REVISION: Sugar Isn't Always Sweet

Pumza Fihlani, BBC News Johannesburg

During the time of widespread European colonization, many English colonists flocked to Barbados. They were attracted to Barbados for two major reasons. The first being that were promised 10 acres of land if they chose to settle there, and the second was that sugar was a present and profitable resource. Thus, they wanted quick, efficient, and cheap labor to maintain their land and endure the strenuous task of increased sugar production. Bringing in enslaved people seemed to be the answer. In fact, the colony in Barbados was the first established English colony that had slavery as a primary source of labor (Scott & Shade 64). This desire to bring in enslaved people and prevent social/financial mobility (keeping them as a cheap, dependable, and renewable work force) led to the English setting up violent and demeaning laws in 1661 (also known as slave codes) dictating the treatment and lifestyle of Black people. They applied to all Black people rather than solely the enslaved to prevent any resistance, for if free Black people were given the chance to live comfortably among the White colonists, they could obtain the opportunity to realize the injustice and fight it. However, since they too were oppressed under these codes, they had no power to fight and no desire (fighting the White men in power could end in enslavement or fatal physical punishment). This effectively instituted a harshly defined biracial society in Barbados. All Black people were affected by the slave codes, while all White people benefitted from the labor, superiority, and power.

            However, the racial situation wasn’t just fueled by capitalism. The idea of Black inferiority was a widely accepted viewpoint that motivated the actions of the White people in power and discouraged poor White people from supporting the mistreated Black population. Even if both poor White people and Black people were being mistreated and manipulated by the White men in power, the belief of Black inferiority separated the two groups from coming together. Europeans held a view that Africans were uncivilized barbarians who carried a curse from God. This common view made the justification of cruel enslavement easier; Black people were savages and should be treated as such. It became a cycle; the White Englishmen viewed Black people as barbarians, treated Black people as such by creating slave codes that, for example, allowed violent treatment from slaveholders and provided food allowances but not clothing allowances, which led to Black people looking and acting uncivilized, which fed the White viewpoint that Black people were barbarians. This continued for generations; White people passed down their way of thinking to their children, and enslaved Africans passed down their lifelong bondage to their children. 

           While the modern-day racial divide may not ensure that Black people are a guaranteed source of cheap labor, race was so prevalent for so long that it’s now engrained in how people see themselves/each other. As Robert Wald Sussman states, “Race is not a part of our biology, but it is definitely a part of our culture. Race and racism are deeply ingrained in our history.” Growing up, I noticed early on that I was Black and my best friend was White so I attributed her different way of life to her race. It took years before I realized that while race and class are often intertwined, White didn’t inherently mean “richer than Black.” People can make these problematic inferences based on race, but race itself isn’t an issue and it isn’t going anywhere. Franchesca Ramsey explains that, “For people of color, who we are has been shaped by the daily experiences of dealing with stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice, and institutional racism…how my parents were treated, how their parents were treated, and so on and so on.” Race will always exist because it existed in the past, giving each racial group its own unique history.

Works Cited:

Edward B. Rugemer. (2013). The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Slave Codes of the Greater Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century. The William and Mary Quarterly, 70(3), 429-458. doi:1. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429 doi:1

Scott, W. R., & Shade, W.G. (2000). Upon these Shores: Themes in the African American Experience, 1600 to the present. New York: Routledge.

Sussman, R. W. (2016). Why Are We Divided by Race When There Is No Such Thing? http://www.newsweek.com/there-no-such-thing-race-283123

Revision: isolated systems

Katherine Taveras

Blog post 1

Isolated systems

                                                 Image by: Lissette Hazoury

While some may say the concept of race is necessary in creating social categories and structures, it is imperative to understand that race is not innate but rather a formulated concept to categorize people into further control. As Audrey and Brian Smedley state, “the term reflected a particular folk way of looking at and interpreting human differences, both physical and cultural” (Smedley 4). However, through colonization this notion soon became a worldwide view: in which people with white skin benefited from exponentially as opposed to those of darker skin.

