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. Whiteness was synonymous with intellectual competence and higher social status, while Blackness was associated with the exact opposite. Presumed lower intelligence 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. 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