Harry Dexter White (October 9, 1892 – August 16, 1948) was an American economist, and senior U.S. Treasury department official, participating in the Bretton Woods conference. Specifically, White wrote the first draft laying out the International Monetary Fund one week after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and also contributed to forming the World Bank, economic pillars of the renowned Washington Consensus. White testified and defended his record to HUAC in August 1948. Three days after testifying he died of a heart attack at his summer home in FitzWilliam, NH.

Early life

Harry Dexter White was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the seventh and youngest child of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants, Joseph Weit and Sarah Magilewski, who had settled in America in 1885. In 1917 he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was commissioned as lieutenant and served in France in a non-combat capacity in World War I. He did not begin his university studies until age 30, first at Columbia University, then at Stanford, where he earned a first degree in economics. After completing a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University at 38 years of age, White taught four years at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Harvard University Press published his Ph.D. thesis in 1933, as The French International Accounts, 1880–1913.

Office of Monetary Research

White was a Keynesian New Deal Democrat. As a dedicated Rooseveltian internationalist, his energies were directed at continuing the Grand Alliance and maintaining peace through a liberal trade regime. He believed that powerful, multilateral institutions could avoid the mistakes of Versailles and prevent another worldwide depression. His political views were close to that of Henry A. Wallace and he was considered a progressive. As head of the independently-funded Office of Monetary Research, White was able to hire staff without the normal civil service regulations or background enquiries.

Treasury Department

In 1934, Jacob Viner, a professor at the University of Chicago working at the Treasury Department, offered White a position at the Treasury, which he accepted.

After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, White was appointed assistant to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury, to act as liaison between the Treasury and the State Department on all matters bearing on foreign relations. He was also made responsible for the "management and operation of the Exchange Stabilization Fund without a change in its procedures." White eventually came to be in charge of international matters for the Treasury, with access to extensive confidential information about the economic situation of the USA and its wartime allies.

According to Henry Morgenthau's son, White was the principal architect behind the Morgenthau Plan. The Morgenthau postwar plan, as authored by White, was to take all industry out of Germany, eliminate its armed forces, and convert the country into an agricultural community, in the process eliminating most of Germany's economy and its ability to defend itself if attacked. A version of the plan, limited to turning Germany into "a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character", was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Second Quebec Conference in September 1944. However, someone in White's department with access to details of the plan leaked it to the press, and White himself provided an advance copy to Soviet intelligence. Public protests forced Roosevelt to publicly backtrack. The Nazis and Joseph Goebbels were ecstatic at the revelations, using the Morgenthau Plan as a propaganda coup to encourage their troops and citizens to fight on and to nullify emerging German criticism of the war and arguments for a separate peace with Western governments. White's actions also benefited the Soviet Union, virtually ensuring that the Nazi government or its successors would not negotiate a separate peace with the West. In the end Morgenthau still did manage to influence the resulting occupation policy, particularly through the Occupation Directive JCS 1067, which was in effect until the summer 1947, and which forbade activities designed for economic reconstruction in Germany. In a report on the German situation after 2 years of occupation, former President Herbert Hoover would in March 1947 remark:

Dismantling of German heavy industry in the west, agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference, continued until 1951.

White was the senior American official at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, which he and Keynes dominated. After the war, White was closely involved with setting up what were called the Bretton Woods institutions—the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These institutions were intended to prevent some of the economic problems that had occurred after World War I. As late as November 1945, White continued to argue for improved relations with the Soviet Union. White later became a director and U.S. representative of the IMF.

On June 19, 1947, White abruptly resigned from the International Monetary Fund, vacating his office the same day.

Accusations of espionage

On September 2, 1939, the day after Hitler's invasion of Poland and less than a fortnight after the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact was signed, Assistant Secretary of State and Roosevelt's adviser on internal security Adolf Berle had a meeting, arranged by journalist Isaac Don Levine, with defecting Soviet agent Whittaker Chambers. In his notes of that meeting, written later that night, Levine listed a series of names, including a "Mr. White". Berle's notes of the meeting contain no mention of White. Berle drafted a 4-page memorandum on the information which he then passed to the President, who dismissed the idea of espionage rings in his administration as 'absurd'. The director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover also dismissed Chambers' revelations as 'history, hypothesis, or deduction' as late as 1942.

