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| A Demeaning Story Of "Black" |
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In standard Western texts, the truth is unlikely to be found in any meaning pertaining to the word "Black." In light of their pathological mental history, it is understandable that since ancient European times Black has been used in the figurative sense of "evil" or "wicked" and black skin was considered in opposition to that of white skin. Throughout Europe, and particularly Scotland, black has been deemed a mystical color-and always in combination with the metamorphoses of Satan, or his imps-- as a black dog, a black cat, or Black person.
In the Old Norse mythology of the early Vikings who invaded Britain there is the story of Black Shuck (meaning "demon" or "Satan" or the Hateful Thing or Hell-beast)--a large spectral (ghost) dog who was part of supernatural and witchcraft lore. His appearance was taken to be a Death Omen and to speak of it would bring misfortune. Sightings continue to the present. Except in certain instances where it was held that touching a Black man would bring good luck, the Devil himself was said to materialize out of choice as a black-skinned man. Until relatively modern times in some remote areas, people turned themselves right around on meeting a Black man, just in case he was the Devil in disguise. Interestingly, as a boy I was told that the Devil was a White man who dressed well and was a smooth talker. Now let us skip to the Middle Ages when European barbarians were either practically ignorant of or uninterested in Africa. Then, as a result of perfecting the gun invented by the Arabs in 1304, they saw benefits from enslaving African people and taking their possessions. To do this required creating opposition between Africans vs. Europeans--despite not having had any contact with Black Africans. They started with developing an AVERSION (a "turning away") attitude toward Africans, consisting of shutting down all beliefs of shared culture and of Africans no longer being "fellow creatures." This allowed them to fill in the resultant vacant mental spaces with thoughts of opposition, feelings of disgust, and practices of rejection and ostracism. To give momentum to their newly acquired racial animosity they resorted to the English Oxford dictionary definition of the color "black": Deeply stained with dirt; soiled, dirty, foul ... Having dark or deadly purposes, malignant; pertaining to or involving death; deadly; baneful disastrous, sinister .... Foul, iniquitous, atrocious, horrible, and wicked. With this unpleasant mental picture firmly in place, it is not surprising that when English voyagers to Africa first encountered Black people they regarded them with distaste as well as "inferior" brings. During African American slavery, Black Cattle, Black Birds, Black Ivory, and Black Ox were terms for the slaves. So were the terms Negress, Nigra, nigger, darky, and spade. So were "black", "colored" and "negro" in respectful use. To reinforce the demeaning nature of these words, particularly those which started with an "N," Whites would write them with a non-capital. Hence Negro would be written "negro." The excuse "Closest Racist" use is that "Negro" and "Black" should be lowercased because they are designations based on color. These words and styles of spelling are understandably resented because they are considered by all Black people as offensive, contemptuous, evasive, and condescending. More respectful Whites will uppercase "Negro" and African-American and "Black" and lowercase "white," even though the practice is inconsistent, in order not to give offense. I uppercase both Black and White. Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D. |
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