The persona is the relationship between a person’s consciousness and society, a mask, not the kind of mask that a stage performer might wear on Broadway or in today’s churches. In the 1952 book written by Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks. He takes an in-depth look into blacks’ worldwide and the psychology of inferiority, social structure and Colonialism.
Throughout history blacks has tried to impress whites in many expects of life. On the other hand, Europeans took a primitive group people from an undeveloped continent, to a strange, unusual culture. The effects exploration brought slavery, which created anxiety, greed and inferiority between all ethnic groups. This selfish desire caused a chain reaction from generation to generation.
Low self-esteem is caused in childhood, the separating of mothers from their children. This happened often during slavery and is passed on from generation to generation. These adults suffer from lack of love and commitment. Blacks who suffer from neurosis also tend to have an overwhelming sense of helplessness and a wide range of
The meeting of historical situations and objections surrounding them, as well as the man’s attitude towards these conditions. The white man desire to put an end to the pathology of the conflict is overcompensation, a feeling of dissatisfaction. For the Africans, Arabs and Jews, a different environment caused an inferiority complex throughout the generations from childhood to adulthood. In Monsieur Monnonni’s journal entitled, The Psychology of Colonization, “the central idea is that the confrontation of civilized and primitive men creates a special situation”. The Europeans are the civilized people and the primitive are the kidnapped men and women brought to the civilized countries. This abduction of people caused a traumatic experience that simply declines and weakens the psyche of a human being. Different comics and literature shows how the black man is happier on French and American soil, this propaganda is a brainwashing technique that actually caused destructions among the colonizer and the captured slaves. The exploitation of slaves economically posed a question of wealth, it created a huge gap between the rich and the poor, causing the misery black man. The Jewish people who were the persecuted for being part of the elite race in Germany are often victimized today like African Americans today throughout the world. Jews the same as Africans are treated inferior
A persona is a mask shown to the outside world developed in relation to consciousness, to hide the darkest aspects of a psyche, known as a shadow, behind it. Shadows contrast personas by holding undesirable and unwanted memories and behaviors, but the dark side of an individual must be accepted for the individual to fully understand oneself. In the coming of age novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, narrator Gene Forrester returns to New Hampshire to visit Devon School, where he studied fifteen years ago just as World War II had begun to unfold. The narrative shifts back fifteen years ago to Gene’s days at Devon School with his best friend, Phineas, also known as Finny, as he recalls memorable events from his past. Gene’s persona and shadow
This paper discusses black psychology and offers insights on black identity. It explains the need to lean towards the black radical school of thought as opposed to the traditional school of thought. Furthermore, this paper will explain the connection between the history of black psychology and black identity.
During the late 19th century and the early 20th century many of the European nations began their scramble for Africa which caused Many Africans to suffer from violence like wars, slavery and inequality. Although the Europeans felt power as though they were doing a great cause in the African continent during the Scramble for Africa; Africans had many reactions and actions including factors as rebellion for freedom, against the white settlers and violent resistance.
Slavery is a sensitive topic that most would say evil and bad. Martin states that “some African-Americans claimed that Jews were the dominant figures in the trading of black slaves. (Martin 1993). Research by Mintz and McNeil support that “After making contact with the West Africans, the Portuguese est...
Blacks were treated unjustly due to the Jim Crow laws and the racial stigmas embedded into American society. Under these laws, whites and colored people were “separate but equal,” however this could not be further from the truth. Due to the extreme racism in the United States during this time period, especially in the South, many blacks were dehumanized by whites to ensure that they remained inferior to them. As a result of their suffering from the prejudice society of America, there was a national outcry to better the lives of colored people.
Laws dealing with the intermixing of races and separate treatment also created a second class or lower standing of the African. Jordan sites several laws and examples of whites involving themselves sexually with blacks being punished in different ways. One such example includes that of a man and his black mistress who were forced stand clad in front of a congregation. Also free Africans did not receive the liberties others enjoyed, they were prohibited the right to bear arms. This inequality serves as a notice of how ingrained the degradation blacks have induced and to the lengths whites have gone to ensure they remain a lower or sub class.
The institution of slavery affected both blacks as well as whites. The white and black children could not understand why they could not be friends with each other. Douglass spoke well of the white boys that he became acquainted with because they were not as knowledgeable as the adults so he was able to create a relationship with them. No one is born prejudiced. A person must be taught those ways, so Do...