On March 20, 1945, State Department security officer Raymond Murphy interviewed Chambers. His notes record that Chambers identified White as "a member at large but rather timid", who had brought various members of the American communist underground into the Treasury.

On November 7, 1945, defecting Soviet espionage courier Elizabeth Bentley told investigators of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that in late 1942 or early 1943 she learned from Soviet spies Nathan Gregory Silvermaster and Ludwig Ullmann that one source of the government documents they were photographing and passing on to her and NKVD spymaster Jacob Golos was Harry Dexter White.

The next day, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a hand-delivered letter to Truman's Military Aide, Gen. Harry Vaughan, at the White House, reporting information that "a number of persons employed by the government of the United States have been furnishing data and information to persons outside the Federal Government, who are in turn transmitting this information to espionage agents of the Soviet government." The letter listed a dozen Bentley suspects, the second of whom was Harry Dexter White.

The FBI summarized the Bentley information and in its follow-up investigation on the suspects she named, again including White, in a report entitled 'Soviet Espionage in the United States', which was sent to the White House, the Attorney General and the State Department on December 4, 1945. Six weeks later, on January 23, 1946, Truman nominated White U.S. Director of the International Monetary Fund. The FBI responded with a 28-page memo specifically on White and his contacts, received by the White House on February 4, 1946. White's nomination was approved by the Senate on February 6, 1946.

Six years later, Truman would testify that White had been "separated from the Government service promptly" upon receipt of this information—first from the Treasury, and then from the IMF. In fact, White was still at the IMF on June 19, 1947—more than two years after the FBI had alerted the White House about him—when he abruptly resigned (vacating his office the same day), after Attorney General Tom Clark ordered a Federal grand jury investigation of the Bentley charges.

On July 31, 1948 Bentley told the House Committee on Un-American Activities that White had been involved in espionage activities on behalf of Soviet Union during World War II, and had passed sensitive Treasury documents to Soviet agents. Bentley said White's colleagues passed information to her from him. In her 1953 testimony Bentley said that White was responsible for passing Treasury plates for printing Allied military marks in occupied Germany to the Soviets, who thereupon printed currency with abandon, sparking a black market and serious inflation throughout the occupied country, costing the U.S. a quarter of a billion dollars.

Bentley wrote in her 1951 autobiography that she had been "able through Harry Dexter White to arrange that the United States Treasury Department turn the actual printing plates over to the Russians". Bentley had not previously mentioned this to the FBI or to any of the committees, grand juries or prosecutors before whom she had testified earlier, and there was no evidence at the time that Bentley had any role in this transfer. Some questioned Harry Dexter White's role in it.

In her 1953 testimony before Joseph McCarthy's Senate subcommittee, she elaborated, testifying that she was following instructions from NKVD New York rezident Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov (who operated under the cover name "Bill") to pass word through Ludwig Ullmann and Nathan Gregory Silvermaster for White to "put the pressure on for the delivery of the plates to Russia".

This is the only case in which Bentley biographer Kathryn Olmstead concluded that Bentley was lying about her role, citing historian Bruce Craig's conclusion that "the whole 'scheme' was a complete fabrication".

But Bentley's testimony would later be corroborated in dramatic fashion by a memorandum found in Soviet archives after half a century. In it, Gaik Ovakimian, head of the American desk of the NKVD (for which Bentley worked), cites a report from New York (where Bentley was based) from April 14, 1944 (when Bentley was running the Silvermaster group) reporting that, "following our instructions" via Silvermaster, White had obtained "the positive decision of the Treasury Department to provide the Soviet side with the plates for engraving German occupation marks".

Whittaker Chambers, an admitted former Soviet espionage agent, subsequently testified on August 3 to his association with White in the Communist underground secret apparatus up to 1938. Chambers produced documents he had saved from his days as a courier for the Soviets' American spy-ring. Among these was a handwritten memorandum that he testified White had given him. The Treasury Department identified this document as containing highly confidential material from the State Department, while the FBI Laboratory established that it was written in White's handwriting. Chambers stated, however, that White was the least productive of his contacts.

Jenner, McCarthy, Moynihan

Senator William Jenner's Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments Investigation by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) looked extensively into the problem of unauthorized and uncontrolled powers exercised by non-elected officials, specifically White. Part of its report looked into the implementation of Roosevelt administration policy in China and was published as the Morgenthau Diary. The report stated,

The committee also heard testimony by Henry Morgenthau's speechwriter, Jonathan Mitchell, that White had tried to persuade him that the Soviets had developed a system that would supplant capitalism and Christianity.

