Psychodynamic Speculations on Derogatory Names for Blacks

Abstract

The phenomenon of linguistic racism is explored through the application of the psychoanalytic theory of Joel Kovel's White Racism: A Psychohistory and the data of such analytic explorers as Kubie, Pinderhughes, Hamilton, and Grier and Cobbs. The psychodynamics of racism are related to the psychosexual development of the child and particularly to that phase encom passing toilet training with its conflicts, fears, and fan tasies. It is demonstrated that these psychological phenomena are corroborated by the sociolinguistic phenomenon of racial labeling. That is, each of the seventy-odd derogatory names for Blacks—e.g., nigger, boogie, etc.—embodies one or more of the three un conscious fantasies that Kovel believes Whites project: Blacks are bestial, sexual, and fecal. The three large groups are subdivided on the basis of allied characteristics, and each is then linked to the underly ing psychodynamic. The result is a further illumination of the phenomenon of racial labeling and of the power of the unconscious to determine human behavior.

Play Objects as Tools of Propaganda: Characterizations of the African American Male

“…With respect to this, anthropologists have observed that &dquo;the use of symbols, in art as in language, implies a body of common understandings among the members of a society, and carries as well the implication that these understandings are transmitted from generation to generation&dquo; (Beals & Hoijer, 1965, p. 657). The play objects examined have insured the maintenance of beliefs that connote negative conceptions of African Americans (Baldwin, 1979;Banks, 1976;Kloss, 1979;Wilkinson, 1974). They further indicate that the images conveyed will continue to be sustained and transmitted from one generation to another (Wilkinson, 1971 ), since such images are part of our psychological history and our consciousness.…”

“…Operationally, attribution bias means that the subject is imputed to have particularistic features of an undesirable quality. This category designates the attributing of a &dquo;negatively affective&dquo; word or conception to a person or character (Kloss, 1979). Adjective bias is represented in the systematic creation of an impression by assigning adverse properties to a subject or an artifact (e.g., &dquo;mischievous pickaninny&dquo; for a Black baby doll).…”

“…Creators of stereotyped Black toys have translated and incorporated the ideology, attitudes, and customs of a race-conscious social order. Thus characterizations of African American males elicit data about interracial history, the psychocultural structure in which Blacks and Whites have interacted (Kloss, 1979;Wilkinson, 1977), and the economic and political systems in which Blacks have universally been subjugated.…”

“…While overt stereotyped labels such as coon and nigger have disappeared from toy advertisements (Ebony, 1968), they survive in mutated form in magazine advertisements (Shuey,195 3 ); fiction (Deane, 1968;Kane & Wilkinson, 1974); movies (Killens, 1975;Welsing, 1974a); and the language system (Burgest, 1973); as well as the entire fabric of the Western world (Kloss, 1979;Welsing, 1974b). In the present technological phase of our history, television comedy shows and films have replaced play artifacts in the stigmatization of Black males.6 &dquo;There is no question that motion pictures constitute an important propaganda vehicle in modem society&dquo; (Doob, 1948;p.…”

Now That We’ve Found Love What Are We Gonna Do with It?

“…A theme of this narrative is to construct parodies of White people. For (Kloss, 1979). White supremacy is unmasked as a survival tactic by a 'mutant, genetic deficient minority' (Welsing, 1991, pp.…”