blue, adj.⁶ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

blue adj.⁶

[blueskin n. (2) + see combs. below for earlier uses]

black, as in skin colour.

1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 163: Billy Blue; so called, I suppose, because he was a very black black.
1926		Elman & Handy ‘Blue Gummed Blues’ 🎵 He’s an eight rock, an’ I’d shock my people if they knew That my man’s gums are blue.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 157: I’m too blue for that pink-chaser.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 70: Blue Baby stuck in his oar and said: ‘He ain’t so ugly.’.
1941		C.S. Johnson Growing Up in the Black Belt 173: ‘How come you call him “blue child,”’ asks a big fellow [...] Another replies, ‘Man, can’t you see he’s so black that when he’s wet with water he looks blue?’.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 29: Boy, you so black, you blue.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 155: Across the mess hall we can see the blue Quentin population [...] The blacks were segregated in the mess hall.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 74: Blue is still widely used among Negroes in the meaning ‘extremely dark’.

blue-black (adj.)

(US black) of skin colour, so dark it seems to have tints of blue.

1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 47: One iron-heavy, blue-black lad [...] carried his arm in a sling.
1929		(con. WWI) H. Odum Wings on My Feet 281: Some big black boys look like blue black, some brown like copper statue.

blue boy (n.)

see separate entry.

blueskin (n.)

see separate entry.

one of the blue squadron (n.) [blueskin n. (2a)]

a person of mixed race.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: One of the blue Squadron, any person having a Cross of the black breed. an East indian term.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: One of the blue squadron; any one having a cross of the black breed, or, as it is termed, a lick of the tar brush.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.