Terminology is often influenced by culture. Funny how most all sharks have white bellies but the most powerful and dangerous shark - which happens to be grey - is given the name Great "white" shark. The blue shark is called as such because it is blue - Notice it has a white belly. The Brown shark too has a white belly but is brown on top so it's called as such But funny how with the Great "white" Shark is actually grey, but those who named it when out of their way to call it white for its belly - going against the normal standard. In other words, when the scientists determined what was the most feared and dangerous shark in the sea, they broke protocol and refused to call it the Great Grey Shark as they should have. They called it the Great White Shark for pretty obvious reasons. black-sheep, black-ball, black-mail are all negative conitations what is considered the mildest, purest lie - ? a white lie. As much as i can't black lives matter, they are right about one thing when it comes to verbiage - it is very obvious that when it comes to language, there is a bias.
The name "Great White Shark" is not a scientific name. The Scientific name is Carcharodon carcharias. Carcharodon means jagged tooth. carcharias means shark
Not to mention that quite a few species of sharks are gray in color, the gray is actually for countershading purposes. For example the "Gray Reef Shark" or any reef shark or hammerhead, etc.
The term stems from the genetic effect in sheep whereby a recessive gene occasionally manifests in the birth of a sheep with black rather than white coloring; these sheep stand out in the flock and their wool was traditionally considered less valuable. Stems from the term blackballing;a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition. The word is variously derived from the word for tribute (in modern terms, protection racket) paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to Border Reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment. The "mail" part of blackmail derives from Middle English male, "rent, tribute."[9] This tribute was paid in goods or labour (reditus nigri, or "blackmail"); the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi, or "white rent" (denoting payment by silver). This is the same group that believes white-Christmas (snow) and black-Friday (a positive in accounting terms) are racist. Everything is racist if the audience wants it to be. They also seem to be oddly quiet when sports and music come up for discussion - then no racial prejudices exist - it is baised on merit. If they want to see real racism they should visit the continent of their Ancestors where white people are slaughtered simply for being white. I do not defend for an instant how blacks have been treated in the history but this is ridiculous and doing nothing but pouring salt on wounds that were begining to heal.
It just shows how attitude towards white/black have influenced how we name animals. The Great White Shark has a white belly, but so do all sharks. It should have been called the Great Grey Shark - especially since this shark was founded and named well before the Grey Reef Shark.
The Great White has been called this for decades, maybe centuries, long before Political Correctness effected language. as for a "white lie", it means a very small, insignificant lie. As if white people only tell little insignificant lies.
that's my point - the idea of a 'white lie' being insignificant goes back to the idea of minimizing consequence. And who cares that it's been called the Great White for centuries - it still doesn't mean it's a valid name.
People call "white-faced capuchin monkeys" as such and they're white-faced but mostly black. Black mambas are called such, even though they're more gray. I think all that's more on what the animals look like than anything else.
To get into it, the Great White is called so as a nick name (also called the White Shark, or White Pointer) is about the one color of the shark that never changes from shark to shark, its white belly. Their top skin can range from steel gray, to a blue gray, to a darker brownish, and an almost black. So, would you want to call it the Great Gray shark even though some are not gray? How about the multiracial shark? Would that make you happy? I mean, come on now, you're stretching a little bringing a friggen shark into the game.
