These distinctions are important, but there is another even more so The primary functions of race prejudice are cultural and psychological. The primary functions of racism are economic and political .'Racism emerged in the oral tradition in Barbados in the seventeenth century, and crystallized in print in Britain in the eighteenth, as the ideology of the plantocracy, the class of sugar-planters and slave-merchants that dominated England's Caribbean colonies. It emerged, above all, as a largely defensive ideology - the weapon of a class whose wealth, way of life, and power were under mounting attack
Most notorious and influential of eighteenth-century racist writers in Britain was in fact an absentee planter from Jamaica. Edward Long had spent 12 years on that island, where he was judge as well as planter, before he wrote his History of Jamaica (1774), a book highly respected both in his own day and long after his death:' He justified the degradation of blacks by insisting that in every mental and moral way they were inferior to whites. He summed up the plantocratic ideology of race for consumption in the home country'. And his book's pretensions to scientific rigour gave English racism a respectable cover, a spurious authenticity,
just as the slave trade and slavery were beginning to trouble public opinion and arouse opposition. As we shall see, the timing of Long's book is significant for British imperial history; it came out just as the British government was taking responsibility for direct rule over a 'native' people, in Bengal. But the really interesting thing about Long's exposition of racism is how essentially unoriginal it was. He relied
heavily on previous, deservedly obscure, writings. He copied two key passages practically word for word from his predecessors without troubling to acknowledge those borrowings. Long's particular contribution was to link the assertion of black inferiority with the defense of slavery more boldly and blatantly and 'scientifically' than anyone had done before.
During slavery, white Europeans, established hierarchies and maintained power over black people by constructing and constantly manipulating the definitions of “race,” “identity” and “culture”. In the Caribbean and southern United States white Europeans enslaved black Africans. They established and encouraged the stereotype that Blacks were violent, ignorant and uncivilized. Further, they truly believed that Blacks were non-human. Europeans committed atrocious human rights violations against an entire “race” of people. Europeans justified their actions by inventing false logic and promoting propaganda throughout the Caribbean and United States.
First of all, the identity of the black women is viewed as a stereotype.
During slavery white people saw the black women as being physically strong, masculine animalistic, and non human when compared to white women who are seen as pure, delicate, and fragile. Curiously, considering this awful description and image of the black women, white men still viewed them as promiscuous. When slave women arrived in the Caribbean and/or United States they were barely clothed. White people were taught that this nakedness reflected promiscuity in the black woman. The white men used this false notion of promiscuity as justification to rape these women without any feelings of guilt. according to the text of Brenda E. Stevenson, Gender Convention, Ideals, and Identity Among Antebellum Virginia Slave Women (p.171). Whites saw black women as non-human, but they still wanted their body and the pleasure of having sex with them. In many cases the black women were forced to concede because if they didn’t obey, they ran the risk of being beat to death. Still many preferred to resist rape and take their chances. Mary Prince, a West Indian slave states:
“ He had an ugly fashion of stripping himself quite naked
and ordering me then to wash him in a tub of water.
This was worse to me than the licks.” 1
Also, the image of the female slave as a wife and mother was viewed negatively.
The black women slave could not be a good mother since she couldn’t take care of her children and give them all they needed. She is not there for her husband since she is always in labour. The truth is that in most cases the slave women had to take more care of her master’s kid than her own. Her kids would be sold to another master severing her relationship with her children. For the Europeans, a man has to be able to provide for all the needs of his family, but in slave families this was impossible because they would always be separated. This was extremely painful for the black man and created low self-esteem as he questioned himself as a provider. The black families are described as unstable because most of them have been separated. The absence of strong father and mother figures was detrimental to the development of these black slave families. Regardless of the circumstances these black single mothers would do everything in their power to properly raise their children. All Blacks viewed black women as extremely strong, almost as superheroes because they worked just as hard as the men but also found time to perform domestic duties and take care of their families by all means necessary. Even today, we see more matriarchal families in Black communities.
According to white people at the time, Africans were useless. They couldn’t see them developing any sort of industry and they viewed their culture as ridiculous and primitive. To whites, black people were ignorant, inferior and non-human. Their only real purpose was manual labour because they were physically strong. When Europeans descended on America they needed labour for their plantations. They enslaved the Africans, and forced them to work just to increase their economic power. Leveraging their increased knowledge of technology whites dominated the Africans, they rejected any religion that wasn’t Christian and generally treated and viewed the Africans as animals or “others”. According to the Europeans, their culture and religion was the only one recognized by God. The fact that many Africans were illiterate helped facilitated the whites assertion of power over the Africans. White people liked it that way because they thought that when a slave was educated, that slave was no good because he would realize what is happening to him and try to find a solution or an escape. “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world ”2 according to Master Mr. Auld in The Life of Frederick Douglass (p.364). Masters would lose some of that power over a slave if they knew too much. Slaves are there to obey orders and nothing else. But Mr. Auld was right when a slave becomes educated, he is no longer ignorant, he/she can recognize the extreme injustice around him/her. When Blacks started reading the Bible, they realized that they were the real Christians, not the white slave owners. Enslaving, beating, raping, murdering of thy fellow man runs completely contrary to what Christianity stands for. When Frederick Douglass learned to read and understand the Newspaper he could understood his situation and recognized that in the North slavery does not exist and that many northerners were fighting to abolish it in the South. All he wanted from that moment was to escape and help his fellow brothers and sisters. “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell”3 is another passage from Master Mr. Auld (p.364). That’s what Frederick Douglass did, he escaped to the North and start pleading the case against slavery, trying to enlighten people, either white society or black slaves to show the horror of slavery victims. He became an example, an inspiration to other slaves. We can understand now that the depiction of black slaves being ignorant and inferior was constructed and manipulated by whites to their own selfish benefit. It was difficult for the black slaves to work together and revolt against their white oppressors because when slavery started, Blacks were taken from many different communities and/or parts of Africa. Different languages, cultures, and values created a Diaspora, which made it was difficult for the Blacks to organize and work together. This made it easier for the whites to establish and hold power over them.
Another stereotype was that black people are violent and savage. The white master was extending himself the right to beat and lick their slaves according to the fact that they were the savage and violent. Whites would view it as protecting themselves from their savageness. If a slave would disobey their master, fail to complete a task properly, be viewed as unproductive, etc. the master would beat the slave (sometimes to death). It was sickening; any reason was good enough to beat a slave. Showing a slave how the white man was superior was amusing to the masters. They were proving their power by beating people who didn’t have the capacity to respond, masters beat women and children sometimes just for their own personal amusement. Many passages from The Classic Slave Narratives confirm that white masters constantly demonstrated their superiority though senseless beatings. Isn’t it ironic that the whites were the ones that viewed themselves as civilized, educated good Christians? More like devils in this writers opinion. This passage of The History of Mary Prince (p.265), show all the horror and the freeness of masters act:
“He came to me, and without any more ado, stooped down,
and taking off his heavy boot, he struck me such a severe
blow in the small of my back, that I shrieked with agony,
and thought I was killed; and feel a weakness in that part
to this day (…) I cannot remember how many licks he gave
me then, but he beat me till I was unable to stand, and till
he himself was weary.”4
In conclusion we can see how through the use of propaganda (i.e. fabrication of black race, identity and culture) white Europeans convinced themselves (and others) that Blacks were less than human. They utilized this falsified belief system to enslave black Africans for their own selfish economic gain. History has proven that the white Europeans were the real savages. It is true even today in many parts of the world that blacks suffer discrimination based on the false stereotypes created during black slavery in the Caribbean and southern United States.