In 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy and Eisenhower administration Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. revealed that the FBI had warned the Truman administration about White before the President appointed him to the IMF. Brownell made public the FBI's November 8, 1945 letter to the White House warning about White and others, and revealed that the White House had received the FBI report on "Soviet Espionage in the United States," including the White case, six weeks before Truman nominated White to the IMF.

Although he does not dispute that the FBI sent these and other warnings to Truman, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote in his introduction to the 1997 Moynihan Commission report on government secrecy that Truman was never informed of Venona. In support of this, he cited a statement from the official NSA/CIA history of Venona that "no definitive evidence has emerged to show" that Truman was informed of Venona.

Death

On August 13, 1948, White testified before HUAC and denied being a communist. After he finished testifying he had a heart attack. He left Washington for a rest on his Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire farm. He had just arrived when he had another heart attack. Two days later, on August 16, 1948, he died, age 55. An overdose of digitalis was reported as the cause of death.

Venona project

NSA cryptographers identified Harry Dexter White as the source denoted in the Venona decrypts at various times under the code names "Lawyer", "Richard", and "Jurist". Two years after his death, in a memorandum dated 15 October 1950, White was positively identified by the FBI, through evidence gathered by the Venona project, as a Soviet source, code named "Jurist". Years later, the Justice Department publicly disclosed the existence of the Venona project which deciphered Soviet cable traffic naming White as "Jurist", a Soviet intelligence source. As reported in the FBI Memorandum on White:

This codename was confirmed by the notes of KGB archivist Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin in his country volume 6, chapter 3, part1, where six key Soviet agents are named. Harry Dexter White is listed as being first "KASSIR" and later "JURIST".

Another example of White acting as an agent of inflence for the Soviet Union was his obstruction of a proposed $200 million loan to Nationalist China in 1943, which he had been officially instructed to execute, at a time when inflation was spiraling out of control.

Other Venona decrypts revealed further damaging evidence against White, including White's suggestions on how to meet and pass information on to his Soviet handler. Venona Document #71 contains decryptions of White's discussions on being paid for his work for the Soviet Union.

In 1997, the bipartisan Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, chaired by Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, stated in its findings,

Further evidence of White's complicity as a Soviet agent was gleaned from Soviet archives and KGB operative Alexander Vassiliev. In a book by Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America — the Stalin Era, Vassiliev, a former Soviet journalist and KGB operative, reviewed Soviet archives dealing with White's actions on behalf of the Soviet Union. White assisted Harold Glasser, a Treasury executive and NKVD spy, "in obtaining posts and promotions at Treasury while aware of his Communist ties". Because of White's backing, Glasser survived an FBI background check. In December 1941 the Secret Service forwarded a report to Harry White indicating that it had evidence Glasser was involved in Communist activities. White never acted on the report. Glasser continued to serve in the Treasury Department, and soon began recruiting other agents and preparing briefing reports on Treasury personnel and other potential espionage agents for the NKVD. After America became involved in World War II, Glasser received appointments to several higher-level positions in the government on White's approval.

According to Soviet archives, White's other MGB code names were "Richard", and "Reed". In order to protect their source, Soviet intelligence repeatedly changed White's code name.

Svetlana Chervonnaya, scholar of documentstalk.com, has written that several of the assertions made by other historians about White are based on misinterpretations of some of the evidence.

White's family and biographers still maintain his innocence. Stephen Schlesinger writes: "Among historians, the verdict about White is still unresolved, but many incline toward the view that he wanted to help the Russians but did not regard the actions he took as constituting espionage." Robert Skidelsky, in reviewing the evidence, concludes that:

References

External links

Wikisource:FBI Memorandum identifying Harry Dexter White as agent Jurist

Category:1892 births Category:1948 deaths Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Jewish American scientists Category:American Jews Category:Silvermaster spy ring Category:McCarthyism Category:Lawrence University faculty Category:Bretton Woods conference delegates Category:American people in the Venona papers

de:Harry Dexter White fr:Harry Dexter White ja:ハリー・ホワイト pl:Harry Dexter White sv:Harry Dexter White

Harry Dexter (1910-1973) was an English music critic and a composer of light music best known for his "Siciliano" of 1953.

He was born in Sheffield and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree at Durham University. During World War II, whilst serving overseas as an army captain he composed a prize-winning symphony, but after the war he found himself without work and moved to London where he scraped a living "song plugging" and arranging for various publishers.