           

 As one examines the island of Hispaniola and its development since the colonization of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish in 1492. One can determined how the implication of race has created a divided nation. Henry Louis Gates explores this further in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlG4b3LV9o Originally populated by the Arawak’s the island of Hispaniola was foreign to the concept of race. This soon changed when the Spanish saw the monetary potential in the island through gold and other commodities. With high demands and not enough workers, the Spanish sought the acquisition of enslaved Africans through the slave trade. Which resulted in creating a melting pot of people and cultures. However, through the process of racialization the Spanish ensured to not only separate themselves from both the Arawak’s and the Africans but to ensure themselves as the dominant race. Through the notion of superiority and inferiority, imposed by the Spanish is how I believe race came to be in the island of the Hispaniola.

           

Previous academic courses have all shed meaning to the concept of race, which led me to interpret race as the concept of categorizing individuals into groups based on ones heritage. However, early lessons presented in this class have further educated me in understanding race not only as a developed concept but also as a concept that has been imposed on humanity and used as a form of control. Furthermore, how race is used to oppress those who are not members of the superior race, giving rise to the evils of racism.

           

When considering the importance of race and why it persists in Hispaniola it is important to understand the correlation between nation and race. Today we know the island as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. As both countries became colonized by different nations, different ways of life and culture were adapted. Eugenio Matibag states “they are separate and unequal: Haiti has a predominantly black, French Patois- speaking population; the Dominican Republic, a predominantly mestizo or mulatto, Spanish-speaking population” (Matibag 1) while this quote states the factual information of the countries it underlines the root of racism between the countries. Most Dominican people considered themselves mulattos, which is a mix between Europeans and Africans this is often misinterpret as being more “white”. Lissette Hazoury discusses this further in http://www.sobremesamagazine.com/on-the-dominican-racial-crisis/. It is this belief that creates a notion of superiority over Haitian people. Over time this has been the reason for endless massacres and crimes against the Haitian people. Furthermore, Dominicans benefit from oppressing Haitians through abuse of labor and resources.

           

                                              

References:

   Matibag, Eugenio. Haitian-Dominican Counterpoint: Nation, State, and Race on Hispaniola First ed. New York: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2003. Print.  

Smedley, Audrey, and Brian Smedley. Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview. Colorado: Westview press, 2012. Print.

Haiti & the Dominican Republic: An Island divided. Henry L. Gates. PBS, 2011. Film.

Hazoury, Lissete. "To Be Dominican is to Not Be Haitian: Development of Dominican Racial Identity through Antihaitianismo and the Indio Myth." sobremesa magazine 2016. Print.

REVISED: The Power Of Color

Jenelle Halley
    BLST 101

                                    THE POWER OF COLOR

 Racism, tends to focus on the color of your skin and not the contents of who you are. White is pure and black is boisterous, in class we suggested that race was not naturally occurring and came to be over time through the process of racialization. Racism activates from a group of people who categorize Africans that did not view themselves as being a part of one group. In the years of 1680 and 1720 the number of blacks in South Carolina rose from 17 percent to 70 percent. Samuel Dyssli in 1737 said “looks more like a Negro country than a country settled by white people.” (pg84). This to me states your color may out number us but you will never over power us.  Many believe this world was discovered by a “white man” in spite of what others believe Africans make up the evolution of American culture. Elazer Barker stated in the United States: “During this period, race was perceived primarily as a scientific concept, perception which was itself a legacy of the nineteenth century”. (pg.2) Among leading scientific circles in the United States and Britain, race typology as an element of casual cultural explanation became largely discredited , racial differentiation began to be limited to physical characteristics, and prejudicial action based on racial discrimination came to be viewed as racism ( pg.3).

            I have always viewed racism as an ongoing issue that never really ended. Prior to the lessons that were taught in class, it took me by surprise to learn that our own people (Africans) participated in the slave trade. Prior to the lessons we discussed in class, I did not have the knowledge that African Slaves were brought to Barbados and other Caribbean islands. Barbadian slave owners came to consider it their legitimate right and privilege to engage in sexual liaisons with blacks. That has always been an issue to me that one race can envy another race but yet engage in sexual acts. However, I have taken a few Black study classes where the main focus will be whites owning slaves, but they never discussed Africans being involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade. It is interesting to me that the concept of racialization being brought up in in class it now gave me a different lens view of racism.

