Question

Is black an actual color, or just the absence of it? What is true black? What are our eyes seeing when we see "black"?

Answer 1

See below

Explanation:

I'd say black is the absence of a color, true black as seen by our eyes would be the color of the object that absorbs all light. Our eyes can also see the colors that are reflected.

The absorption spectra for an element essentially has distinct black lines to indicate the energy is being absorbed by the element, which is basically absorbing the light (photon) to excite certain electrons from ground state.