non-black, noun and & adjective

Forms:
Also with initial capital(s).
Origin:
Cf. black noun sense 1 b and 1 c.
An inversion of the term non-white, used as an affirmation of black identity and dignity.
A. noun A white person; one who is not a black African.
1953 G. Magwaza in Drum Apr. 29I’ve tried a couple of collective nouns for the lot: non-Europeans, non-whites and whatnot. I’m fed up with these negatives. Natives is meaningless...I’m now toying with blacks and non-blacks.
1970 Daily News 9 JuneStudents at the University of Natal Medical School..have decided to call themselves ‘black’ rather than ‘non-European’ students...The students no longer wished to be referred to as ‘the negative of another group’...In future, ‘other students will be referred to as non-blacks’.
1971 Rand Daily Mail 27 July 12If the few Whites were sent to Australia instead (it would be cheaper too), then there would be no question of Blacks and Non-Blacks and we Blacks would live happily.
1972 Drum 8 Mar. 8Well a great many Drum readers already refer to Whites as Non-Blacks and the idea seems to be catching on.
1973 Drum 8 May 22Yesterday there was an incident concerning what is called a Non-White. For one I am a non-Black.
1980 Cape Times 18 Oct. 6The Botha strategy as presently conceived is to co-opt a coloured and Asian elite to the side of the whites by means of the President’s Council, drawing white and coloured more closely together. This in itself is not a bad thing but it creates a dreadful danger of non-blacks appearing to gang up together against the blacks.
1982 Voice 6 June 4It seems even so-called liberal newspapers have fallen for Pretoria’s terminology and political-thinking by always referring loosely to ‘South Africans’, whereas in fact they mean only non-Blacks!
B. adjective Of or pertaining to one who is white, or to one who is not a black African.
1980 C. Hermer Diary of Maria Tholo 2The administrative section contained the post office and rent office as well as an office to issue permits without which no non-black person could enter the township.
1980 Rand Daily Mail 29 Nov. 1At present, blacks appear in these courts. It seems that the intention is to make non-black offenders also go before them.
1980 Staffrider Vol.3 No.4, 27You never find a rubbish heap, right in the middle of the town, in a non-black area. You see, those non-blacks don’t like rubbish even if it is their own.
1987 Collins & Dyan in Leadership Vol.6 No.3, 97As for full-blown Leninist communism we estimate that only one in 12 of those designated ‘radicals’ — both black and non-black — are persuaded of the truth of the revolutionary faith.
1993 Sunday Times 31 Oct. 17It does..raise a number of questions for ‘non-black’ liberals. Do they have to accept black leadership simply because black South Africans are a numerical majority?
An inversion of the term non-white, used as an affirmation of black identity and dignity.
A white person; one who is not a black African.
Of or pertaining to one who is white, or to one who is not a black African.
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19531993