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BORN EQUAL

The Story of Black Stereotypes

 

By

Charles Mwewa

 

††

 

The other day my daughter came from daycare and asked me, “Am I black, dad?” She was just four at the time. Suddenly there was a squeeze in my soul and I could hear myself squirming, “No, not again.” Then, as though in self-denial she defended, “I am not black, I am brown. Megan says she is white; but she is only pink.”  I wanted to begin by explaining the history of race, but how could I do so to a four year old, poor and innocent girl? I simply nodded, “Yes, you’re right. You’re not black; you’re brown, and Megan is pink, not white.”

 

That seemed to have simmered the discussion a bit. But in my heart, I knew the sleeping lion was awaking and it needed to be fed before it caused havoc. This article is written in dedication to the generation of young black Africans, African-Americans and Africans born in Europe and America, like my daughter. My wish is that they will grow up to understand and overcome once and for all the challenge of growing up in a world mired in a bitter history of racism, xenophobia and stereotyping.

 

American Declaration of Independence

 

The American Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 by the U.S president Thomas Jefferson states:

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

It would take over 50 years for slavery to be abolished in Europe and America after this declaration. Even then not all slaves would be free. In England the Slavery Abolition Act was enacted in1833 abolishing slavery throughout the majority of the British Empire. But there were exceptions. The territories in the possession of the East Indian Company - the islands of Ceylon and Saint Helena – were not included.

 

Britain had made efforts to outlaw slavery and slave trade. The Slave Trade Act of 1804 prescribed penalties of as much as 100 Pounds per slave to be levied on British captains found importing slaves. But this did not deter slave trade, and most slave traders even became more brutal. Instead of risking their investments, they began to throw slaves into the sea when their ships were in danger of capture. But further measures were necessary. The Portuguese continued to carry on the trade to a greater extent than ever; and some British subjects went under cover as partners in slave trade.

 

In order to make slavery illegal in England as early as 1823 an Anti-Slavery Society was founded. Members included, but not limited to, Thomas Clarkson, Henry Brougham, William Wilberforce, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease and Anne Knight. It was mainly due to the effort of these noble men and women that ten years later, in 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act, slavery was officially abolished in the British Empire on August 1, 1834. Slaves who were older than six years were not freed but were designated as apprentices. They would continue to serve their former owners for a period of time after the abolition of slavery.

 

Letter or the Spirit

 

American founders pinned together what has come to be celebrated as the best construction of the English language. The form of the American Declaration of Independence is beautiful. But did the substance always corroborate with the letter? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” begins the Declaration. But even with such beautiful word sounds, American slave owners continued to own and use slaves as commodities, not as humans. This is what breaks my heart. Even when we have constitutions, Bill of Rights and Charters of Rights and Freedoms, the spirit is usually subjugated.

 

Legal minds have always known that humans are not capable of following the law to the letter. To curb lawlessness they introduced law enforcement. Enforcing the law means making sure that offenders are punished for breaking the law. A declaration is therefore one thing, and the reality, usually imbued in people’s minds, is another. People are smart. They know that all humans are created equal. That is why the American fathers wrote the Declaration document.

 

However, to know the truth and to accept it are two different things. Even today, there are still people who believe that some races are more superior to others. Adolf Hitler envisioned of a superior Aryan's Race. The gunning down to death of Stephen Tyrone Jones, a black American guard, at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on June 10, 2009 by James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist and holocaust denier, is a testament to the prevalence of such supremacist thinking. And yet, there is evidence today that the modern generation is dealing exceptionally well with the issue of racism – recognizing that what differentiates them is far less in significance to what is common to them.

 

Stereotypes are in the Mind

 

Stereotypes simplify logic and are based on a subjective consideration of one group of people by another as having certain characteristics distinguishable from others. Stereotypes almost always connote negativity by trying to downgrade a group of people in order to establish a false impression that another, unlabelled group, is far superior to the labelled group. In many societies stereotypes are associated with the Civil Rights movement and are always imbued with a semblance of racial contextualization.

