Transcription
Now, it's no secret that many of the people in America who identify themselves as black have an inferiority complex. And this inferiority, it expresses itself in the form of perming and pressing hair. It manifests in the form of skin bleaching. It rears its head in the psychology and the self-esteem of many of the members from this group.
But the question is, how did they get this inferiority complex? Were they born with it? Is it something genetic? Or were some other circumstances which caused it? And so, sociologist Dr. E. Franklin Frasier, he provides an explanation for this in his 1957 book, *Black Bourgeoisie*. So let's open it up right now to page 130, where it says this:
"The entire history of the Negro in the United States has been of a nature to create in the Negro a feeling of racial inferiority." Which was the intention of the European slaveholder. And why would they want to create a people with a feeling of inferiority? Because they wanted to create permanent slaves out of this group of people for money and control.
And so, one of the very first instances that sparked this feeling of inferiority was the European colonizer naming these people with a clearly visible brown skin, "Negro" or "black." And black is a word in English that is directly linked with many negative ideas, such as evil, wicked, and gloomy. And it had these meanings before it was placed on this group of people with brown skin. And being called black in the Western world has negative unconscious effects on a person's self-esteem and the way that they see themselves.
And so, the colonizer labeled, uh, people black in the very beginning of this project of creating a people with a deep inferiority complex. And this was just the beginning. Right? There's a lot more here.
We go, during the more than two centuries of enslavement by the white man, every means was employed to stamp a feeling of natural inferiority in the Negro soul. And he's not exaggerating when he says this. The whites used every tool that they can think of, from the name black to this next tool right here. Christianity and the Bible were utilized both to prove and to give divine sanction to his alleged racial inferiority, or as some contended, his exclusion from the races of mankind. And the Bible was a very powerful tool that they used to morally justify their deeds so they would be able to sleep at night. And we'll get more on the, the way that they use the Bible and religion later on.
Let's continue. When the system of slavery was uprooted in a second American Revolution, it appeared for a brief period that the Negro might receive recognition as a man. But as the result of the unresolved class conflict in which the Democratic forces in the South were defeated, the demagogues who became the leaders of the disinherited whites, but really served the interests of the property classes, made the Negro the scapegoat. A legalized system of racial segregation was established which stigmatized the Negro as unfit for human association. And every type of propaganda was employed to prove that the Negro was morally degenerate and intellectually incapable of being educated.
And basically, uh, using propaganda to create a false narrative about these brown-skinned people, uh, who they named black. And for what reason? To make them feel inferior, right? Inferior to who? The Europeans who reinvented themselves into white people in the 1600s. The black was to symbolize inferiority, and the white was to be the opposite, superiority. Which is why they changed themselves from English over into white in the 1600s.
And so, we're talking about deep-layer mental psychology here, not some surface-level games that these people were playing. They're playing the real deal game. But understand that none of this would have worked if the next thing here didn't happen.
Living constantly under the domination and contempt of the white man, the Negro came to believe in his own inferiority, whether he ignored or accepted the values of the white man's world. And what's the key word here? Believe. The Negro came to believe in his own inferiority. And that's the entire game being played. It's a game of belief. And you haven't come to realize it yet, but you eventually will.
And so, the white ruling class, they needed to get them to believe that they were subhuman, unintelligent, incapable, wicked, and black, right? And other destructive ideas to make them feel a sense of inferiority. And once they believed this, they would act accordingly, because people's actions reflect their dominant beliefs and desires. So once you understand that this is the game that is being played, a game of beliefs, then you have the clue that's needed for yourself to climb out of the pit that they dug.
Let's continue. *The Black Bourgeoisie*, "the element which has striven more than any other element among Negroes to make itself over in the image of the white man, exhibits most strikingly the inferiority complex of those who would escape their racial identification." And this is the group right here that thought that money and material things were going to allow them to be accepted by the whites. And let me tell you, that if you're someone that's from this community and your goal is to be accepted by whites, then you're playing a losing game, right? You're playing a losing game and the wrong game. Your number one concern needs to be, uh, being accepted by yourself first. Then the rest of the acceptance comes as an effect of you accepting yourself and respecting yourself, right? You shouldn't expect anyone, uh, to accept or to respect you if you don't first respect or accept yourself, right? Humans don't work that way.
