Editing Black (section)

==== Fascism ====
The [[Blackshirts]] ({{langx|it|camicie nere, 'CCNN}}) were [[Italian Fascism|Fascist]] [[paramilitary]] groups in [[History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars|Italy]] during the period immediately following [[World War I]] and until the end of [[World War II]]. The Blackshirts were officially known as the Voluntary Militia for National Security (''Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale'', or MVSN).

Inspired by the black uniforms of the [[Arditi]], Italy's elite storm troops of World War I, the Fascist Blackshirts were organized by [[Benito Mussolini]] as the military tool of his political movement.<ref name="Bosworth">Bosworth, R. J. B, ''Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915–1945'', Penguin Books, 2005, p. 117.</ref> They used violence and intimidation against Mussolini's opponents. The emblem of the Italian fascists was a black flag with [[fasces]], an axe in a bundle of sticks, an ancient Roman symbol of authority. Mussolini came to power in 1922 through his [[March on Rome]] with the blackshirts.

Black was also adopted by [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazis]] in Germany. Red, white and black were the colors of the flag of the German Empire from 1870 to 1918. In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', Hitler explained that they were "revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past." Hitler also wrote that "the new flag&nbsp;... should prove effective as a large poster" because "in hundreds of thousands of cases a really striking emblem may be the first cause of awakening interest in a movement." The black [[swastika]] was meant to symbolize the [[Aryan]] race, which, according to the Nazis, "was always anti-Semitic and will always be anti-Semitic."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/pimpfhitler.htm |title=Nazi propaganda pamphlet "The Life of the Führer" |publisher=Calvin.edu |access-date=8 September 2012 |archive-date=7 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007075549/http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/pimpfhitler.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Several designs by a number of different authors were considered, but the one adopted in the end was Hitler's personal design.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mein Kampf, volume 2, chapter VII |last=Hitler |first=Adolf |author-link=Adolf Hitler |year=1926}}</ref> Black became the color of the uniform of the [[SS]], the ''Schutzstaffel'' or "defense corps", the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, and was worn by SS officers from 1932 until the end of World War II.

The Nazis used a [[black triangle (badge)|black triangle]] to symbolize anti-social elements. The symbol originates from [[Nazi concentration camp]]s, where every prisoner had to wear one of the [[Nazi concentration camp badges]] on their jacket, the color of which categorized them according to "their kind". Many Black Triangle prisoners were either mentally disabled or mentally ill. The homeless were also included, as were alcoholics, the [[Romani people]], the habitually "work-shy", prostitutes, draft dodgers and pacifists.<ref>[http://www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/documentary/hadamar/asocials.html The unsettled, "asocials", alcoholics and prostitutes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108073349/http://chgs.umn.edu/histories/documentary/hadamar/asocials.html |date=8 November 2016 }}. Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies. [[University of Minnesota]]. Retrieved 14 September 2012.</ref> More recently the black triangle has been adopted as a symbol in [[lesbian culture]] and by disabled activists.

Black shirts were also worn by the [[British Union of Fascists]] before World War II, and members of fascist movements in the Netherlands.<ref>Eva Heller (2000) ''Psychologie de la Couleur – effets et symboliques'', p. 123.</ref>