The problem:
"All of a sudden you have entire peoples seen as sub-human; if someone is sub-human then the slaver is justified in what he does.
Two of the most provocative areas for legacy theory are the caricatures of black male sexual prowess and sporting achievement. The suggestion is that today's stereotypical images were born out of slave owners' preference for the most athletic specimens from among their stock.
Two centuries of these stereotypes and pseudo-science have arguably left a deep psychological scar on society--both in white perceptions of black people and the responses of some black people to that projection.
Now we celebrate them as warriors and mystics. Which means we still don't treat them as real people with real problems. We're happiest when they exist only in the fantasyland of movies, cartoons, and sporting events.
5 comments:
Writerfella here --
The concept as applied to slavery sounds both simple and elegant, but reducing other humans to sub-human regard mostly is applied to one's enemies in wartime. Thus, its primary use is to justify war, first and foremost. One only has to see how Arabs and the Muslim relgion are viewed in modern America to see the principle in operation. Slavery as an outgrowth and consequence of war may find the reduction being maintained, but war remains the original matter being justified for attacks on and conquest of others who are viewed as being less than human.
And just what exactly is "the Euro-American model"? The 1968 Pontiac Firebird?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Slavery in the Americas began when Columbus arrived. It wasn't connected to any war. Rather, it was connected to Christendom's need to dominate and rule, whether by military or political means.
The Euro-American model is a knight or cowboy. See Why Write About Superheroes? and America's Cultural Mindset for more on the subject.
Related postings include "Dominate" Goes Way Back and When Did Racism Begin?
Writerfella here --
Slavery in the Americas originated with the Native Americans, long before Columbus ever was born. Societies among the Natives exhibited every aspect of human behavior that it is possible to cite. Not every tribe, of course, but most, as seeing your contretemps enslaved meant power for the enslaving tribe. The Plains people took captives but not as slaves, but rather as people deemed worthy of being made over into ancillary members of the tribe, witness: the Red-Headed Kiowa. Always this was done with motivations that subliminally dealt with diversification for the purposes of expansion of their own existences. Staying isolate always will bring stagnation. Still, the captives either earned their status before they were taken, or they earned it afterward...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I was talking about the slavery initiated by Europeans in the Americas, obviously. In case you forgot, that was the subject of the original article.
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