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.
Similar to the Rule of Index caveat, just because "black" and "white" appear together in the name of the trope does not mean they fit this index. Nevertheless, for indexes of tropes relating to the black and white colors individually, see Tropes in Black and Tropes in White, respectively. Compare Gray Tropes, Good and Evil for Your Convenience and 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.)
- Astral Checkerboard Decor: Contrasting Black and White squares evocative of board games.
- Black-and-White Morality: When the morality spectrum of a story is unambiguously split between clear-cut heroesnote and clear-cut villains.note
- 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.
- 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.
