The Psychology of Racism

The Psychology of Racism

Segregation has and still affects perceptions of Blackness inside and outside the Black community by making Black people see themselves as White people see them. Many of Black people have accepted the fallacy that they were inferior to White people at a young age, and Whites learned that Blacks were lower then Whites at a young age as well.

Perceptions of Blackness within the Black community have been witnessed and lived by W.E.B. Dubois and many other Black writers and movie directors such as Spike Lee. W.E.B. Dubois wrote many pieces of literature that have been noticed. Spike Lee Directed many movies but only a handful showed perceptions of Blackness within the Black community.

In the film Bamboozled by Spike Lee, he creates a show within the movie. The show is basically Black actors who paint themselves Blacker and their lips redder than they really are. This is to show the current audience how Whites saw Blacks during the Jim Crow era. W.E.B. Dubois states in all of his pieces that the White man see all Black people the same way. W.E.B. Dubois and Spike Lee are two Black men that have accepted the facts of White America but overcame the prejudice remarks. Dubois and Lee both in writing and film showed perceptions of the Blackness within the Black community by showing segregation, and racism.

?The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, --a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.? W.E.B. Dubois explains that the Black man is born with the gift of second sight meaning they can see themselves in the manor that White folks do. Dubois also states that Black people have no self identity, which means to me that they didn?t think they had as much power as the White people.

Perceptions of Blackness outside the Black community include speeches from Government officials and documentaries. In the documentary ?A Class Divided? we see that young White children are raised with a racist mentality. In the Government, George Wallace, Governor of Alabama (1962-1966, 1970-1974) we see the support of segregation.

George Wallace states ?and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.? This quote shows the perceptions of Blackness outside the Black community. In the documentary A Class Divided a teacher conducts a study on racism on her elementary class.