During the 1950s, his lighter style of composition found favour with tastes in radio and television, particularly the BBC Light Programme. It has been said that one of his pieces was used as the signature-tune for the original Maigret series for BBC Television in 1960, although the credit for the theme tune and background music goes to composer Ron Grainer. He joined London music publisher Francis, Day and Hunter and later rose to become head of their light orchestral department, where in addition to composing gave advice to other composers in this field.

It was during this period he composed numerous short orchestral pieces include "Frankfurt Polka", "Bavarian Polka", "Budgerigar Polka", "Pas de Trois", "Pizzicato Playtime", "Waltz for a Bride", "September Woods" and his most famous work "Siciliano" in 1953. He also wrote vocal pieces for schools, ballads for choral ensembles and a number of religious anthems, as well as large quantity of simplified arrangements of famous classical works for use in teaching.

In addition to this work, Dexter was music critic for several musical periodicals and in 1956 founded the Light Music Society, where he served as Chairman for several years, with Eric Coates as its first President. His final composition was "Pizzicato for a Poodle" in 1972.

References

Category:English composers Category:1910 births Category:1973 deaths Category:Light music composers Category:Alumni of Durham University

Harry may refer to:

Harry (name), a given name

Harry (derogatory term), derogatory term used in Norway

Harry (TV series), a BBC television drama series

Harry (album), an album by Harry Nilsson

See also

Henry (given name)

Harold (disambiguation)

Harriet

es:Harry fr:Harry he:הארי ko:해리 ja:HARRY no:Harry (andre betydninger) pt:Harry zh:哈利

Dexter is a Latin adjective meaning "on the right hand side, skillful, fortunate, favorable, proper, fitting".

Dexter may also refer to:

Dexter in dexter and sinister, a heraldry term referring to the right of the bearer of the arms, and to the left by the viewer's eyes

Dexter cattle, a breed of cattle

Dexter School, a private boys' school in Brookline, Massachusetts

Dexter-Russell, the largest U.S. manufacturer of professional cutlery

Dexter (robot), a dynamically balancing bipedal humanoid robot research project by Anybots

People

;Surname

Al Dexter (1905–1984), American country musician and songwriter

Brad Dexter (1917–2002), Serbian-American actor

Caroline Dexter (1819–1884), English-Australian writer and feminist

Charles O. Dexter, American rhododendron hybridizer

Colin Dexter, OBE (born 1930), English crime writer

Darrell Dexter, Canadian politician

Elliott Dexter (1870–1941), American film and stage actor

Felix Dexter, English actor, comedian, and writer

Gregory Dexter, Baptist minister and colonial president of the colony of Rhode Island (Providence and Warwick only)

Henry Martyn Dexter (1821–1890), American clergyman and author

James Dexter, American professional football player

Neil Dexter (born 1984), South African-born English cricketer

Samuel Dexter (1761–1816), American politician, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Simon Newton Dexter (1785–1862), New York merchant and politician

Ted Dexter, Sussex and English test cricketer

;Given name

Dexter (singer) (born 1973), Brazilian rapper

Dexter Blackstock (born 1986), English football player

Dexter Dalwood (born 1960), artist based in London

Dexter M. Ferry (1833–1907), American businessman from Michigan

Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. (1873–1959), American politician from Michigan

Dexter Fletcher (born 1966), British actor

Dexter Gordon (1923–1990), jazz tenor saxophonist

Dexter Holland (born 1965), lead singer of The Offspring

Dexter Horton (1825–1904), founder of the first bank in Seattle

Dexter Vines, American comic book artist and inker

Fiction

Dexter's Laboratory, an American animated series that aired from 1996 to 2003

Dexter Morgan, a fictional serial killer and blood splatter analyst created by writer Jeff Lindsay who has appeared in several media:

* The book series:

** Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004)

** Dearly Devoted Dexter (2005)

** Dexter in the Dark (2007)

** Dexter by Design (2009)

** Dexter is Delicious (2010)

* Dexter (TV series) (2006–present), based on Darkly Dreaming Dexter

** "Dexter" (episode)

Ramone "Ray" Dexter, one half of gunshark duo Sinister Dexter featured in the British comics anthology 2000 AD

Dexter, young version of the protagonist in the Space Ace video game

Dexter, now known as Dex-Starr, a member of the Red Lantern Corps in the DC Comics universe

