Psychoanalysis of Racism and The Evolution of Slavery

This research was a part of my personal research as well as my Senior Capstone Research for Psychology/African American Studies class. Here I am providing you with information/facts on the affects of slavery/racism from past to present. Hope you will enjoy. It's pretty long, but I swear it's not boring. A large portion of these facts are NOT taught in school.

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Through the years, the American media has conjured many stereotypes about the African American way of life across the board, especially in the South. People of color have always been portrayed as lazy and careless individuals whom are only moved by entertainment and materialistic items. Society viewed this group of people as mentally incompetent and incapable of intellect. The history of social, mental, and physical abuse has had major affects on the many generations of the African American race. Some African-Americans fear that psychoanalysis and psychiatry are both inherently racist; which is a reason blacks, (mainly males) choose not to seek medical attention from professionals. This report will provide information based on the negative and positive aspects of psychoanalytic studies as well as racism in the unconscious minds of African Americans.

African Americans who were born in America as well as native Africans suffered slavery for over 200 years. It was not until the Emancipation of 1865 that they were considered released from bondage. Some scholars would argue that this so called bondage did not end at this time. After the signing of the Declaration of Independence, slavery became even more prominent in the United States. Slaves were not only victims of abuse, but also victims of pseudoscience and scientific racism. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was founder of American Psychiatry, Dean of the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence did studies on Africans who were victims of the slave trade. In 1797 he described blacks or Negroes as suffering from an affliction called Negritude, which was thought to be derived from leprosy. “The only cure for the disorder was to become white.”(Jackson 2002) He was the first chemistry professor in America so officials took heed to his findings. “He published a pamphlet on the iniquity of the slave trade, and helped organize the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first antislavery society in America; he later became its president.”(Leitch 1978)

Although Dr. Rush was an abolitionist, his understudy was also a leader of medical authority took on the ways of the old South. Dr. Samuel Cartwright claimed that he has discovered two new diseases peculiar to Blacks that he believed justified enslavement as a beneficial necessity for the slaves and as a medical and moral responsibility for their White masters in May of 1851. He claimed that Blacks who fled slavery suffered from a disease called Drapetomania which caused slaves to run away. In his writing "Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race", he stated that “If the white man attempts to oppose the Deity's will, by trying to make the negro anything else than "the submissive knee-bender," (which the Almighty declared he should be,) by trying to raise him to a level with himself, or by putting himself on an equality with the negro; or if he abuses the power which God has given him over his fellow-man, by being cruel to him, or punishing him in anger, or by neglecting to protect him from the wanton abuses of his fellow-servants and all others, or by denying him the usual comforts and necessaries of life, the negro will run away; but if he keeps him in the position that we learn from the Scriptures he was intended to occupy, that is, the position of submission; and if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the sane time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.” Cartwright argued that treating slaves as children would be the best way to prevent them from thinking that they were equal to their master. When slaved become sulky and dissatisfied, they are more prone to run. The best way to treat this is to “whip the devil out of them.”

Another disease that he attributed to mainly freed Negroes was Dysaesthesia Aethiopica, which was a disease of the mind and body that attacks such slaves that live like free Negroes in regard to diet, drinks, exercise, etc. He believed that this disease cause Negroes to go rampant due to lack of having a white master. “To narrate its symptoms and effects among them would be to write a history of the ruins and dilapidation of Hayti, and every spot of earth they have ever had uncontrolled possession over for any length of time. I propose only to describe its symptoms among slaves.”(Cartwright 1851) Cartwright is speaking of the Haitian Revolution, which led to the inhabitants and slaves revolting against the French and reclaiming their land. The aspiration for freedom is not pathological and the opposition to work for a master is not a disease. The goal of the scientific racist was and remains the defense of a racial hierarchy that still exist in modern society.

Dr. Kenneth and Mamie Clark are two African American psychologists who conducted doll studies in the 1940s to show the damaging effects of racism on the self-image of black children. The study was done at their own facility which was called The Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, New York. They found contrast among children who attended segregated schools in Washington, DC compared to children who attended integrated schools in Harlem, New York. In the doll test, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark used four plastic dolls that were identical except for color. They showed the dolls to black children between the ages of three and seven and asked them questions to determine racial perception and preference. Almost all of the children readily identified the race of the dolls. However, when asked which they preferred, the majority selected the white doll and attributed positive characteristics to it.

They found that black children would rather play with white dolls rather than a doll of their own ethnicity or skin color. The children were also asked to fill in human figures of based of the color of their own skin. Most of the children filled in a lighter shade of color than that of their own. The white doll was given what was considered white attributes such a pretty and good, whereas the children saw the black doll as dull and ugly which were considered black attributes by the media and most white supremacists. The outcome of this research demonstrated that society inflicted internalized racism on African Americans due to racial segregation, separate educational institutions that lacked proper resources, not to mention disenfranchisement. This led to Kenneth Clark testifying against segregation of schools in the Briggs vs. Elliot case. The research and results influenced the U.S. Supreme Court to hold segregation to be unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, arguing the “Separate but Equal” doctrine. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren announced the court’s decision to desegregate the school on May 17, 1954. The Clark’s study and citation was instrumental in proving that segregation had indeed damaged black children psychologically.

