How Language Became One of the Oldest Tool of Social Engineering

Long before social media popularized the term "social engineering," humanity had already mastered it through a much older, subtler tool: language. Words have always been more than just a way to communicate. They have been used to create hierarchies, to separate races, to tell people who is strong and who is weak, who belongs on top and who must remain below.

Colonizers understood this well. Unlike many conquerors in history who simply plundered and moved on, European colonizers carried their languages across continents and planted them deep into the societies they subdued. With those languages came an entire worldview, one where white was pure, strong, and civilized, while black was dangerous, inferior, and backward. Over centuries, this was not just propaganda, it became social truth. And tragically, even those who were oppressed began to accept and use the very words that devalued them.

Look closely at the language we use every day. The negative weight carried by words linked with "black" is overwhelming: blacklist, blackmail, black market, black magic, black death. A blackout means loss, a black sheep is an outcast, a black eye is shame. To blackball someone is to exclude them, to call someone blackhearted is to call them wicked. Even without thinking, people repeat these associations daily, reinforcing the idea that black is bad.

Now contrast that with "white." White knight is the saviour. A white lie is harmless. White-collar work is prestigious. A white flag signals peace. White paper is authority. White magic is benevolent. And perhaps most symbolic of all, the white wedding celebrates purity, joy, and social acceptance, while death is marked by the black dress, signalling sorrow, fear, and finality. Even life’s most defining moments are colour coded into this hierarchy. Angels wear white. The seat of American power is called the White House. These are not coincidences. They are deliberate cultural codes built into language to shape how people see the world.

This black versus white dichotomy did not stop at words, it seeped into art, literature, religion, and storytelling. Light was cast as divine, darkness as evil. Even in children’s fairy tales, villains are draped in black, while heroes shine in white. Hollywood followed suit. Think of Tarzan, the white man hailed as king of the African jungle, standing as proof of supposed white superiority on African soil. These are not innocent stories, they are part of a deep, long-running project of social conditioning.

What makes this more insidious is how these coded words survive time. People who were once colonized now use the same terms without question, often against themselves. It is language doing exactly what colonizers designed it to do, enforce control long after the guns and ships are gone.

Language has been humanity’s most enduring soft power. It has justified domination, normalized inequality, and kept entire populations in mental submission. But it can also be the tool to undo this legacy, if we become conscious of it. Choosing words differently, teaching children alternative narratives, writing stories that do not default to white as good and black as bad, these steps matter.

Because at the heart of it, language is not neutral. It has always been an instrument of power. And if it has been used for centuries to divide and control, it can just as well be reclaimed to heal and equalize. The colours we attach to words do not have to dictate the worth of people.

That choice is still ours.