Stamped from the Beginning
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Abstract
In the book Stamped from the beginning, the author takes a fairly different viewpoint when addressing the issue of racial disparity in the United States. The author digs into the roots of slavery and explores the fact that black people were considered to be from another. He further details on how this view has been carried to the current generations of white racists and how they are using these to discriminate against black people. Additionally, to several other issues, the author dismisses the various claims by some people that America is in its post-racial era after a black person was elected to the Whitehouse. This article analyzes the claim in this book that contrary to popular belief among white racists, the opportunities availed to black people – and not black people – are inferior. The analysis concludes that indeed there is a significant disparity the availability of socio-economic opportunities between black and white Americans.
Stamped from the Beginning
During the 1600s, a number of European thinkers were on the forefront propagating the narrative that black people were of a different species than white people. The reasoning that Africans shared the same lineage with apes contributed significantly to the acceptability of slavery among the communities of the early enslavers. The advancement of this argument has continued even long after slavery ended in the United States, with black people being regarded as the inferior community. One of the most prominent statements in the book is “All cultures, in all their behavioural differences, are on the same level. Black Americans’ history of oppression has made Black opportunities – not Black people – inferior” (Kendi, 2017:11). The current discernible injustices and limited economic opportunities to black people are part of a scheme by racially motivated individuals to establish supremacy on black people by making them appear as inferior.
From a socio-economic standpoint, the United States is one of the most racially disparate countries in the world. In order to understand the disparities white and black people in the country, Kendi posits that there are three emerging views, namely segregationists, assimilationist and antiracists, have different views regarding slavery. The three groups argue that black people are responsible for the disparities; both groups are equally responsible, and that inequalities are solely a result of racial discrimination. For segregationists, the black Americans are inherently incompetent and thus unable to make use of the opportunities that come their way to make use of their opportunities to be on the winning side as the white Americans. Similarly, assimilationists hold the same argument saying that if black Americans changed some of their cultural behaviour and acted “white”, then they would close the inequality gaps (Kendi, 2017).
Analyzing the above two views, it is clear that although they arrive at a similar conclusion. They do so from different viewpoints. For segregationists, their argument is integrally based on the notion that the black American race is inferior to the white race. According to Kendi, the most commonly spread story is that hate and ignorance is the reason why racist people believe and propagate racist ideas (2017:10). However, looking back at history, Kendi asserts that racial discrimination brought about racial ideas which in turn led to hate and ignorance. As such, segregationists are only arguing from the point of ignorance and hate acquired from racist ideology whose origin is racial discrimination. According to Kendi, segregationists do not necessarily have to benefit from these racist inequalities. Instead, the individuals who came up with these racially discriminatory ideas did so with the intention that white racists would spread them to their advantage (Kendi, 2017:4,9).
Similarly, assimilationist argues that it is imperative for black Americans to conform to what is considered acceptable standards in order to get to the same level as white people. Said another way, although assimilationists affirm that racist ideas disadvantage black people, they argue that black people can close this gap by adapting to these ideas. However, such notions overlook the fact that white people already had a head start in socio-economic, political and justice domains in the history of the US. Consequently, capitalists used the head start to their advantage by enforcing racially discriminatory policies to increase their profit margins (Kendi, 2017:10). From this perspective, conforming racially discriminative policies are highly unlikely to favour individuals against whom they were intended.
The assimilationist notion that black Americans are not doing right by the set standards of white Americans ignores a number of challenges faced by black people. For instance, factors such as poverty, poor access to education and rental housing discrimination work collectively to ensure that black people are constantly in an environment that to a large extent increases the probability of someone being caught in trouble. For instance, discrimination of black people by rental housing agents has contributed significantly to blacks living within areas of concentrated poverty with poor amenities. Additionally, using property tax to fund black community schools ensures that these schools are poorly funded; hence the standards of education are subpar compared to white community schools. As a result, a poorly educated black American in an impoverished is hardly up to standards acceptable to the ruling class.
On the other hand, Kendi (2017:11) describes antiracists ideology as being able to avoid generalization of a particular race of people when making certain decisions. The bias that comes with generalization is one of the reasons why racial discrimination succeeded and continues to evolve even today. With racial discrimination having pioneered by white racists before, during and after slavery, it became easier to make generalizations and attribute negative and positive characteristics to the groups. As a result, any other misinformation was easily propagated and generalized. In turn, this planted us versus them mentality for white racists and black people.
As mentioned earlier, European thinkers and religious leaders went into great length to prove that black people were not human even going as far as accusing west African women of having babies with apes (Kendi, 2017: 50). With this mentality, black people were therefore considered as being from different species and therefore not really human. The enslavers aimed these substantial efforts at the rationalization of slavery. Further, Christians went to greater length to justify slavery, indicating that the practise was condoned in the holy book.
Based on the above, the classification of the black community into a single distinct group can be traced back into the time when racially discriminative structures and policies were being formulated and implemented. Consequently, this mindset of grouping black people led to the thriving of the racist idea that black people are inherently inferior. As earlier mentioned, these structures were intended to drive inequality and ensure that the rift between black and white communities was widened for more effective oppression. Progressively, the proponents of racial discrimination have managed to adopt these policies, albeit indirectly depending on their self-interests. Consequently, racial discrimination has remained relatively constant in institutions such as the criminal justice system, schools, healthcare and the housing sector.
In conclusion, contrary to popular beliefs, racist ideas such as the notion that black people are integrally inferior to white people are part of carefully planned misinformation aimed at rationalizing oppression. Consequently, only the weakest opportunities with little to no hope of substantial success are availed to black people. The justifications given for this include poor education, minimal background experience, or even having a criminal record for some of the pettiest crimes imaginable. However, it is possible that these hindrances can be sidestepped if the systematic injustices are dismantled from their root instead of trying to change the viewpoint of segregationists and assimilationists.
References
Kendi, I. X. (2017). Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America. Random House.