Let's continue. Despite the human relations which developed between Negroes and whites on the plantation, where a paternalistic type of control developed, the Negro was nevertheless an article of commerce or an animate tool, according to Aristotle's definition of a slave. An animate or a living tool, right? That's how he described the slave. A tool for what? To work and to make the slave master rich, right? That's what the slave system was about.
Let's continue. If any recognition were shown him as a person, it was conceded to a person who represented a lower and inferior order of mankind. Reduced to chattel in an alien land, the enslaved Negro was not only detribalized, as the African who had contact with European civilization, but he was annihilated as a person, completely annihilated. Where his consciousness was dragged down into the burning inferno.
Let's continue. The enslavement of the Negro in the United States destroyed not only his family ties and his household gods, it effaced or eliminated whatever memories of the African homeland that had survived the Middle Passage. And Africa really became a distant memory, where some of the last memories from the ancestors were being captured by other African tribes who traded them for European goods.
Let's continue. The destruction of a common tradition and religious beliefs and practices reduced the Negro to a mere atom without a personality or social identity. And I would add, without a social identity that they created for themselves, because they did have a social identity that was given to them by the whites. It was called a Negro or black person, and they were supposed to be at the bottom of society, right? That was their social identity.
The main significance of the proselytizing of the Baptist and Methodist missionaries was that Christianity was presented to the slaves in a simple emotional appeal that provided a release for their frustrated and repressed lives. More than that, it established a bond of union among the slaves and provided them a meaning of their existence in an alien world. Although Christianity offered the Negro an interpretation of his existence in an alien world, it did not undertake to change his earthly condition as regards his enslavement.
When for economic reasons during the 17th century, the Negro indentured servant lost the status which white indentured servants had and became a servant for life or a slave, the colonial legislation made it clear that the conversion to Christianity meant freedom, not for the body in this world, but for the soul in the afterlife. And this happened because there was a loophole in the system where Christians could not be enslaved. And so, the problem was that if the Negro was converted to being a Christian, then they could no longer be enslaved. Well, they fixed that quickly because they went and changed the man-made laws and they stated that the status of a Christian would no longer be a justification for, uh, making someone a free person in the physical world, right? And that freedom for the Negro was meant for this idea of the afterlife, which is another invention coming from the imagination of the human mind.
Let's continue. Going, not only did Christianity fail to offer the Negro hope of freedom in this world, but the manner in which Christianity was communicated to him tended to degrade him. The Negro was taught that his enslavement was due to the fact that he had been cursed by God. And this is another example of humans making stuff up, right? And again, using the idea of God to justify their doings.
Let's continue. His very color was a sign of the curse which he had received as a descendant of Ham. Parts of the Bible were carefully selected to prove that God had intended that the Negro should be the servant of the white man, and that he would always be a hewer of wood and drawer of water. And understand that any person could find a verse in the Bible and interpret it in such a way to support just about any doctrine that they could think of. And what these people were doing was using it in a way to intensify a feeling of inferiority within the Negro.
Let's continue. While such was being taught the slave, some of the leading ministers of the South were setting forth the same doctrine in books for the American public. One of these books, written by a Presbyterian minister and entitled *The Christian Doctrine of Slavery*, stated that, "It may be that Christian slavery is God's solution of the problem relation of labor and capital about which the wisest statesmen of Europe confess themselves at fault." Right? It was God's solution to the labor and capital problem. You see how slick and how crafty these people were? Not their own solution, but it was God's solution, right? This is how people play the game.
Let's continue. Another leading minister published a book entitled *Slavery Ordained of God*, in which he defended the doctrine that slavery is ordained of God. "And to continue for the good of the slave, the good of the master, the good of the whole American family, until another and better destiny may be unfolded." And so, these people were acting as if they were having lunch meetings with God and as if God was mentoring them on how to run the slave economy. And this is why you always have to be very mindful on how people use the idea of God, because a lot of people play a lot of games with it, as we're seeing here.
Let's continue. These theological justifications of the enslavement of the Negro gave religious support to the philosophical justifications of slavery, the most celebrated of which was that by a professor of History, Metaphysics, and Political Law at William and Mary College, Virginia. In a book published in 1832, he justified the enslavement of the Negro on the grounds that the Negro possessed the strength and form of a man, but the intellect of a child, and was therefore unfit for freedom. These were the type of ideas that they were using to craft the Negro in the image that they wanted him in, right? And just like we mentioned earlier, in the beginning, he came to believe in his own inferiority.
