08 Dec 12 4:22 pm
The way I understand it is that Black Hat seo refered to someone who used miss-direction and underhanded tricks (like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a traditional Black Hat) to make the S.E.'s see a website as being more important and relevant to a keyword phrase.
As Mary said, the term White Hat is slang refering to "the good guy" who always wears white and follows good and honest seo practices instead of trying to cheat the system.
Thats the way I heard it anyway.
Never Give Up!!!