 

Stereotypes are powerful. They have led to all kinds of actions and reactions, to pain and argon, and to crimes and death. They eventually form the foundation for prejudice, discrimination and inequality. (Stereotypes and prejudices are different. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups, based on some prior assumptions. Stereotypes are created based on some idea of abstract familiarity. Prejudices, on the other hand, are more specific. They are predispositions to differential behaviour patterns. In this article the terms stereotype and prejudice may, however, be used interchangeably).

 

Stereotypes are based on several grounds, including race, gender, religion, age, ethnicity, socio-economic class, disability, and occupation. A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image based on the belief that there are attitudes, appearances, or behaviours shared by all members of a group. Stereotypes are forms of social consensus rather than individual judgment. There is always a false association involved as far as stereotypes are concerned. Two variables may be correlated simply based on cultural attitude, group solidarity or social consensus.

 

Stereotypes hold firm in people’s minds and are almost inescapable. In any society you may belong, there are groups. Some groups are thought to be the in-thing, superior and dominating. Other groups may be thought of as the out-thing, inferior and less important. Members of the in-groups think that the other group or groups lack certain traits and characteristics that make them truly human or competent. And this is usually the basis for discrimination and unequal treatment.

 

The way people think about other group or groups is vital. It can form a subconscious reaction whereby one simply believes and behaves towards the other group or groups he or she considers inferior subliminally. What people are usually conscious about will someday develop into subconscious stereotypes. So if people are overtly conscious about skin colour, they may end up developing subconscious stereotypes about it without even knowing that.

 

Complexity in Diversity

 

Human beings are complex, and a single way of describing all of their characteristics is not easy. Stereotyping is the shortest cut to describing people. Does it mean that stereotypes are true? Of course they are not, but they are effective, if not even desirable to some people. It seems that categorizing people in groups serves time and helps to predict the social world. The single most important reason people like to stereotype is that it makes them feel good about themselves. It sort of, enhances their own self-esteem by designating their own group as the standard while assigning others to groups considered inferior, lower, substandard, poor or abnormal.

 

Children automatically inherit the views of their parents. When they ask their parents why such and such a person is not as they are or why such a person does not subscribe to a particular common characteristic prevalent in their group, these parents usually respond by negating the other group or groups. As these children grow up, they tend to believe their parents stories. It becomes even difficult to erase these stereotypes when these children observe some behaviour in those groups that seem to reinforce their parents’ beliefs. Once a stereotype is learned, it often becomes self-perpetuating, sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

 

Human beings are hard at conceiving unfamiliar situations. Children who grow up in large cities with diversity in backgrounds and race, usually tend to be more moderate and liberal in their thinking. They become familiar with their environment and they learn early to respect and appreciate other people and groups. Contrast this with people who come from arrangements where they are not able to mingle with diverse groups. These may perpetuate their stereotypes even into adulthood. Because they are unfamiliar with certain situations, they tend to lamp together unfamiliar situations or unknown people.

 

Facts about Stereotypes

 

First, stereotypes are not accurate representations of groups. In fact, they are not even true representation of the people. People by nature have enormous differences even within their own groups. While it may seem logical to think that two people of Indian origin are similar, they may come from different castes and may be more different from each other than two people of Indian origin living in downtown New York, for example.

 

Similarly, when you meet ten Africans in Toronto, chances are they are so diverse that they know nothing or little about each other. An African student and white counterpart may know each other even more closely than two Africans from the same continent.

 

Secondly, stereotypes arise as a means of explaining and justifying differences between groups. People always look for a theory to explain what they do not know or understand. Through stereotypes they find an easy way of justifying their theories. Once certain aspect of their thinking materializes in the other group, they tend to magnify them, and through the media or peer arrangements, they even continue them.

 

Thirdly, social status or group position determines stereotype content, not the actual personal characteristics of group members. For example, the social status of the African-Americans is mainly inferior to that of white Americans, by comparison. This has a historic explanation. African-Americans are a descendant of slaves. Their ancestors served and laboured for the white masters. You cannot expect them to be at the same level socioeconomically as their white equivalents.

