nimh wrote:Sofia wrote:I was also surprised, since blacks have suffered so much discrimination--that they put light skinned blacks on some superior hierarchy above dark skinned blacks.
Probably for that very reason. It's called internalisation, I think (of the perceptions that are held of you by the group that dominates popular culture, power, education ... whatever channels apart from family one's conception of self comes through). Racism between lighter-skinned and darker-skinned (people of colour) is & has been very prevalent
Great piece nimh. Thanks.
We have a racial situation here in Canada, as does the US, and Australia and NZ, related to our indigenous peoples. It's heart-breaking to see the struggles they are often up against precisely because of the 'internalization' nimh speaks of.
I've mentioned this anecdote elsewhere, but will relate it again here. One summer back in my home town, I drove taxi. A lot of our trips were to or from the various reserves about town. One morning I picked up a young girl of about 16, and as we drove along talking, she pointed up to the telephone/power lines and said, "I can't figure out how they get the water through there." Their culture has, in so many cases and in so many ways, fallen victim to notions of worthlessness. And that's a comparative thought, not at all helped by how we often them.
There was a lovely article I read years ago in the New Yorker on the history of history books in North America, and the change in portrayal of the native people. It was a slow and steady progression from positive to negative.