color line

[ kuhl-er lahyn ]

noun

1. Also called col·or bar [kuhl, -er bahr]. social or political restriction or distinction based on differences of skin pigmentation, as between white and Black people.

Word History and Origins

Origin of color line¹

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. draw the color line, to observe a color line.

Example Sentences

The color line runs straight through every aspect of American society.

From Salon

This absence of memory is especially true for White America and its understanding, or lack thereof, of the realities of the color line and its impact on America’s past and present.

From Salon

In that way, the psychological wages of whiteness have been toxic on both sides of the color line.

From Salon

Their journeys attuned these three orchestra leaders to the subtleties and unsubtleties of America’s color lines.

From Los Angeles Times

"The terror of gun violence is also the terror of the color line."

From Salon