Locations

;United States

Dexter, Georgia

Dexter, Iowa

Dexter, Kansas

Dexter, Maine

Dexter, Michigan

Dexter, Minnesota

Dexter, Missouri

Dexter, New Mexico

Dexter, New York

Dexter City, Ohio

Dexter, Oregon

Dexter, Wisconsin

Dexter Township, Michigan

Dexter Township, Minnesota

;Canada

Dexter, Ontario, Canada

Ships

USRC Dexter, the name of more than one ship of the United States Revenue Cutter Service

USCGC Dexter, the name of more than one ship of the United States Coast Guard

See also

Dextral, a scientific term

Dextre, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, a component of the International Space Station

Dextrous (disambiguation)

Dexterity

Dextrose

Category:Latin adjectives in current use

ar:ديكستر bg:Декстер ca:Dexter (desambiguació) cs:Dexter de:Dexter es:Dexter (desambiguación) fr:Dexter io:Dexter it:Dexter he:דקסטר (פירושונים) nl:Dexter ja:デクスター no:Dexter pl:Dexter pt:Dexter ru:Dexter sk:Dexter sv:Dexter tr:Dexter (anlam ayrımı) vo:Dexter

White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.

White light can be generated in many ways. The sun is such a source, electric incandescence is another. Modern light sources are fluorescent lamps and light-emitting diodes. An object whose surface reflects back most of the light it receives and does not alter its color will appear white, unless it has very high specular reflection.

Since white is the extreme end of the visual spectrum (in terms of both hue and shade), and since white objects - such as clouds, snow and flowers - appear often in nature, it has frequent symbolism. Human culture has many references to white, often related to purity and cleanness, whilst the high contrast between white and black is often used to represent opposite extremes.

Etymology

The word white continues Old English , ultimately from a Common Germanic also reflected in OHG , ON , Goth. . The root is ultimately from a PIE , surviving also in Sanskrit "to be white or bright" and perhaps Slavic "light". The current Icelandic word for white, , is very closely related to the Old English and Old Norse forms of the word. Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz ("white, bright, blinding"), borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, which provided the source for Romance words for "white" (French blanc, Spanish blanco, Italian bianco, etc.). The root survives in English in the word black.

Light

Until Newton's work became accepted, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental color of light; and that other colors were formed only by adding something to light. Newton demonstrated this was not true by passing white light through a prism, then through another prism. If the colors were added by the prism, the second prism should have added further colors to the single-colored beam. Since the single-colored beam remained a single color, Newton concluded that the prism merely separated the colors already present in the light. White light is the effect of combining the visible colors of light in suitable proportions (the same present in solar light).

Since the impression of white is obtained by three summations of light intensity across the visible spectrum, the number of combinations of light wavelengths that produce the sensation of white is practically infinite. There are a number of different white light sources such as the midday sun, incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps and white LEDs; due to the phenomenon of metamerism, such sources can appear similar whilst having quite different spectra. The impression of white light can also be created by mixing appropriate intensities of the primary colors of light, red, green and blue (RGB), a process called additive mixing, as seen in many display technologies.

Color temperature

The best known way to generate white light is by the process called incandescence, or black body radiation where bodies of atoms with a certain temperature emit a certain type of radiation. For example, the color of a black body at a temperature of 2,848 kelvins. This is closely matched by incandescent light bulbs. The correlated color temperature of such a light bulb is 2,848 K. Daylight can vary from a cool red up to a bluish 5,600 K. Not all black body radiation can be considered white light: the background radiation of the universe, to name an extreme example, is only a few kelvins and is quite invisible.

In astronomy the stellar class of stars are determined by the color temperature. For instance are white dwarfs small dense stars thought to be the final evolutionary state.

Computer displays often have a color temperature control, allowing the user to select the color temperature (usually from a small set of fixed values) of the light emitted when the computer produces the electrical signal corresponding to white. The RGB coordinates of white are (1.0, 1.0, 1.0).

Objects

White light reflected off objects can be seen when no part of the light spectrum is reflected significantly more than any other and the reflecting material has a degree of diffusion. People see this when transparent fibers, particles, or droplets are in a transparent matrix of a substantially different refractive index. Examples include classic "white" substances such as sugar, foam, pure sand or snow, cotton, clouds, and milk. Crystal boundaries and imperfections can also make otherwise transparent materials white, as in the milky quartz or the microcrystalline structure of a seashell. This is also true for artificial paints and pigments, where white results when finely divided transparent material of a high refractive index is suspended in a contrasting binder. Typically paints contain calcium carbonate or synthetic rutile with no other pigments if a white color is desired.

