# Do you think black and white are colors? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582 "2013-10-29T19:36:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/41 "2013-10-30T17:06:16Z")
How about all those wimpy “colors” like chartreuse or lavender or magenta? Those aren’t _real_, manly colors. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/42 "2013-10-30T17:09:41Z")
> [@raspberry\_hunter](#): > > I’m totally fascinated by how everyone has a different answer to this question! I thought it had a straightforward answer, but apparently not. (bup: yeah, that’s my view. Spectral colors != colors.) There is no straightforward answer, but the varieties have been shown here. Maybe the best lesson for your daughter is explaining how there can be more than one answer to some questions, and how to deal with that since she’ll probably run into the situation in school one day. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/43 "2013-10-30T17:16:31Z")
I picked the second option, but, unless you’re being totally pedantic, yes, they’re colors. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/44 "2013-10-30T17:19:14Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Tip of the iceberg I say. Next thing you know, that babysitter is going to be teaching Kiddo that 0.999… isn’t = 1. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/45 "2013-10-30T17:24:24Z")
I learned my colors the right way. [Paranoia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29)makes it clear that Infra-red is black and ultraviolet is white and therefore black and white are both perceived colors and spectral colors. The babysitter has disobeyed The Computer and must now be terminated. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/46 "2013-10-30T17:58:41Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > In the colloquial sense, black and white are colors. That seems to be what we’re discussing here. > > That may not be the case scientifically, but context is important: if you’re not having a scientific conversation, you don’t have to conform the meaning of your words to scientific definitions. Ditto for conversations that aren’t about law or mathematics or whatever. You, and several of the other posters in this thread, seem to be under the impression that there is some “scientific” definition of color, that differs from the everyday, colloquial meaning. It is notable that no-one says what that “scientific” definition is. There is a reason for that. It does not exist. Scientists use the word “color” just the same way as everybody else. One idea that does seem to be in some people’s heads is that “scientifically” a color is only a “real” color if it matches some particular monochromatic wavelength of light. As **bup** points out in post#34, this is completely false. No color scientist holds such a view. People who say such things as that “scientifically” pink, or brown or black or white, or cerise, or whatever, are not colors are simply showing that they erroneously believe that the basic physics of the spectrum that they learned in high school is all there is to the science of color. Real color science does not try to legislate non-spectral colors out of existence, rather, it attempts to explain (amongst other things) how it is that people are able to experience so many of them, including ones (such as brown) that cannot be produced even by mixing various light wavelengths together. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/47 "2013-10-30T18:08:20Z")
Have you thought about getting a new babysitter? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/48 "2013-10-30T18:10:43Z")
I would assume that there are different professional groups who have different ways of categorizing colors. I don’t know what kind of background a color scientist would have, although my first guess would be physics, and I would guess that other groups who would have an interest in color would be photographers, graphic (and other) designers, psychologists, and biologists. The last two would be interested in the perceiving side of color, rather than the producing side. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/49 "2013-10-30T18:15:22Z")
For the strongest opinion that black is indeed a color, talk to a Klansman. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/50 "2013-10-30T22:34:42Z")
> [@raspberry\_hunter](#): > > My daughter informed me that brown “is a shade of orange.” Well, [that’s true](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_orange), but [pink is also a shade of red](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_red), and we consider all 4 colors. So what are you going to tell her? How do adults tell their kids that another grown up is wrong, anyway? Hey, show her the wiki article for black, it says its a color 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/51 "2013-10-30T22:48:25Z")
I voted “yes” because paints come in black and white as well as all the other colours. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/52 "2013-10-30T22:52:45Z")
As above, technically speaking it’s complicated. Practically speaking, not only can I order black and white paint at the paint store, I can order innumerable shades of each. They’re colors. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/53 "2013-10-31T00:59:10Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I write down ‘none’ for black, ‘all’ for white. 😉 you could write down “maybe” for grey. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582/54 "2013-10-31T04:33:51Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I would assume that there are different professional groups who have different ways of categorizing colors. I don’t know what kind of background a color scientist would have, although my first guess would be physics, and I would guess that other groups who would have an interest in color would be photographers, graphic (and other) designers, psychologists, and biologists. The last two would be interested in the perceiving side of color, rather than the producing side. I do not think that physicists have had a whole lot of much of significance to contribute to our understanding of color since Newton discovered the spectrum back in the 17th century. The science that is concerned with trying to understand the nature of colors is an interdisciplinary field mainly at the intersection of neuroscience and psychology/cognitive science. I guess there are also chemists who are involved in stuff like creating new forms of dyes, but that is really quite a different mater, and more technology than science anyway. As for your photographers, graphic designers, etc., well, they might reasonably have a professional interred in knowing something about color science, and some may know quite a bit about it, but that does not make them color scientists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-black-and-white-are-colors/672582.md?page=2)