Black and white, respectively, the darkest and lightest values in visible light. While not being true colors, they contrast better than any pairs of actual contrasting colors, be it red and green, blue and orange, or yellow and purple (though these last two are considered the most similar to the black/white contrast in terms of color space). Consequently, black contrasted against white has a long history in symbolism. How this symbolism generally works varies from culture to culture— western societies generally view black as malevolent and white as benevolent, while in East Asia white typically has a more somber connotation. Regardless, the contrast between the two values is a universal source of symbolism, and as such is rife for trope fodder in media.
Compare Gray Tropes, Good and Evil for Your Convenience, Good Colors, Evil Colors. Not to be confused with the separate Black Index and White Index, which (though there is overlap) are about people of... color.
Tropes
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: A calm, aloof girl with dark hair. (Fits here if she's pale-skinned.)
- Black and White Insanity: When someone is completely incapable of understanding the concept of moral ambiguity.
- Black and White Magic: In an RPG group, one magic user specializes in defensive and/or healing magic while another specializes in offensive/harmful magic.
- Black-and-White Morality: One side of a conflict is utterly, completely good. The other is raw, pure evil.
- Chiaroscuro: In a visual medium, a single light source casts everything else in shadow.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: A creepy character with pale, sometimes ghastly skin and brown or black hair.
- Grayscale of Evil: Color scheme with no color (or barely any) denotes villainy.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: A beautiful character with hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow.
- Salt and Pepper: Two characters, one white and another black, with hilariously different personalities.
- Skunk Stripe: Dark hair with one or more streaks of white/silver running through it.