            Lastly, personally I believe the idea of racism started from Europeans who wanted power of Africans. The power of color distinguishes what race dominated the other. When you think of politics you think of a white person in charge when Obama was elected for president, the black community thought there will be a change. There will always be racism if we as the people do not speak up and stick together as a community. The African American community is infuriated with cops killing us but no one talks about the crime against our own kind. History repeats itself we now have organizations like that represent the black community like:  “Black Lives Matter” “Stay Woke” groups that are fighting to increase injustice within our community. The whites have benefited from racism back then and at this present time, they have the power and are scared of losing it.

 

Academic Sources:

Barkan, E. (1992). The retreat of scientific racism: Changing concepts of race in Britain and the United States between the world wars. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books

 

Scott, W. R., & Shade, W. G. (2000). Upon these shores: themes in the African-American experience, 1600 to the present. Psychology Press. Retrieved: https://books.google.com/books

 Image: https://goo.gl/images/EQaCqm

I found this image interesting, although we elected a Black president Whites are still in control. This image is what we are facing as country "The Power of Color"

External Source:
Video: https://youtu.be/Mp2PzpJm6KE

Short Reading: Morgan, J.L (2004) Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery

REVISION: Racialization: Face Based Race Bait

Mariah Cameron

During class we’ve discussed the formation and naturalization of race ideologies in the United States, and have been able to use a global race order to determine if the US is moving toward or away from an improved racial-condition. Michael Omi and Howard Winant define Racialization as “the extension of racial meaning to a previously racially unclassified relationship, social practice or group.” Essentially, it is the creation of stereotypes, understandings and ideologies applied to a specific racial group. Through migration to the new world (voluntary or forced), every people group existing in the United States has experienced some form of racialization in which the the white elite or the 'researchers' in this experiment, use media propaganda, top-down suspicions, and widespread opinions to create race; whereas the general white population, or the control group, are the standard against which difference is measured (Omi and Winant, 2007).

‘Everything’s in vain with this one!’ Postcard. NL, (1932) Collectienr.

               My interest is in black racialization, and the creation of what it means to be black, and the differences amongst whites and blacks. While these meanings can differ, Romany Malco, does an excellent job of breaking down what blackness has meant on both sides, and invites everyone to add to research explained in this video he created on the racialization of Black people in America. Check it out! 

        Before taking this class, I had the privilege of knowing that ‘race’ and the differences ascribed to them are non-empirical and do not hold ground in reality. But, the material compounds of one’s race have a real and potent effect on the mindset, and activities of that person. Even within one ethnic group, there can be different races or color variations that are seen in a black-white binary throughout the region; see more. 

         During this class I’ve been given an even clearer view of race in the northeastern region of the US. Growing up, the narrative was that slavery existed in the South while abolitionists all resided in the North; that after the civil war every enslaved person was free, and in 100 years blacks would receive equal rights with white people and racism is over! That idealized deduction, made it easier not to delve deeper into race relations in America, until a pivotal moment in American history would change my life and my perspective on ‘race’ forever. 

        When George Zimmerman murdered young Trayvon Martin on February 26th 2012, it surfaced a race conversation that is still 153+ years in the making: has freedom truly come to the black community, or will our existence continue to serve white supremacy? 

         It is due to political programming that the voices of scholars go unnoticed in the creation of race socially. For a wide-spread belief to be maintained, at the expense of millions of people, there must be some understanding amongst those in power that to maintain control, the benefits must be so rewarding that maintenance becomes a default.

Every system of control depends for its survival on the tangible and intangible benefits that are provided to those who are responsible for the system’s maintenance and administration.

-Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

White social beliefs are perpetuated by white folks and black folks. America has entered a ‘post racial’ era whereas one can be phenotypically black, yet they’ve taken on whiteness in some form. ‘Whiteness’ is defined in different ways- it is a performance, that dictates how one thinks and behaves; it can be seen as “a strategic resource ensuring access to more resources”; it is the assumption of owned geographical space (Levine-Rasky, 2016). Whiteness assumes morality, and is absolved of wrongdoing. It has the final say of what is offensive, because only it can be offended. It can still benefit from slavery, and tell blackness (which depends on whiteness for meaning) to get over it. Whiteness has always benefited from dividing racial groups, and always will.

