The black man has always been something of a nightmare to white people. It dates back to when the first group of black people were torn from the shores of Africa. Let me explain.
Going off of first assumptions, Africans were thought to be savage, unintelligent beasts. We were not human. Only tools. They smacked us with Christianity and shackled us; took away our ability to fight back. Most of my thoughts around slavery have always been "well, that's over now." But that just is not true. Slavery has existed well past the ratification of the 13th amendment in 1865, we've just found other synonyms to replace the word.
After slavery, there was terror across the nation. The ratification of the 13th amendment was not enough to bring forth equality. The white man, the system, was shaken up and sought to instill fear via violence; attempting to clear out a whole race.
The black man was portrayed as an evil nymphomaniac that traveled the streets at night in search for the purest and most beautiful white woman. They romanticized this image of the black man because socially, and politically, they could label themselves the savior of all white people. That's why lynching was essentially legal; why murder was essentially legal.
Minstrel shows were used as a way to portray the black man in such a light. As noted in Ava Duvernay's documentary, 13th, there was a specific minstrel show that depicted a white woman jumping off of a cliff to her death in attempts to get away from a black man who was supposedly out to rape her. The black man has always been portrayed as a sex crazed animal, even though most sexual deviance preceding our arrival to this country was unleashed upon black women by white men.
One of the most well known cases is that of Emmett Till. On August 24,1955, he reportedly whistled at the cashier who just so happened to be the lady of a well known white man. He was found a few days later in a river, shot to death. Till's death was swept under the rug and even in this day and age, the methodology of his murder is censored, and softened. This young man was brutally murdered; shot to death; hung; disfigured, and the only thing some people acknowledge is the fact that he whistled. They fail to acknowledge the fact that he was almost unrecognizable, or even the fact that this was in 1955, which is not that long ago.
The plot against the black community deepened as segregation was a legal means of open discrimination. Discrimination was even used to boost political platforms. In Duvernay's documentary, 13th, several election campaigns were pinpointed in terms of creating fear. During the Bush vs Dukakis election, the black man was once again painted as a villain.
Dukakis was against the death penalty and stood behind weekend prison releases. Unfortunately, there was an incident that back fired. When Willie Horton, a large bearded black man, was released, it was reported that he stabbed a man and repeatedly raped his girlfriend. Once again the black man has been identified with the persona of evil rapist. With the release of his mug via various media platforms, a black face was once more something to be feared. Bush created fear unconsciously through psychological means of establishing a prototype and adding to previous and current schemas.
Moving forward, the method of instilling fear politically escalated with the announcement of the war on drugs, as well as the development of the super predator. These were all things that targeted black communities, setting up these false implications of drug use and essentially giving law enforcement the right to discriminate.
Creating fear isolates the black community. For some reason that fear has been established within our own communities. Don't be afraid of your brother, or the person that brought him here.
Next week we'll dive into what it's like to live in a society in which the fear has been established and accepted. We'll be examining the lives of several civil rights activists, including Angela Davis.
In the meantime, go check out Ava Duvernay's documentary, 13th. Comment below with your thoughts on the film.
