"THE IMPACT OF RACISM ON THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY, PEOPLE OF COLOR

"THE IMPACT OF RACISM ON THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY, PEOPLE OF COLOR

By LAURENCE LEGALL

Racism in the United States has had a profound impact on the Black African American community since the first generation of Black Africans was brought to the shores of America. Racism has been woven into the very essence of American society - the nation's dirty laundry not to be seen by the rest of the world. It has been - and is being - used as a determining factor in the policies of the American economy, government (legal and legislative), and social arenas which egregiously affects all areas of people activity in the United States.
The U.S. government has vehemently denied that racism has been one of the pillars of its policies. The U.S. has been, through its United Nations representatives, extremely evasive when confronted by the issue of racism and its impacts on people of color and Black African American citizens. The use of platitudes, "it's in the past," "let's move on" have been the agents of obfuscation put to use by the U.S. to avoid addressing the profound impact of racism on the Black Africn American community and people of color. Without the input of the general masses of the United States, and to rely on the United Nations representatives for the United States, would leave the United Nations with the illusion that comes with the internationally-propagated "American Dream:" that for a casual observer with an outside perspective, the American house is in good order.
We in the Black African American community, people of color, and others living in the house, see it differently when it comes to racism/colorism and its effects on all areas of people activity.
Some of us from progressive organizations that have been fighting domestically in the U.S. against those who believe that men should be judged by skin color and not by the content of their character, have been asked by the December 12th Movement International Secretariat to become a voice for the Black African American community and people of color at the World Conference Against Racism in 2001.
Some leaders in the Black African Ameican community have made similar attempts to have the impact of racism on human rights addressed before an international body such as the United Nations, but to no avail. The exclusion and the non-consideration of our experience in formulating and defining the impact of racism in the international arena - thereby seeking redress for the relentless denial of and assault on human rights and self-determination for the Black African American community and people of color worldwide - are a result of us in the community not being able to organize under the stifling hand of white racist oppression. This hand of opperssion has silenced, lamed, maimed, killed and discombobulated the leaders and organizations who have attempted to seek redress in the international arena for this relentless denial of human rights and self-determination.
Racism is a pathological response to skin color. Part of the concept found behind the word "racism," has its origins in the theory proffered by Blumenbach in 1775 that there are different races of human beings which are recognized by physical characteristics, such as bone structure, texture of hair, and, the most prominent and obvious, skin color. The theory, developed by Blumenbach, has since been proven useless and given the fact that we are here today extremely problematic to say the least.
However, the theory's residue that we recognize here today as racism/colorism still impacts on the minds of all of us in this society. Essentially the theory was used as an element to construct a sort of pecking order that was institutionalized by the political, social and economic systems that we live with today. The theory was used by those with observable white skin color to begin to entrench themselves behind a protective barrier of misconceptions. Those misconceptions began to be developed into extremely pejorative labels given to the then deemed dark "inferior race."
The misconceptions were then stabilized and elements were used to justify the western world's domination of the world's majority of people of color under the guise that the natives needed to be civilized.
The pejorative labels began to be built upon and published by social, religious, economic, political and educational institutions to the point where if an individual is observed with different bone structure, hair texture and/or skin color there is an automatic prejudgement which often is inaccurate at best and pejorative at worst. The prejudgement is based on the misconceptions to which the observer has been exposed by the institutions that still rely on Blumenbach's theory and similar theories of race and the pejorative stereotypes derived therefrom.
It is these misconceptions and stereotypes and the resulting pathological response and behavior that are recognized as racism/colorism.
Blumenbach's theory, used to support this system's political, religious, social and economic divisive construct called "racism" is the root from which the stereotypes spring; it is the problem that must be addressed by establishing a means to re-educate the masses. Blumenbach's race theory and its uses by the western world as a standard to delineate and categorize individuals by their observable characteristics set the stage for unprecedented institutionalization of pejorative misconceptions of the world's people of color.
This thought pattern and conditioning by all means available - especially in education - have permeated throughout all areas of people activity. The misconceptions have been relied upon and publicized so heavily they have affected our thought patterns on a dangerous and profound level. It has come to a critical point in the U.S. and the rest of the world where, if an individual who has been exposed to the conditioning observes another with different skin color (or other characteristics), the pejorative and inaccurate prejudgement is the automatic response. The response begins with a pathological disassociation from self based on the observation or consideration of what is falsely accepted as a different "type" of human being.
(to be continued)"