What Is Metaphysical Imperialism?

1028 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Media's impact on racism

Religious Community I remember clearly seeing my first picture of a lynching and a burnt body contorted into a sculpture of twisted pain, Emmett tills swollen body reminding me of the fragility of human life and the hatred that could fall on me for simply being the wrong color at the wrong place.
These ghosts and the pain they possessed served as a warning that I was to function as a militant black male and continue the work of Malcolm X and lead my race into enlightenment.
I was raised Christian my religion is based on the new testament of the bible and embodies the teachings and life of Jesus Christ in my Belief God is a trinity encompassing God, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because of Adam and Eves disobedience man introduced sin into …show more content…

The church brought American media on trail and in doing so made me aware of how even at a young age we are programmed to believe that black is bad and white is good. Author Jared Diamond referred to this dichotomy as Metaphysical imperialism and explains its theory in his book called Guns, Germs, and Steel. The theory reveals how in its essence metaphysical imperialism is psychological in nature and its ideals are perpetuated by using the media, and sustained by promoting stereotypes. These stereotypes create self-hatred. Stokely Carmichael illustrates a great example of the mechanics behind how mind-altering this oppression can be. Carmichael was a Trinidadian-American black activist. Carmichael gained notoriety and distinction being involved in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement and Black Power movements. He uses a memory of watching Tarzan in his youth to illustrate one of the ways African American’s are trained to hate their selves. He recalls seeing Tarzan movies on Saturday where the white alpha male Tarzan would beat up the African natives. In retrospect he remembers cheering Tarzan on and instructing him to kill these African beast, “kill the savages”, what he realizes now is that he was actually telling Tarzan to kill him. He uses the analogy of a Jewish boy cheering on the Nazis as they took Jews to the ovens. (Hallman, M. 1998) He used this imagery to exemplify the self-hatred that the media instills in us on a psychological level. Carmichael says that even if these cleverly placed mind controlling, media tactics where to cease, “it takes time to reject the most important lie: that black people inherently cant do the same thing white people do, unless white people help them. (Hallman, M.

Show More
Related

  • The Whining Nigger and Benjamin Banneker

    1351 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is theorized that the phrase “angry Black man” is a social construct created during America’s Colonial period. It was supposedly used to negatively describe an African-American men who spoke out against what they considered to be an incongruous and xenophobic society and more specifically the institution of slavery. The phrase’s essence had been intentionally misconstrued. The three words together were said to have been used by whites as a dismissive tool; a method of sabotaging the validity of an outspoken Black man’s claims of an unjust and oppressive system. This was done in an effort to detract from the legitimacy of the outraged Black man’s cries of injustice. Purportedly, Abolitionist and Black male orators of the time were becoming increasingly persuasive in their arguments and it was feared that their message would garner support. With this in mind, white supremacists took it upon themselves to attach a contemptuous label to those Black men that dared speak up. The word “angry,” was likely chosen because it typically evokes negative perceptions. This would have been a major factor in the promotion of the trivialization process and also the attaching of the conspiracy theorist stigma. Not only was this a manner of dismissing the Black man’s claims but it also helped to dehumanize him as well.

    Read More

  • Why Was Emmett Till Murder

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    “[Emmett Till's murder was] one of the most brutal and inhuman crimes of the 20th century,” according to Martin Luther King Jr. On August 28, 1955 in Money, Mississippi, a 14 year old boy named Emmett Till from Chicago was beaten and mercilessly murdered by two white men for flirting with a white woman. The death of this unknowing child shocked the nation and was undeniably an important catalyst for the civil rights movement.

    Read More

  • Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's Monster Culture

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    People in America are not all seen as equal, and this is especially true when it comes to people of color. According to “Theories and Constructs of Race” by Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe: “The continuous racial targeting of people of color and the privileging of whites, along with the misinformation about race passed along from one generation to the next and reinforced through the media, has imbued people of all races with a distorted sense of personal and group identity” (Holtzman and Sharpe 604). This quote means that people of color are often targeted in a negative way, which shows that racism and discrimination is something that can be passed down or learned from the media. Today, there are people who still think minorities are inferior based on the color of their skin. “Theories and Constructs of Race” also mentions how from an early age, minorities become the target for racism, blame, and overall hatred. According to “Theories and Constructs of Race” by Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe: “The myth of racial inferiority and superiority has been upheld not only by physical violence and discriminatory policies but also by the psychological violence conveyed through stereotyping and racist messaging” (Holtzman and Sharpe 604). This quote means that minorities are constantly targeted both physically and psychologically, which shows that inequality is a “monster” due to the damage it causes to individuals on multiple levels. Racism can also lead to internalized racism, which causes individuals to adapt a self-deprecating attitude and engage in self-destructive behavior. Furthermore, hate, racism, and discrimination often result from people not understanding that not everyone is offered the same opportunities due to the lack of

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Audre Lorde And Brent Staples

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Negrogroland: A Memoir By Margo Jefferson

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    Based on the title of the book alone, it is easy to say that racism is one of the many social issues this book will address. Unlike the normal racism of Caucasians versus African Americans, this book focuses on racism of the black elite versus African Americans, also known as colorism. Colorism is the discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically by others of the same racial group. Margo Jefferson says, “Negroland is my name for a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty” (p. 1).