 

While most white Americans inherited wealth and power, African-Americans inherited poverty and struggle. In fact, the black people of America have worked hard to be in the position they are today. To say that the election of President Barack Obama, an African-American, is a great stride in the African-American and white American disparities, is an understatement. It is a mammoth accomplishment.

 

Fourthly, groups which enjoy fewer social and economic advantages will be stereotyped in a way that helps explain and justify disparities, such as under performance in school. For example members of the disadvantaged group may have greater difficulty finding employment mainly because of group favoritism or racism. But members of the advantaged groups will view this and label it as lack of motivation by the disadvantaged groups. To advantaged groups the members of the stereotyped groups are not hard enough, intelligent enough, smart enough or hard working enough to have certain privileges or positions or wealth.

 

Once some bad things happen which justify the position of the stereotyped group, the advantaged groups would broadcast it as truth about the stereotyped group: “We knew that he would fail,” they would comment. Such attitudes prevent some people of stereotyped groups from entering or succeeding in activities or fields other people may find easy to excel in.

 

Lastly, stereotypes exaggerate differences between groups. They emphasize differences at the expense of similarities. This makes it seem as if groups are very different when in fact they may be more alike than different. For example, Africans’ identity as poor and uneducated is more prominent than their individual and personal variations. This is normally exacerbated by media documentaries which tend to show African children as miserable, destitute and dying. In reality, such pictures of destitution and desperation can be found everywhere, including in developed countries. Such half-truths make it very difficult for people to be willing to rethink their attitudes and behaviour towards stereotyped groups.

Stereotypes Destroyed the African Brand

 

This is what the world’s prejudiced people have said about Africa, mainly during the first half of the 20^th century. Black people were portrayed as dumb, evil, lazy, poor, animalistic, smelly, uncivilized, and un-Christian. Slave traders were even worse than the colonialists. They depicted Africans as the very firewood of hell, less than human beings.

 

Through the misinformation of British colonialist many white people believed that black people were inferior to white people. They used these lines of thinking to dehumanize black people and treat them as commodities. Slavery itself was based on this postulation. So even though most of them read the Bible and believed in God, they did not believe that God created everyone equal. They believed that God made black Africans less human and therefore, in their judgment, Africans deserved to be sold as slaves, treated as merchandize, and given indecent burials.

 

Even when in the late 19^th century Europe began to colonize Africa, the African people were relegated to positions as slaves or servants. In Zambia, for instance, a “Boy” – a white master’s servant - was almost a privileged position by an African. Stereotypes about the black people destroyed the black people’s legacy, pride and confidence. It is unconceivable how these people have managed to dispel all these stereotypical blows. African people are very strong, not only physically but also mentally. It takes strength of character and resolve to withstand racial epithets and other unfounded views about a people.

 

Stereotypes Destroyed African Culture

 

There is a textbook in most African secondary schools entitled: Europe Learns About Africa. Most African students would never read anything about Africans learning about Europe. Europeans learned about Africans living in tribes, hunting in troops, carrying spears, and even believing in witchcraft. But most Africans would never know of the barbarism of Europe or even of European cannibalism. All these were shrouded in mystery so that only the aspects of Europe and America that were superior were made known.

 

At one time African females were depicted walking bare breasted with large breasts and conspicuously fat buttocks. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it was because those who came from outside Africa had a different standard of beauty. In Africa, and among Africans, beauty is perceived from this very angle. Even modern techniques of breast implants, mostly dominated by Hollywood stars; emphasize this aspect of beauty as well. The problem with stereotyping is that it demands that everyone sees things the way the dominant group does. Anything less is evil, ugly or ungodly. But times have changed and most people are defining beauty in ways that would have seemed dismal in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

 

Stereotypes Mired African Politics

 

Most political analysts agree that the African political scene lacks credible leadership. This is understandable. With the stereotypes identified above, it is unlikely that the colonialists would have empowered the Africans for self-government. In fact, they would have wanted to see the Africans fail so that they could justify their beliefs. Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as the government of the people by the people for the people. In definitive terms, at the time, democracy did not belong to Africans because they were not people in the eyes of the whites. And the U.S Secretary of State in 1844, John Calhoun, made it clear in his argument when he said:

 

Here (scientific confirmation) is proof of the necessity of slavery. The African is incapable of self-care and sinks into lunacy under the burden of freedom. It is a mercy to give him the guardianship and protection from mental death.