“It is now generally understood that chronic and remediable social injustices corrode and damage the human personality, thereby robbing it of its effectiveness, of its creativity, and if not its actual humanity.”(Clark 1965) Ultimately, the Brown decision would undermine state sanctioned segregation in all aspects of American life. In May of 1955 the Supreme Court issued a second ruling which most would call Brown II. It addressed the process of desegregation. The Court stated that the states involved should begin the 1954 ruling and it shall be done with, “all deliberate speed.” To African Americans this meant immediate desegregation, but little did they know that white Southerners were prepared to maintain the “southern way of life” at any cost. In 1955 the White Citizens Council was created by white-collar businessmen, clergymen, politicians, and businessmen who used their economic and political power to coerce blacks who challenged segregation. People were evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, and even refused credit. “President Eisenhower seemed displeased with the Court’s rulings and refused to put the moral authority of his office behind their enforcement.”(Hine & Harold pg. 577) Nine southern states had filed suit to eradicate the NAACP by 1957. The organization’s lost many of its southern branches and membership plummeted tremendously. Thirteen public school systems were desegregated by 1958 and by 1960 it had only risen to seventeen. The massive resistance of the leading white supremacists showed that change could not come through the courts alone.

Race and racism continue to have a deep and often painful significance for people of color. One of the most evil experiments which has had a major affect on African American men in terms of choosing to visit doctors and health professionals is the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. This study was conducted between 1932 and 1972 (40 years). (Brunner 2003) “The study was meant to discover how syphilis affected blacks as opposed to whites-the theory being that whites experienced more neurological complications from syphilis, whereas blacks were more susceptible to cardiovascular damage. How this knowledge would have changed the clinical treatment of syphilis is uncertain.” This study has been called the most non-therapeutic experiments on human beings in medical history. The study involved 399 black low class sharecroppers from the poorest towns in Alabama.

The Publics Health Service wanted to study the progress of syphilis with no intent to cure them. The subjects only knew that they were being treated for bad blood. After trying to enlist in the military (which they also had to be cured in order to do so), the PHS made sure that they did not receive any treatment. They only received placeboes and had to suffer for forty years. In 1947 penicillin was the normal treatment for syphilis. Most of them died and 40 of the wives became infected. Some of the children had inherited the disease as well. This led to changes in United States law to protect participants involved in clinical studies. Today studies require informed consent from the participant, communication of diagnosis accurate reporting of test results, and debriefing. Borgna Brunner asked the question, “Who could imagine the government, all the way up to the Surgeon General of the United States, deliberately allowing a group of its citizens to die from a terrible disease for the sake of an ill conceived experiment? In light of this and many other shameful episodes in our history, Africans Americans’ widespread mistrust of the government and white society in general should not be a surprise to anyone.”

As a race, African Americans have come a long way in their fight for social justice. A lot has changed, but in a way some things need to be examined and dissected a little bit more. This modern generation is becoming more diverse and they are taking steps into understanding the importance of learning the interior of a person instead of focusing on what you see on the outside. African Americans still face certain disadvantages that hinder not only the conscious, but also the unconscious such as learning in an educational setting. If one must to flashback to the 1950’s during the fight to end segregation of the school systems, you will see that after the Brown vs. Board of Education case that many institutions, mainly in the south, did not rush into making this happen. Many institutions closed down or made special accommodations for black students, but they still were segregated. An example of this would be one of the cases that would trigger the Brown vs. Board of Education case, the McLaurin vs. Oklahoma State Regents case.

The University of Oklahoma admitted George W. McLaurin into its Graduate School of Education program, but he was not allowed to sit in the class with the other white students. He had to sit in the hallway in the classroom door, had his own personal area in the cafeteria and the library. When he finally received a seat, it was marked “reserved for colored”. Whites who did not agree with integration in the 1950s fled to suburbs and reaped the benefits of the economic boom. This left blacks in urban cities with run down schools, outdated books, lack of resources, and little to no funding. This trend has extended into modern day public institutions that were once majority white and now the table has turned. Most public schools, mainly in the south are dominated by the minority.

Many problems with the educational system in this country, directly related to racial and cultural issues range from self-fulfilling prophecies, based on expectations of poor performance by teachers in elementary and secondary schools (Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968; Rubovitz and Maehr 1973), to discriminatory admissions policies in higher education (Sedlack 1974; Sedlack and Webster, in press) and to racism encountered by minorities in graduate and professional schools. In 1976 William Sedlacek and Glenwood Brooks Jr. developed a model that was primarily aimed at eliminating racism in white-oriented or predominately white educational institutions by changing the people who control the system. The conference consisted of 17,000 students, 36 principals, vice-principals, and some central office staff. The system was just beginning to have increasing African Americans enrolled in the schools as the city’s suburbs pushed outward.

The conferences consented of small groups of 10 to 15 individuals whom were organized around the 6 stages of the model. The purpose of this was to maintain a sense of group identity and to gain exposure from a variety of people. The consultants came from a diversified pool. The participants at the conference were majority white (127) with only 6 blacks. Cultural and Racial Differences were Stage 1. Some of the points that were made by the consultants and the participants were: (1) Most white teachers are not prepared to by background or training to work with most of the black students they encounter. (2) Many blacks have questionable and environmental support for education and are not likely to be motivated by traditional methods. (3) Understanding cultural and racial differences and designing educational experiences which are both sensitive and reinforcing of these differences are crucial to any education. One of the discussions that struck an interest to the consultants was that, “the written material given to participants was usually not read, thereby pointing up a problem often noted by librarians and black curriculum specialists.” Without training in multi-cultural studies, teachers are more likely deter from experimenting with new curriculum and materials.

How Racism Operates was Stage II. Points made by the participants were: (1) Institutional racism is action taken by a social system or institution which results in negative outcomes for members of a certain group or groups. (2) The definitions of racism are behavioral in that results, not intentions, are important. Examples of institutional racism were noted in the county schools: (a)The system is clearly segregated, resulting in fewer facilities, fewer teachers, and less money spent per pupil on black students. (b) There are few blacks in supervisory or central staff positions in county schools. (c) Most components of county school curricula are oriented toward white, middle class children. Here racism is compared to alcoholism. If you deny that there is a problem then you cannot work to get rid of it. If you openly admit it, then you can to the proper steps into killing this racism in the unconscious.

Examining Racial Attitudes was Stage III. In the phase the Situational Attitude Scale was presented. The 6 black participants were not tested. The test was given in two different forms (Form A and B). To sum this section up, it turn out that whites feel more comfortable with blacks in “service roles”, but they did not agree with the a friend or family member being engaged to an African American. This is an example of how people may not come seem racists, but when it comes to equality and sharing, whites change. While some whites chose to discuss the issue, most whites refused to speak being that the session was opening an emotionally difficult area.

Sources of Racial Attitudes were in Stage IV of the conference. The SAS documented that, (1) Textbooks help perpetuate racial stereotypes. (2) The nature of prejudice and racism should be taught at all educational levels. (3) Racism and prejudice, as well as black culturally relevant content, should be an integral part of the regular curriculum and not isolated as “black history week.” In this phase a white participant presented her results from the SAS test and she received great hostility from a fellow black participant. This opened most participants up for discussion and they started to experience each other. Role playing also made them more comfortable and able to discuss their racial attitudes.

Stage V was a session on Behavior: What Can Be Done? Some of the goals stated by the participants where: (1) Initiate changes curricula from Kindergarten through 12^th grade, including special emphasis on language, integrated social studies vs. black studies, instructional materials, and massive in-service training of teachers working with curriculum and instructional materials. (2) Require race relations experience for hiring and promotion. (3) Find ways of involving the community in eliminating racism in schools. (4) Review the use of test scores. In this stage there were still a few that failed to recognize that racism existed in there schools, but most spoke freely of their goals.

Stage VI which is the final stage focused on how it could be done. (1) Emphasize results, not intentions. (2) Facilitate communication through separate monthly newsletters for elementary and secondary students and for staff and teachers, reporting human relations news, achievements, and etc. (3) Require the school system budget to list how much money is being spent on eliminating racism and the percentage increase from the previous year. These models should be implemented in our schools systems in Mississippi. Here the concept of racism is so sensitive that we are forced to put it in the back of our minds.

References

Leitch, A. (1978). Rush, Benjamin. Retrieved November 24, 2009 from Princeton University, Web site: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/rush_benjamin.html

Jackson, V. & Randall, V. (2009). An Early History - African American Mental Health. In Race, Health Care and the Law . Retrieved November 19, 2009 from The University of Dayton, School of Law Web site: http://academic.udayton.edu/health/01status/mental01.htm

Cartwright, S. (1851). "Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race", In Southern and Western States,XI. Retrieved November 19, 2009 from The University of Dayton, School of Law Web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3106t.html

Pilgrim, D. (2005). Question of the Month: Drapetomania. Retrieved November 19, 2009 from Ferris State Univeristy, Jim Crow Meuseum of Racist Memorabilia/Curator Web site: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/nov05.htm

Sedlacek, W. E. & Brooks, G. C. (1974). Eliminating Racism in Educational Settings. In Institutional Racism and Community Competence. Retrieved Month Date, from National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Hine, D. C., Hine, W. C. & Harrold, S. (2000). The African-American Odyssey. Retrieved Month Date, from National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

J. Quinn

Also Check Out This Old Cartoon* (part of my group research)
http://african-american-cinema.webs.com/cartoons.htm