    Read More

  • Black Power as Interpreted by Stokely Carmichael

    1714 Words  | 4 Pages

    Black Power, the seemingly omnipresent term that is ever-so-often referenced when one deals with the topic of Black equality in the U.S. While progress, or at least the illusion of progress, has occurred over the past century, many of the issues that continue to plague the Black (as well as other minority) communities have yet to be truly addressed. The dark cloud of rampant individual racism may have passed from a general perspective, but many sociologists, including Stokely Carmichael; the author of “Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America”, have and continue to argue that the oppressive hand of “institutional racism” still holds down the Black community from making any true progress.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Hunger In Richard Wright's Black Boy

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the autobiography Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright’s defining aspect is his hunger for equality between whites and blacks in the Jim Crow South. Wright recounts his life from a young boy in the repugnant south to an adult in the north. In the book, Wright’s interpretation of hunger goes beyond the literal denotation. Thus, Wright possesses an insatiable hunger for knowledge, acceptance, and understanding. Wright’s encounters with racial discrimination exhibit the depths of misunderstanding fostered by an imbalance of power.

    Read More

  • John F. Kennedy and the Civil Rights Movement

    2936 Words  | 6 Pages

    ---. “White Man’s Guilt.” 1995 James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 722-727.

    Read More

  • Everybody Hates Chris

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    The assumption that black people have lesser moral values and have a greater inclination towards violence is not new. According to Herman Gray, “Blackness was constructed along a continuum ranging from menace on one end to immortality on the other, with irresponsibility located somewhere in the middle.” (Gray) T...

    Read More

  • Development Of Malcolm X Essay

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper will discuss the different stages of thought processes the former Nation of Islam minister, Malcolm X went through during his lifetime in terms of how he viewed white people, but more specifically “the white man” in America. The reason the focus is on White Americans is because these were the people outside of the Nation of Islam that shaped his life good or bad and put him on the path where he eventually transformed from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X who was one of the most polarizing and controversial figures during his lifetime and even nearly 50 years after his death the name Malcolm X causes certain people to shudder. Malcolm X became a well-known figure during the 50’s and 60’s during the civil rights movement which involved figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. This was a pivotal era in American history because for the first time that there was major push towards full rights for African Americans. When Malcolm X came on the scene he put fear into White people because they weren’t used to hearing the truth about race relations in America and many of them felt that things were just fine because they themselves were living life high on the hog while at the same time exploiting Blacks. Because this type of talk from a black person was new to them they misinterpreted his views as “hate speech” and accused him of trying to incite violence when he was simply trying wake his people up to properly deal with what was happening to them.

    Read More

  • The White Savior Complex, Neo-Racism, White-Washing, and Hollywood

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    The White Savior Complex is a damaging subconscious underlay of the Hollywood system, and more broadly all of western society. It is used to further separate the notions of “us” and “other” by creating a firm separation fueled by self-righteousness, and a sense of entitlement. Hollywood attempts to address race relations, but fails because of this trope. Kingsle, from the article “Does My Hero Look White In This?” described that both racism and colonialism are acknowledged, but not without reassuring that not only were white people against the system of racist power dynamics, but also were actively fighting against it in leadership roles (2013). In the remainder of my essay I will be commenting on many modern films and their use on this trope, and why subscribing to this filmmaking strategy is problematic.

    Read More

  • Ethnic Studies

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    The structure of a society is based on the concept of superiority and power which both “allocates resources and creates boundaries” between factors such as class, race, and gender (Mendes, Lecture, 09/28/11). This social structure can be seen in Andrea Smith’s framework of the “Three Pillars of White Supremacy.” The first pillar of white supremacy is the logic of slavery and capitalism. In a capitalist system of slavery, “one’s own person becomes a commodity that one must sell in the labor market while the profits of one’s work are taken by someone else” (Smith 67). From this idea of viewing slavery as a means of capitalism, Blacks were subjected to the bottom of a racial hierarchy and were treated nothing more than a property and commodity that is used for someone else’s benefit. The second pillar involves the logic of genocide and colonialism. With genocide, “Non-Native peoples th...

    Read More

  • Blacks and the Media

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Marrow of Tradition, author Charles W. Chesnutt illustrates examples that signify the thoughts that whites had of and used against blacks, which are still very much prevalent in public opinion and contemporary media. Chesnutt writes, “Confine the negro to that inferior condition for which nature had evidently designed for him (Chesnutt, 533).” Although significant strides have been made toward equality, the media, in many instances, continues to project blacks as inferior to whites through examples observed in television shows, music videos, films and newscasts.

    Read More

  • The Persecution Of African Americans

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    “You are a nothing little nigger” is one of the demeaning phrases African American human beings have heard over the years in an effort to keep them in a state of persecution. This paper will discuss the persecution of the African American. The following documents the struggles, gut wrenching pain, and heart ache of African American people have endured and are still suffering with today.

    Read More

  • Christian Picciolini's White American Youth

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Christian’s values were threatened when three black kids from the other side of Blue Island beat him up and stole his bike. Christian was enraged that “someone could come into my neighborhood and take what belonged to me”. (Picciolini, 2017 page 34), he states “ I got a black eye for it, but my pride was hurt more than anything” (Picciolini, 2017) . Without full realization Christian was subconsciously developing the racial stigma for non white individuals. He began to learn already that the influence violence had over people would make him notorious in his

    Read More

More about What Is Metaphysical Imperialism?

Open Document