The black man is hence for white culture the “the burden of original sin” (Fanon 168). Racism in this way is essentially a kind of defense reaction, which, in a way, explains why racism so powerfully enforces and reaffirms relations of separation and distance – the white man wants as much distance
After a journey into the dark history of Europe and Africa with Sven Lindqvist, I found myself shocked. It’s earth shattering. Ideas and historical events are presented through a journal/proposal of his unique view on racism. Lindqvist raises questions as to where racism was spurred and why what happened in late 1800’s and early 1900’s lead to the holocaust. Including religion, personal human values, advanced warfare and even societies’ impact as a whole. His travels through the Sahara and Africa in the early chapters show a more current day view of society over seas. The description of the desolate continent and harsh conditions paints a picture of what previous civilization lived through. He explains that part of the reason he has traveled to the desert is to feel the space all around him, a definite emptiness if you will. As his travels progress he introduces his own family life that pertains to the human emotion, which is also a big focus point in this book. Childhood beatings over taking the lord’s name in vain, dropped calls from his daughter that leave him torn and sad. He does an excellent job on taking the reader on a personal journey with him through his current day traveling and even his early life. Linking these personal experiences and tying in histories misconceptions of “right and wrong” is what makes this book so valuable. Lindqvist gives a relevant and educated answer to the question of how racism became such a terrible tribulation in all parts of the world.
...n and separation among each group. The Europeans were the ones who started the race controversy due to their greed for power and expansion. Because of their encounter with the Native Americans, the Native American lifestyle eventually altered such as trading their fur for firearms and acclimatizing to a new culture. Even though they seemed to respect the Europeans at first, they later saw the Europeans as ruthless. Besides Native Americans, the European powers also profoundly obstructed the Native Americans by capturing them for labor along with treating them as non-human beings. Due to European powers, both the Native Americans and Africans lost sight of themselves. Since both groups lost sight of themselves, they were stereotyped in many negative ways that affected them in a long run. In other words, race is a social construction built on the progress of society.
In conclusion, racism is a recently developed term, whereas slavery has been part of the history for hundreds of years. Europeans weren’t chosen as slaves not because of their race, but because they were in short supply and were less immune to native diseases. On the other hand, African slavery was the outcome of different economic factors, followed by series of historical events. Europeans opportunists and entrepreneurs saw “Africans” as the key to generate surplus wealth, and to establish modern capitalism. On top of that, historical events such as Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Bacon Rebellion also strengthened the position of Africans as potential slaves. In short, conditions developed from gradual technological, historical, and economic change in Africa, New World, and Great Britain led to the institution of African slavery.
The idea of superiority and inferiority of entire groups were largely the result of the encounters between the Europeans and the indigenous native peoples of the Americas. Christopher Columbus was one of the first individuals who played a chief role in the birth of both racism and slavery. Upon the so-called "discovery" of America, European self-consciousness rose to the point that Europeans began to notice the similarities between each other. "There were no 'white' people in Europe before 1492" (Loewen, 66). But after the beginning of transatlantic slave trade, Europeans began to "see 'white' ...
However, back in Dunbar's time, slavery prohibited black people from being ordinary members of society. Although they prayed heavily and persevered, they wore the mask for the time being, in the hopes of living in a world where the color of one's skin would not determine their character. No changes needed as this is a Works Cited section and should not be edited.
associated blackness as a curse by god that justifies their lifetime servitude. The black Africans
While the economic and political damage of the scramble for Africa crippled the continent’s social structure, the mental warfare and system of hierarchy instituted by the Europeans, made the continent more susceptible to division and conquest. The scramble for partition commenced a psychological warfare, as many Africans were now thrust between the cultural barriers of two identities. As a result, institutions for racial inferiority became rooted in the cultural identity of the continent. This paper will expound on the impact of colonialism on the mental psyche of Africans and the employment of the mind as a means to seize control. I will outline how the mental hierarchy inculcated by the Europeans paved the way for their “divide and conquer” tactic, a tool essential for European success. Through evidence from a primary source by Edgar Canisius and the novel, King Leopold’s Ghost, I will show how colonial influences heightened the victimization of Africans through psychological means. I will culminate by showing how Robert Collins fails to provide a holistic account of colonialism, due to his inability to factor in the use of psychological warfare as a means to the end. By dissecting the minds of both the colonizer and the colonized, I hope to illustrate the susceptibility of African minds to European influences and how psychological warfare transformed Africans from survivors to victims during colonialism.