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The Ideology of Racism
A masterly study of the peoples of the African Diaspora with a long overdue reminder of their gigantic, but unrecognised, contribution to art, science and technology. This is a searing analytical account of the ideology of Western racism and its horrific consequences for Africa and the Diaspora.
307 pages, Paperback
First published August 31, 1988
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December 26, 2014
I wish I had read this book a long time ago...but nothing before its time.
The writer defines racism and distinguishes it from racial discrimination. The two are related but are not the same. Racism is based on belief, feeling and action rooted in an ideology which falsely proclaims that one race is superior to another or others. Racial discrimination occurs when - due to racism - rights and opportunities (e.g., in the areas of employment, education and housing) are unjustly withheld from a racial group by those who have the power to do so.
The writer points out that all public practice is dependent on its existence upon an ideology. Without a widely held and accepted ideology to justify its existence, public practice cannot survive. As public practice changes over time, the ideology that sustains it must also evolve. The public practice of marriage, for instance, is under going change in certain countries of the world - as the practice changes so does the sustaining ideology and the converse is also true; as an ideology changes so does the related public practice.
Since the institution of European enslavement of African peoples encompassed various public practices (e.g., the horrible Atlantic slave trade and the brutal plantation system of the Americas and the Caribbean) there had to be an ideology which justified these unsavory public practices. That ideology was the ideology of racism which argued that the black race was inferior to the European races - in fact the African was not a person. This ideology allowed an African to be treated as chattel property of the European. The African could be bought and sold much in the same way as cattle, sheep and goats.
The slave trade and European enslavement of African peoples may have ended more that 170 years ago but all of he tenets of the ideology which supported those public practices have not faded into oblivion. Some still linger with us today which is way we see clear evidence of racial discrimination in Western societies where persons of African descent are a minority group.
Mr. Yeboah's book sets out the case for debunking the myths that have been enshrined in the ideology of racism by examining African history, scientific achievements of notable African-Americans and inconsistencies in so-called research carried out to in the area of intelligence. Myth after myth is persuasively debunked in the book.
I encourage lovers and students of history to read this book. You will likely be mightily surprised to find that Egypt was a colony of Ethiopia. You would be surprised because the ideology of racism has ensured that inconvenient truths such as these are not included in our textbooks. We are instead taught that the Egyptian was always light-skinned simply because Egypt was perhaps the worlds first great civilization.
If you are like me - of African descent and on a journey to reclaim a lost history - then you most definitely should read this book.
The writer defines racism and distinguishes it from racial discrimination. The two are related but are not the same. Racism is based on belief, feeling and action rooted in an ideology which falsely proclaims that one race is superior to another or others. Racial discrimination occurs when - due to racism - rights and opportunities (e.g., in the areas of employment, education and housing) are unjustly withheld from a racial group by those who have the power to do so.
The writer points out that all public practice is dependent on its existence upon an ideology. Without a widely held and accepted ideology to justify its existence, public practice cannot survive. As public practice changes over time, the ideology that sustains it must also evolve. The public practice of marriage, for instance, is under going change in certain countries of the world - as the practice changes so does the sustaining ideology and the converse is also true; as an ideology changes so does the related public practice.
Since the institution of European enslavement of African peoples encompassed various public practices (e.g., the horrible Atlantic slave trade and the brutal plantation system of the Americas and the Caribbean) there had to be an ideology which justified these unsavory public practices. That ideology was the ideology of racism which argued that the black race was inferior to the European races - in fact the African was not a person. This ideology allowed an African to be treated as chattel property of the European. The African could be bought and sold much in the same way as cattle, sheep and goats.
The slave trade and European enslavement of African peoples may have ended more that 170 years ago but all of he tenets of the ideology which supported those public practices have not faded into oblivion. Some still linger with us today which is way we see clear evidence of racial discrimination in Western societies where persons of African descent are a minority group.
Mr. Yeboah's book sets out the case for debunking the myths that have been enshrined in the ideology of racism by examining African history, scientific achievements of notable African-Americans and inconsistencies in so-called research carried out to in the area of intelligence. Myth after myth is persuasively debunked in the book.
I encourage lovers and students of history to read this book. You will likely be mightily surprised to find that Egypt was a colony of Ethiopia. You would be surprised because the ideology of racism has ensured that inconvenient truths such as these are not included in our textbooks. We are instead taught that the Egyptian was always light-skinned simply because Egypt was perhaps the worlds first great civilization.
If you are like me - of African descent and on a journey to reclaim a lost history - then you most definitely should read this book.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review