 

Most liberalists believe that freedom is the hallmark of a sound liberal democratic system. The white politicians of the civilized world clearly did not believe that the black African people were capable of freedom; they believed that Africans would, “sink into lunacy under the burden of freedom.” This explains why Africans were not prepared adequately enough to assume power after independence. If Africa, and the black African people, is to reclaim its dignity and political proficiency, it has to undo the damage caused by stereotypical propaganda.

 

This can be done through pro-active education; education tailored towards improving the mental state of the African children. Not that it is inferior, but that it has been tainted by the long and persistent repeating of the stereotypical soubriquets. The capacity of black Africans to reason, think, be educated beyond the rudiments of training, and to innovate at high technological spurts must be affirmed. This is because black Africans are capable of thinking in abstraction, and not only in concrete and practical ways, as stereotypically alleged.

 

Neo-Stereotyping

 

There is a tantalizingly new manifestation of this black African stereotype. While the white masters of the slavery and colonial era cannot be accused of perpetrating black stereotypes, the seeds they planted, however, seem to continue to germinate. One prevailing stereotype in the 19^th century, especially at the peak of the Industrial Revolution, was the idea that black people make efficient thinkless workers. Every year educated African immigrants leave the coasts and airports of Africa to live and work in the developed nations. Here instead of pursuing lucrative jobs they have been trained for, they are relegated to general labourer force, mass producing for everlastingly running machines.

 

The Changing Image of African Stereotypes

 

There has been tremendous progress made since the 1960s about the ability of Africans to exert themselves as a people. Beginning with the struggle for independence when the African fathers decided to fight for self-determination, to the rising of African athletes who compete and win at the world scale, Africans are showing in clear terms that they are people with superior prowess just like anybody else on the globe. In the U.S, stereotypical image of black people has changed in the media. More positive depictions have appeared where black people and African-Americans are portrayed as great athletes and superb singers and dancers. In many films and television series since the 1970s black people are depicted as good natured, kind, honest and intelligent human beings.

 

Just like in any other aspect of life, there are always die-hards. Some have looked at the athletic prowess of Africans and African –Americans as a justification for intellectual incapacity of the black people. They assert that black people have excelled in music and sports because they are incapable of replicating the same success in intellectual quarters. But recently, Africans like Kofi Anan have excelled as world leaders. The rising of Barack Obama to the highest echelon of power as the leader of the free world, and the many Africans and African-Americans who are now leading the world as Governor General of Canada (Michaelle Jean), Attorney General of the U.S (Mr. Holder), U.S Ambassador to the UN (Susan Rice), and many nameless black African intellectuals, politicians, educators, and scientists all over Africa and beyond.

 

Black is Truly Beautiful

 

History and science have vindicated what Africans knew all along – that Africans are very special people, strong, energetic, intelligent and competent. Africans have demonstrated resilience and toughness that are both rare and admirable. They have run governments with very limited resources, united hundreds of their tribes into nations, survived natural forces without the technological advancement of Europe or America, and conquered deadly diseases without expensive drugs. Black Africans have withstood callous conditions of the African continent, and many times used them to their economic and touristic advantage.

The colour of the African people is, in fact, their strongest asset. The harsh sunny conditions and the perpetual rainfall cannot be counterbalanced without this natural make-up. Africans must be grateful to their Creator that they have the colour, shape and features they have. Black, by definition is not a colour, it absolves light. To be black is not a sin, and neither is it the devil’s colour. The devil, although depicted as dark or black, was, in fact, the brightest angel the Creator had ever made. He remains so in colour.

 

Black fits – and every woman knows that black matches with any colour. This is the beauty of being a black person; you are a friend of all, an enemy of none, and a believer in justice, just like black absorbs all colours into one. Black Africans should not work very hard to change who they are; they should, rather, labour hard to refine what they have and use it to their advantage – helping others and building a better world for all. Africa is colourful, and black is truly beautiful!