And, of course, much of the negation attached to blackness and darkness, etc. is Biblically derived (and p'raps other religious texts such as the Koran?).
And the light shines in the darkness.
Light is good. Dark is bad.
However, what all that imagery is missing is that light and dark, white and black are *not mutually exclusive. One cannot exist without the other's contrast, at the very least. Without the dark there can be no light.
Zen Buddhism allows for the mutuality of this. (and mebbe Hinudism to a degree?--I'm not sure)
Butwhen darkness and blackness was ingrained,through thousands of years of religion, as something negative and evil, it became very difficult to throw off the perception of those stereotypes in the arena of ethnicity (the inhabitants of "Darkest Africa" had to be "savages" in the eyes of "good" Christians for centuries...and the dark-skinned Maya and Inca and North American "red man", Native Americans, were likewise "savages", too.)
The light shines in the darkeness. But without the darkness there can be no light.
(oops, could we be launching into another "Time" thread here?...so be it then...
)
Father Steve?...
