book characters sporting bright and colorful livery. This riot of colors changed on the big screen to plain and boring black.
Batman, as played by Adam West in the hit 1966 TV series, “BAMed!”, “BIFFed!” and “SOCKed!” his way to fame dressed in a gray body suit and a dark blue mask, cape, gloves and boots. Not a tinge of black on him. When the first issue of The X-Men hit the stands in 1963, all five teen heroes (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman and Angel) went into action in blue and yellow uniforms.
Today, actors in the movie versions of Batman (like Robert Pattinson) and The X-Men preen onscreen in total badass black, as do other superheroes and super villains in the Marvel Comic Universe and the DC Universe. There is no sign Hollywood’s enduring infatuation with superhero black is waning. And fan kids will keep on strutting in badass black.
 |
| The Antifa Black Army |
The "bad"
The current dalliance with fashionable black, however, flies in the face of the Filipino historical narrative. Black is the traditional color of death and villainy in our culture, shaped as it is by folk Catholicism and centuries-old indigenous paganistic folklore at odds with Christianity.
Associating black with death goes back to before Spain embarked on its enslavement of the Philippines in the 16th century. It began with Islam, which was introduced to Philippine tribes in the late 13th century by Arab and Muslim Gujarati (people from the Indian state of Gujarat) missionaries and merchants.
Islamic belief holds that black is the color of "Jahannam", Islam's version of the Christian Hell. Jahannam, also called "the abyss" or "the fire", is an enormous land with seven levels located below heaven or "Jannah" ("paradise").
In the Islamic tradition, widows must wear black during the 40-day period of mourning for their husbands. They must also remain in their late husband’s home and are forbidden from entertaining suitors during this sad time.
On the other hand, Muslims regard white, the color of the flag of the Prophet Muḥammad, as the purest and cleanest color in Islam. It is for this same reason white is the color of Muslim burial shrouds.
Under the influence of Roman Catholicism, Catholic Filipinos during the 377 years of Spanish tyranny were taught black was the color of Satan, evil, Hell and death.
Then and now, most Christian Filipino funerals prefer black as the color of mourning. In an old but dying Filipino tradition, grieving family members will wear black in some way or the other to manifest their sorrow.
Men used to wear a black ribbon around their arms; women dressed completely in black while children pinned black ribbons on their clothing. This tradition is dying.
The embodiment of Death in Western culture is usually portrayed as a ghastly living skeleton garbed in a long and hooded black robe. The “Grim Reaper” wields a long and crooked scythe to reap the souls of sinners by the thousands and consign them to Hell. Filipinos have imbibed this concept, as well.
Clearly, black was never a favorite color of Filipino Muslims and Filipino Christians.
One might expect black to be associated with Filipino wars and warriors. Not so. Red (and not black) was the dominant color of the Philippine Revolution against Spain ignited on August 19, 1896 by the Katipunan (Kataastaasang Kagalanggalang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan).
Most of the Katipunan war flags -- which were the first war flags of the Filipino nation -- had red as their dominant color. Red symbolized the blood of the Katipuneros who swore to fight to the death for Philippine independence in what the Spaniards called the "Guerra Tagala" or the Tagalog War.
One notable exception to red's dominance was the black flag of Gen. Mariano Llanera of Nueva Ecija. His flag consisted of a black field emblazoned with a white letter "K", beneath which lay a skull and crossbones device, both in white.
The ugly
Starting next summer and all the summers thereafter, Filipinos should consider the Sun their Eternal Enemy -- a clear and ever-present threat to their health -- and banish heat absorbing black clothes as a favorite summer wear for the same reason. Think heat stroke and sunburn among the ugly health problems associated with overheated human bodies.
Black is not the healthy color to constantly wear in a warm tropical country like the Philippine. Most of us have known this since we were kids, which is why many school uniforms are in white. Science also proves black absorbs more heat than any other color.
Black clothes and other black materials efficiently absorb most of the sun's light and infrared radiation, causing the material to get hotter as it absorbs radiant energy. It isn’t a color because it doesn’t have a specific wavelength. Black is, therefore, the absence of visible light, which is a type of radiation that travels in electromagnetic waves.
On the other hand, white clothes are very poor absorbers of incident visible sunlight and infrared light. Most of these wavelengths are reflected away and don't increase the heat content of white clothes. White clothes are the better choice in hot climes.
 |
| Black roses |
No comments:
Post a Comment