Let's continue. The nearly 600,000 mulattoes among the somewhat less than 4.5 million Negroes in the United States in 1860 were the result of the sexual association of white men and Negro women. Women, the character of the sexual association between white men and Negro women ranged from rape, based upon physical force or the authority of the master, to voluntary surrender on the part of the Negro woman. And this was the white slave master acting like a truly subhuman person, right? The real deal.
Let's continue. Voluntary surrender on the part of the Negro woman was due at times to mutual attraction, but the prestige of the white race was often sufficient to secure compliance on their part in giving themselves to their white masters. There were certain concrete advantages to be gained, such as freedom from the drudgery of fieldwork, better food and clothing, and the prospect that their half-white children would enjoy certain privileges and perhaps be emancipated. As the mulatto class grew in the South, many slaveholders, if married, set up a separate household for their black, but more often mulatto concubines. In some cases, they lived a monogamous life with their mulatto mistress or concubine, legal marriage being forbidden. But even under the most favorable conditions, the woman and her offspring were stigmatized because of their Negro ancestry. It was out of such association that the communities of free mulattoes grew up in the South. In some parts of the South, they constituted a sort of lower caste, since no matter how well off they might be economically, they always bore the stigma of Negro ancestry. Even in Louisiana, where the quadroons or gens de couleur became wealthy and sent their children to France to be educated, they were still without political rights and could not associate with whites on a basis of equality. They identified themselves as far as possible with the interests of the white slaveholding aristocracy and did not even permit a discussion of slavery among their members. Although they were not white, they could thank God they were not black.
Religion and political philosophy rallied to the support of the planters in the South by confirming the racial inferiority of the Negro, along with science, as well. These were the tools that they were using to confirm the image of the Negro's inferiority, which was created within the imagination of white folks.
Let's continue. This support became especially urgent as the conflict between the economic interests of the North and the South became more acute, and the issue over slavery acquired a moral character. Whether the Negro was only chattel property and therefore had no rights as a human being became an issue in the celebrated Dred Scott case, which was taken to the Supreme Court. Now, can you imagine that? People having full-blown discussions on whether or not certain humans were only chattel property, right? This is what it looks like when people are blinded by power and making profits.
Let's continue. In 1857, Chief Justice Taney of the Supreme Court, which was dominated by the South, handed down the famous decision: "A negro has no rights which a white man need respect." The court declared that in the meaning of the words "people of the United States" in the Constitution, Negroes were not included in the people of the United States. This represented the final triumph of the Southern aristocracy in its struggle to dominate the United States.
While public opinion and the personal attitudes of whites concerning the Negroes were being formed by politicians and newspapers, there appeared in 1900 a book entitled *The Negro a Beast*, published by the American Book and Bible House. And once again, more propaganda to influence the public perception of the Negro.
Let's continue. The publisher of this book stated in the preface that, "If this book were considered in an intelligent and prayerful manner, that it will be to the minds of the American people like unto the voice of God from the clouds, appealing to Paul on his way to Damascus, in order that the American people might be convinced of the scientific nature of the biblical truths presented in this book." The author included pictures of God and an idealized picture of a white man in order to prove that white people were made in the image of God, as stated in the Bible, and a caricature of the Negro showing that he could not have been made in the image of God.
You see that they had completely weaponized religion and used it as a tool to contribute to this creation of the Negro, who was intended to believe himself to be inferior, right? Along with everyone else to believe this too.
Let's continue. This book had a wide circulation, especially among the church-going whites, and helped to fix in their minds, as it was argued in the last chapter of this book, that the Negro was not the son of Ham, or even the descendant of Adam and Eve, but simply a beast without a soul. Now, look how powerful of a statement this is. And what do you think is the outcome if people believe that other humans are beasts without souls? They'll treat them according to what they believe, right? And they'll feel no way about it either, because that's what they believe, you understand? And so, one of the major keys to control the human is belief. And you better understand that.
