-
Racist white “scientists” elaborated theories to prove Africans’ inferiority and provided a “logical, reasonable, and objective” foundation to why our ancestors needed to be enslaved.
Their pseudo-science started to feed off of itself with absurd eugenic and darwinian theories based on natural features such as the shape of one’s head or the length of one’s arm. Our whole body became a somatic expression and reflection of mental and spiritual inferiority and degeneration. Thick lips meant we ate raw meat because we didn’t discover or master the use of fire and the fine culinary art. Oblong genitalia meant promiscuity (think of Saartjie Baartman) and so on.
We were made to believe that as Africans, as Black people, we are naturally and inevitably mentally inferior to anyone else. So our libraries were burned down to show we didn’t have any history, science, culture. Oral tradition became second place to written tradition. white people set up racist ways to measure one’s intelligence (IQ and SAT tests) and created institutions such as universities to corroborate that.
Conversely, we’re also taught that we’re naturally musically inclined and because of our physique we excel at sport (just as our bodies were perfect to work in sugar and cotton plantations). There’s nothing innate in that. The system only allows us to thrive in the fields of music, acting and sports, that is to say entertainment. Why? Because entertainment isn’t threatening and it doesn’t scare the power structure. So long as you shuck and jive and make the audience feel good, you are allowed to become the best singer or athlete in history (although the industries must stay white-owned and you need to occasionally let non-Black people appropriate and make huge profits from your art).