Work Cited

        Alexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press.  Revised Edition. 202

        Levine-Rasky, Cynthia (2016). Whiteness Fractured. Abingdon, Oxon, GB: Routledge. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 3.

        Omi, Michael; Winant, Howard, eds.,(2007) Racial Formation in the United States (Race, Class, and Gender in the United States), Second Edition, Macmillan, pp. 3-13 of 774.

REVISION: The Bittersweet Birth of Beautiful Blackness

Johnathan Thompson

BLST 101

The Bittersweet Birth of Beautiful Blackness

            Rooted in centuries of Africa’s historical erasure by means of the transatlantic slave them to no more than a thing by stripping them of their humanity. Over time, Blackness was praised and accepted by African Americans with the help of legends like James Brown and his classic, I’m Black and I’m Proud. However, overcoming the psychological restraints that enslavement placed on Blacks was no small feat. The first step was adjusting to this emerging principle of racialization.

Photo Source: www.worldfuturefund.org

            The categorization of one person into a distinct and larger group of people with whom they share cultural similarities is racialization. In Barbados, this process began as soon as the colonials justified the exploitation of enslaved African labor. Upon arrival, “Europeans found serious deficiencies in African religion, social customs, dress and political organization,” (Soderlund, pg. 65). This rapid dismissal of African culture placed a stamp of inferiority on everything African. It was not the norm to Europeans and was deemed savage heathenry, this is the type of arrogance that fuels white supremacy. This unfamiliarity with African customs led the Europeans to dismiss the individuality of each enslaved African’s culture, thus grouping all captives into one race, Black.

            The enslaved Africans (now collectively classified as Black) were reduced to mere tools of plantation labor. This implementation of color specific inferiority strengthened the process of racialization by instilling in Blacks a desire to distance themselves from their very own Blackness. It was not hard to see that, “Racial ideologies initially developed on the island, especially the notion that whiteness could provide a crucial source of solidarity,” (Menard, pg. 2). A solidarity that guaranteed safety and social mobility, a guarantee that was not granted to Blacks.

            The only thing that Blacks were guaranteed was a color based sub-ordinance to Whites and a heritable status of servitude as we learned in class, a status of enslavement was heritable and became synonymous with inferior and unintelligent. Whiteness was synonymous with intellectual competence and higher social status. The presumed lower intelligence of Black people would soon justify forced labor, but perhaps one could have hope for this type of reasoning to  change or rectify itself. Seeing as how this was the general thought process back in the mid to late 1600s, when the transatlantic slave trade was thriving in the Caribbean.

            Although the passage of time is possibly the only cure for racial inequality, mechanisms like the IQ test, “were not misused to support hereditary theories of social hierarchies; they were perfected in order to support them,” (Roberts, pg. s51). These tests were performed at the turn of the 19^th century with the intention to equate social status to heritable intelligence of Blacks and Whites. However, the social constructs put in place that limited Black academic preparation and progression were not addressed.

This difference in intelligence is what supported the dehumanization and enslavement of Blacks. I feel that this theme of dehumanization persists today but less blatantly than in the past (in most cases that don’t involve murder). It is likely that race division persist today because it is easier to generalize large groups and make decisions, than it is to apply all that you know to an individual. Assumptions of social behaviors of large groups limits the capabilities of that group if the generalization is negative. Currently, non-white males do not benefit from this division of race because our country was founded by white-males and why would they found a nation on principles that did not presently and continually benefit them?

References

Menard, R. R. (2006). Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 2-2. doi:10.2307/25094621

Roberts, D. (2015). Can Research on the Genetics of Intelligence Be “Socially Neutral”? Hastings Center Report, 45(S1). doi:10.1002/hast.499

Scott, W. R., & Shade, W. G. (Eds.). (2000). Upon These Shores: Themes In The African-American Experience 1600 To The Present (pg.63-64). New York, NY: Routledge

 C. (2007, January 12). James Brown. Say it Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud. Retrieved October 2, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRSAVDlpDI