looks like the symbol might be Turkish in origin and *ward off* the evil eye... “A typical nazar is made of handmade glass featuring concentric circles or teardrop shapes in dark blue, white, light blue and black, occasionally with a yellow/gold edge”
Ohhhh I seee the mixup. From what I’ve known, people refer to them casually as an “evil eye”. For example, if I go to a store and ask for an evil eye bracelet, this is what they would show me. Though, I believe most people understand that it *wards off* the actual evil eye. 1/2
I initially thought you were making some sort of obscure reference to the Toni Morrison book but couldn’t make sense of it. I’ve never seen that iconic image before.
To confuse you further, the Hindi version of the idiom, derived from the Persian, *does* have explicit colorist connotations. Trucks will often sport the bumper sticker slogan “buri nazar wale, tera muh kala” (“caster of evil eye, may your face turn dark”)