Identifiability of African Americans
Being black poses a problem in a white world: You stand out, and dramatically so. Black and white are perceived as opposite colors; a black person cannot easily “blend” into a predominantly white America. Skin color is, in the biological
sense, a minor genetic trait, but in the sociological sense it is anything but minor. Identifiability makes people easy targets of discrimination. Most members of white ethnic groups look like the dominant population, and most Latinos are not physically identifiable as members of an ethnic group. Black people cannot shed their color, but co-mingling has occurred since the Africans were pressed into slavery, resulting in generations of individuals with various degrees of dark-skin pigmentation. Interethnic marriages have increased somewhat in recent dec- ades, further influencing the color balance of the American population. Yet skin color, no matter what the permutation, continues to identify some as targets of discrimination.
Sociocultural traits also contribute to discrimination. Poverty and unem- ployment statistics for African Americans reflect their disproportionate repre- sentation in the lower classes; demeanor, speech, and dress further distinguish many members of the African American community. These characteristics are reinforced by black culture, which has evolved in reaction to slavery and the discrimination that blacks have endured since “emancipation.”
Even when socioeconomic standing and/or culture are not obvious, skin color alone remains as a basis of discrimination. For example, Joe Feagin (1991) conducted in-depth interviews with black middle-class persons and found that they experienced discrimination in public places, such as restaurants, stores, swimming pools, and parking areas. Thus, to be denied service, to be told to go, or to suffer epithets are still very common experiences for blacks in America. The prejudice and discrimination that middle-class African Americans live with cannot be attributed to class or culture, but simply to skin color
Negative Beliefs about African Americans
More than any other ethnic population in the United States, and perhaps in the world, African Americans have been the victims of negative beliefs and stereo- types. Negative beliefs have also reinforced the identifiability of blacks, making them unique in a negative way. Such stereotypes have then been used to legit- imize discrimination in a society whose core values are based on liberty, free- dom, and equality (Andrews, 1994; Staples, 1975).
In the early period of slavery, from 1650 to 1820, whites viewed Africans as “uncivilized heathens,” “bestial,” “sexually aggressive,” and as suffering the “curse of God” who made them black (Jordan, 1968; Turner and Singleton, 1978). Although there is some debate as to whether all white southerners held such hard views (Roediger, 1991:24), these beliefs changed somewhat when abolition- ists in the North challenged them. Slavery became a “positive good,” protecting Africans from their “savage impulses” and responding to their “childlike dependency.” Yet, even in the abolitionist North, stereotypes portrayed Africans as ignorant, lazy, and immoral (Fredrickson, 1971:51). During this period the “black Sambo” stereotype evolved (Boskin, 1986), which portrayed black people as childlike, helpless, shuffling, and fumbling (but with potentially aggressive tendencies) (see Box 5.1)
After the Civil War, when the short-lived but significant gains of radical Reconstruction were undone, African Americans were portrayed as inferior because they had not been able to take advantage of the “equal opportunities” offered by Reconstruction. Even in enlightened circles, blacks were often por- trayed as not having progressed as far as whites on the evolutionary scale; so, without segregation as well as supervision and control, African Americans would revert to their more primitive state. In the South, this state was perceived to be one of laziness, criminality, and lustfulness (especially for white women, a belief that conveniently overlooked some slaveholders’ lust for black women); in the North, this state was viewed as one of childlike docility and kindness that needed to be channeled (by whites). Whether vicious or benign, treatment of African Americans was based on the belief that black people are biologically inferior and must be segregated (Fredrickson, 1971).
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