Let's continue. While this book was giving a religious sanction to current beliefs concerning the inferiority of the Negro, the Negro's inferiority was being engraven in every public edifice, railroad station, courthouse, theaters with signs showing rear entrances for Negroes or kitchens in which Negroes might be served. And so they marketed these images everywhere. And what was the purpose of using images to deliver messages to the unconscious mind of the people? In symbols and images, they speak directly to the unconscious mind. And these people clearly understood what they were doing.
Let's continue. Moreover, in every representation of the Negro, he was pictured as a gorilla dressed up like a man, which was conveying the message to the society that the Negro was not a human, but a beast.
Let's continue. His picture, meaning his actual picture, was never carried in the newspapers of the South. The same rule holds today in most parts of the South. This is in the 1950s, remember, unless he had committed a crime. So that's when they want to put it in there, right? When he committed a crime. In the newspapers, the Negro was described as early or apelike. And even Negroes who look like whites were represented in cartoons as black with gorilla features. All of this fitted into the stereotype which represented the Negro as subhuman or a beast without any human qualities. You see that these people crafting these messages, they knew exactly what they were doing. These people weren't stupid in the least bit when it came to molding messages, uh, in the minds of the people and influencing their thoughts and opinions using the, the media outlet.
Let's continue. The vilification of the Negro continued until the second decade of the 20th century. A so-called authoritative study of the Negro, published as a doctoral dissertation in the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, accepted as scientific evidence the statement that the Negro was as destitute of morals as any of the lower animals. In the very year in which the First World War started, an adverti authority on the Negro stated in a book that the Negro was an instinctive criminal, meaning that it was genetics, it was natural for him to be a criminal.
And so, all these concepts, they're stored in what is called the collective consciousness under this image of what is called a Negro or a black person. Which is why anyone who really desires to completely free themselves, they have to outgrow this identity. Because what they have done is they've stacked up these negative descriptions over hundreds of years into this idea of a black or a person, right? Which makes it nearly impossible for someone to reinvent themselves under this identity, right? Although many people have tried in vain, right?
Let's continue. Then in 1915, an army surgeon assured the American people that, "Many animals below man manifest a far greater amount of real affection in their love making than do Negroes, and that it is very rare that we see two Negroes kiss each other." It is not surprising that when this book was written, a Negro could not sing a sentimental song on the American stage.
During this campaign to prove that the Negro was subhuman and unfit for human association, the masses of Negroes found a refuge within the isolated world of the Negro folk. Their lives revolved principally about their churches, in which they sang their songs of resignation and looked forward to another world in which they might escape the contempt and disdain of the white man. And again, another use for the church. It was a place where they were able to seek refuge and find some form of comfort, right? And it was very useful for that time.
Let's continue. The Negro who migrated to a northern city discovered that he was only half a man in the white man's world. And so, this is talking about the Great Migration coming from the rural South, um, into the North and other city areas in the 1900s. The educated middle-class Negroes who had striven to conform to American ideas and had contacts with a larger social world could not find a refuge in the world of the Negro folk. In the South, they were subject to the same Jim Crow laws and contempt as the Negro masses. And *Black Bourgeoisie*, in the North, they were outsiders.
The mass migration of Negroes to Northern cities and the impact of two World Wars upon the United States changed the relations of the Negro to American society. But Negroes have remained outsiders who still face the problem of being integrated into American society. The black bourgeoisie who have striven to mold themselves in the image of the white man have not been able to escape the mark of racial inferiority. And they believe that a high income, a nice house, and a nice car, and all the material things would do the trick. But that was simply not the case. There was still this very deep sense of inferiority that was passed along from generation to generation, haunting the descendants of the slaves. And still today, many of their descendants still long for the approval of white people, right? Still acting out that very same part for which the Negro was created to feel. Understand.
But the time now is the final phase of freedom, where the Negro consciousness is released forever to make room for an entirely new consciousness to take root. The Negro consciousness, it served its purpose, right? And it taught the world a lot of things. But it is necessary that this consciousness within the individual be completely uprooted and replaced before this inferiority complex will completely go away.
And so, this is just a fraction here of the history of how blacks developed an inferiority complex. And hopefully, this has been able to help you and give you some light and able to see your way on the path. And so, I want to thank you for watching all the way into the end. My name is Brooklyn St. Michael, and I'll see you in the Free World.