While the color of a light source can be reasonably measured by its correlated color temperature, a different approach is required for objects since different samples may appear white without a reference. Thus, assessment of whiteness requires a comparison. The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) prescribes one such method.

In painting, white can be crafted by reflecting ambient light from a white pigment, although the ambient light must be white light, or else the white pigment will appear the color of the light. White when mixed with black produces gray. In watercolor painting, white areas mark the absence of paint on the paper.

In nature

Snow and ice are normally white due to the diffusing structure of transparent water ice crystals. The same is true for many types of clouds where droplets of water diffuse the white light from the Sun. Many mountains with winter or year-round snow cover are named accordingly: Mauna Kea means white mountain in Hawaiian, Mont Blanc means white mountain in French. Changbai Mountains literally meaning 'Perpetually White' Mountains, marks the border between China and Korea and Mount Kilimanjaro's name could originate from Swahili meaning little white hill. The White Sea, an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia is undoubtedly named so due to the icy environment.

Beaches with sand containing high amounts of quartz also appear white, which may explain the number of islands called White Island around the world.

Cultural meaning

White materials show colored stains and dirt very clearly, due to the high contrast. This is the likely reason it is associated with purity and cleanness, and very often within a religious context. In Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian tradition, white is the color of mourning and death.

Symbolic dualism with black

White and black has the biggest visual contrast, this can easily be associated to other opposite concepts such as day and night or good and evil. White often represents purity or innocence in Western Civilization, particularly as white clothing or objects are easy to stain. In most Western countries white is the color worn by brides at weddings. Angels are typically depicted as clothed in white robes. Healing or "good" magic is called White magic. In early film Westerns the stereotypically "good guy" wore a white hat (earning them the name "White Hats") while the "bad guy" wore black (earning them the name "Black Hats"). This has given rise to the use of the names black hat and white hat for people who abuse and counter abuse of computer systems respectively. In popular culture this idea is sometimes reversed to play on reversal of stereotypes.

In taoism which has great influence in Eastern culture Yin and yang is usually depicted in black and white, depicting the two colors as opposites. The two opponents in board games of abstract strategy often has one as white, such as go, chess, and checkers.

Government and politics

White is often associated with Monarchism as opposed to other forms of government. This originated from Royalist rebellions against the French Revolution (see Revolt in the Vendée), known as the White terror. It re-emerged in the years following World War I, with civil wars fought between Reds and Whites, for instance the Civil War in Russia and the Civil War in Finland. A similar use is seen in the naming of the White Revolution (),a far-reaching series of reforms launched in 1963 by the last Shah of Iran. If a strong leader emerges during a time of crisis, he is often referred to as a man on a white horse; this term is often associated with dictatorships.

White is also associated with peace. The white ribbon is worn by movements denouncing violence against women and the White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. This symbolism has long roots as seen by the white dove originating from the story of Noah. A white flag is an international sign of either surrender, or truce, that is, it is a sign of peaceful intent, typically at time of war. To show the white feather is to display cowardice. White is the purest of all colors. In Victorian Britain, a purported coward would be presented with a white feather.

White as symbol of purity is seen in the expression Whitewash, which figuratively, means an attempt to obscure unpleasant facts by issuing a blanket of lies or misrepresentations. See propaganda. A white paper on the other hand will often be a authoritative report on a major issue, as by a team of experts; a government report outlining policy; or a short treatise whose purpose is to educate industry customers. Associating a paper with white may signify clean facts and unbiased information.

Religion

The association of white with purity and peace is used by many religions.

Ihram clothing (also spelt Ahram clothing) includes men's and women's garments worn by Muslim people during the Ihram pilgrimage (Hajj). Men's garments often consist of two white un-hemmed sheets (usually towelling material) and are universal in appearance. The top (the riḍā) is draped over the torso and the bottom (the izār) is secured by a belt; plus a pair of sandals. Women's clothing, however, varies considerably and reflects regional as well as religious influences. Ihram is typically worn during Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month in the Islamic calendar.

