preview

African History And Self Hatred

Decent Essays
Open Document

Walker has shown that the remedy for self-hatred is teaching people of African descent to love their whole black-selves, mind, body and history. In essence if we don't teach African history and self-love, then western culture will teach Africans European history and to aspire to be European which will destroy the self love and mental health of any person of African descent who lives in that society. For what little history is taught about Africans institutionally and publically presently, it used as a tool to disempower people of African descent. To start present interpretations of African history denies the feats and accomplishments done by Africans as well as the roots from which all people come from. Presently history is made for people …show more content…

They say history is decided by the victors, so clearly the history Europeans present is intended to uplift Europeans and disempower people of African descent, especially those living in racialized societies. We can say that the history presented today is intended to disempower Africans because it is self evident in European writings as well as contradictory to actual facts. For starters, after the slaves regained their freedom in America history was used to disempower them people believed that the freed negro would “regress to his former self before slavery, i.e a wild, oversexed, bestial, uncivilized being bent on rape, drunkenness, and crime”(Byrum,1999 p.267). This lead the free negro and his family to be segregated in every area of social life under the jim crow. This was because history was used to describe Africans as primitive and uncivilized and in need of slavery to protect Europeans from Africans and Africans from themselves. A false history was used to justify the unequal treatment of Africans and though it is not outrightly spoken today African history is not spoken of positively and further reinforces an inferiority belief amongst Europeans and African-Americans as well. This disparity in the presentation and receiving of information promotes white supremacy and the disunion amongst African …show more content…

The answer to this question is both yes and no depending on the viewpoint that this question is being looked at. In relation to white people of power the answer is still both yes and no. This is because white people are very aware of African-American history and to acknowledge their part in it would mean to admit fault. By admitting fault they would now become responsible for the state of African-Americans presently. Which is why it's easier and more economically and politically better for them to continue funding prisons to incarcerate African-Americans rather than fix the root issues that stemmed from slavery. I say yes only because if Europeans knew of the impact African history had on civilization then maybe we wouldn't have a highly racialized society in America intent on the incarceration of African-Americans. However, from the viewpoint of an African perspective the answer is most definitely no. It is important for any culture or race to understand their history from a psychological and developmental standpoint, especially when faced with

Get Access