More often than not, the word black is a synonym for something negative. There is a wide range of terms to choose from: Evil, wicked, malignant, unwashed, foul, dirty and so on. Despite the fact that white is often a synonym for clean, pristine, divine or other simmilar positive terms, I believe that it has nothing to do with racism.
These referrences for black and white originate from ancient history, when racism, at least in it's current form, did not exist. If we look back to, for example, ancient Greece, the gods that were considered protectors of humanity were believed to be living in the heavens. Thus, the light was associated with the gods-protectors, and white colour is an obvious symbol for light. Black on the other hand, is the polar opposite of white. Visually, white and black offer the highest possible contrast. That is why Hades, the master of the dead and the underworld, was always depicted as a god enveloped in darkness(blackness).
Night(darkness,blackness) is often associated with danger and evil, because of the connection of night's absolute darkness to the fear of the unknown and the fact that it hinders the sensory system that human beings rely on the most- sight. Humans have always been and always will be creatures of the day. Night is a time of danger and vulnerability for our species. As a result, mythical creatures such as the vampires, werewolves and ghosts are thought to be more active during the night. It's also interesting to note that as far back as the second century, the early Saxon tribes referred to the darkness of the night as the ''death mist''
All of this, as well as numerous other factors, contributed to the negative ring of the word black(blackness). It has absolutely nothing to do with skin colour or race, therefore I see no reason to get upset over the synonyms for the relevant term.
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