Where liturgical robes of priests are often white, for instance the Roman Catholic Pope's cassock is white. White robes (with green aprons ) are worn inside Mormon Temples. Many images dealing with God and heaven portray it as existing in the clouds, where everything is white. This phenomenon is not limited to western culture; in Yoruba religion, the orisha Obatala in the Ifá tradition is represented by white. Obatala is associated with calmness, morality, old age, and purity. Also more recently founded religions incorporate symbolism surrounding white. In Theosophy and similar religions, the deities called the Great White Brotherhood are said to have white auras.

White is the traditional color of bridal dress in both western (European) and Japanese weddings. In Western weddings, a white dress is thought to be symbolic of purity (the bride has not engaged in pre-marital sex). This is also said to be the symbolism of the veil. In Japanese weddings, white is to symbolize the "death" of their former family and their introduction into their new family.

In some Asian cultures, white is considered to be a color that represents death. White also represented death in ancient Egypt, representing the lifeless desert that covered much of the country; black was held to be the color of life, representing the mud-covered fertile lands created by the flooding of the Nile and giving the country its name (Kemet, or "black land").

Clothing

White clothing can be practically used as camouflage in snowy environments, or for reflecting harsh sunlight. However, most uniforms with white elements are used as a sign of authority - dissociating the wearer from manual labour or a dirty environment. In a highly formal social function, the traditional dress for men attending is white tie, or white tie and tails, a white bow tie and a swallowtail coat. Physicians and scientists are known for wearing white coats both as a practical measure as protecting from and showing spills and stains, and as a sort of uniform showing authority.

Many traditional sports use white uniforms for players, such as Wimbledon tennis, cricket, and baseball and basketball, where white is the color typically used for uniforms worn by the home team. This may be a result of the sports being played outside exposing players to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time.

Ethnography

The term white is often used to denote the race of pale-skinned Caucasoids people of European descent perceived as being colored varying tones of pale off white to "white" skin color, whose actual skin color can also vary from pale pink to pale brown; it has been suggested that the colors beige or peach could also be used to represent the average color of most Caucasians. See White people.

Vexillology and heraldry

Vatican City has a flag of yellow and white (although in normal European heraldry one is not supposed to use these two colors together adjacently because both represent metals--yellow represents gold and white represents silver), to deliberately show that the Church is not bound by secular rules. In English heraldry, white or silver signified brightness, purity, virtue, and innocence.

See also

Color realism (art style)

List of colors

Off-white

References

External links

Category:Color Category:Nothing

af:Wit ar:أبيض an:Blanco arc:ܚܘܪܐ ast:Blancu gn:Morotĩ ay:Janq'u az:Ağ bn:সাদা zh-min-nan:Pe̍h-sek ba:Аҡ be:Белы колер bo:དཀར་པོ། bs:Bijela br:Gwyn bg:Бял цвят ca:Blanc ceb:Puti cs:Bílá ch:Á'paka cy:Gwyn da:Hvid pdc:Weiss de:Weiß et:Valge el:Λευκό myv:Ашо es:Blanco (color) eo:Blanko eu:Zuri fa:سفید fr:Blanc fur:Blanc ga:Bán gl:Branco (cor) gan:白 ko:하양 hi:श्वेत hr:Bijela id:Putih is:Hvítur it:Bianco he:לבן jv:Putih ht:Blan ku:Spî (reng) lad:Blanko lbe:КӀяласса la:Albus lv:Baltā krāsa lb:Wäiss lt:Balta ln:Mpɛ́mbɛ́ jbo:blabi hu:Fehér mk:Бела боја ml:വെളുപ്പ് mt:Abjad mr:पांढरा ms:Putih mwl:Branco mdf:Акша nah:Iztāc nl:Wit ne:सेतो ja:白 ce:КIайн no:Hvit nn:Kvit nrm:Blianc oc:Blanc pnb:چٹا pl:Barwa biała pt:Branco ro:Alb qu:Yuraq ru:Белый цвет sa:श्वेत sq:Ngjyra e bardhë simple:White sk:Biela sl:Bela szl:Bjoło farba so:Cad sr:Бело sh:Bijelo su:Bodas fi:Valkoinen sv:Vit ta:வெள்ளை te:తెలుపు th:สีขาว tg:Сафед tr:Beyaz uk:Білий колір ur:سفید za:Hau vi:Trắng fiu-vro:Valgõ zh-classical:白 war:Busag yi:ווייס zh-yue:白色 bat-smg:Balta zh:白色