The "Five Black Categories" referred to the following five political identities:

During the period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76) in the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong ordained that people in these groups should be considered enemies of the Revolution. Conversely, Mao categorized groups of people, such as members of the Chinese Communist Party, poor farmers and low class workers, as Five Red Categories. This new Red/Black class distinction was used to create a status society.

Mao also added reactionary academics to the list of people who should be treated with suspicion. This empowered the students and essentially made the teachers in China a target of those they were meant to instruct. No criteria were established for what kind of behavior should be considered suspect, making it entirely too easy to abuse the intentions behind the movement.