Semantic patterns of interpreting the symbolic meanings of color terms BLACK / WHITE in some US mainstream media

Abstract
The paper considers implicit factors which may regulate understanding of the social semantics associated nowadays with the adjectives black and white in the American mainstream media discourse. The purpose is to show that the officially condemned politically non/incorrect alternative units are still widely used for a variety of rational and emotional reasons and that they cannot be all identified with race prejudice. The paper formulates the conditions and prerequisites to comply with in order to interpret correctly and adequately the meanings of color terms black and white in typical media discourse. These emphasize the necessity to take into account that there are several patterns of racial discourse within one nation and various kinds of communicants each having its specific ethnic culture. It is also very important to bear in mind that there is a fundamental difference between the two assessment paradigms, shaping differently symbolic meanings of the adjectives black and white, one established in the USA on the racial basis and the other, more ancient, common to the European cultures which has nothing to do with racial distinctions. The paper argues that there is also a wide gap between symbolic meanings of the adjectives black and white, found in real-life settings or in American media on one hand, and their negative meanings concentrated in the English lexicon, on the other. The paper also considers some implications important for an adequate translation of the symbolic meanings of the adjectives black and white into Russian.

Keywords: racial discourse ethics, harmony, racial discourse types, black and white, racist
discourse, Whites vs. Blacks, Blacks vs. Whites, Whites vs. Whites, Blacks vs. Blacks, USA media, European symbolism of color terms, racial symbolism of color terms, geocultural vector of communication, intersection of interpretants, conditions and prerequisites of the correct interpretation