Painful Legacy of Historical African American Culture

Exploring Culture

Culture is an elusive construct that often evades measurement and quantification. However, culture, according Fernandez and Langhout (2014), influences everything one does, thinks, believes, and feels. As policymakers, academics, and educators attempt to reform education in order to more effectively close the academic achievement gap, it is argued, herein, that it is incumbent upon stakeholders to have a firm grasp of the components of culture and the particular cultural constructs experienced by African American children. And, whereas these are critical issues of our day, these challenges have plagued African American communities for decades (centuries). In 1933, Carter Woodson first published his landmark work titled The Miseducation of the Negro wherein he describes the need for a more effective examination of African American cultural mores in order to advance the popular understanding of Blacks and their challenges in the United States.

Almost a hundred years later, Paris (2012) discovered a void in educators’ understanding of African American culture, thereby limiting their ability to effectively teach African American children. Bertocchi (2016) described how voluntary European migration was significantly different from forced African migration. That fact seems to often get lost when teaching and/or working with African American children. The American Counseling Association (ACA; 2014), in its Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, encouraged counselors to demonstrate a sense of respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings while endeavoring to understand their clients from the client’s cultural framework. The ACA leadership implored counselors to refrain from discriminating against clients due to differences in culture, socioeconomic status, age, color, and so forth. However, if counselors and educators are unaware of what constitutes African American culture, myths and inaccuracies persist.

Ratts et al. (2016) argued that until counselors overcame their own stereotypical assumptions of African Americans, the counseling profession would continue to fail to provide effective and meaningful mental health services to African American clients. Ridley (1995) stated that it was imperative for traditionally trained counselors (those trained to work with the majority population) to recognize their biases or they would “expect minority clients to act like them” (p. 12). Walton and Payne (2016) asserted that until clinicians became more knowledgeable about African American culture, the long history of misdiagnosing African American clients would continue.

Defining Culture

Kottak (2011) stated that cultural anthropology is a discipline dedicated to the comprehension and discussion of culture to explain the variety of human beliefs and behaviors—and the meanings groups assign to their beliefs and behaviors. In a well-regarded work, Ianni and Storey (1973) described the difficulty in attempting to understand acculturation process by defining the procedure as a “complex and largely non-intellectual process” (p. 12). Despite the illusiveness of cultural constructs, anthropologists persist in their quest to comprehend and enunciate culture. Rosman and Rubel (2009) defined culture as “primarily a set of ideas and meanings that people use, derived from the past and reshaped in the present” (p. 5). Anthropologists, they maintained, agree that culture pertains to the way people live, which includes their behavior, their way of living, and their ideas. Moulden et al. (2013) stated, “Transmitted culture can be viewed as an inheritance system somewhat independent of genes that is subject to processes of descent with modification in its own right” (p. 231). Anthropologists argue that culture consisted of commonly held beliefs and practices of a group within a society. They assert that the learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals shared by a group is considered that group’s culture. And, a group’s shared strategies (accompanied by generational transmitting of these strategies) that perpetuate the group’s existence is viewed as the group’s culture.

Durkheim, as discussed in Rosman and Rubel’s (2009) The Tapestry of Culture, maintained that culture existed outside of the individual, yet exercises coercive power over his or her behavior. Culture constrains human behavior through cultural norms and direct/indirect social controls. Human action/behavior, anthropologists insist, is dictated by cultural mandates and humans often are unaware or “feel” the cultural constraints that govern their behaviors. Thereby, individuals normally conform to and abide by cultural norms and cultural mandates.

Education, Culture, and Culture Transmission/Reproduction

Contemporary researchers describe how intricately culture influences educational attainment and, thereby, must be woven into the fabric of early education programs. Branco et al. (2018) described the imperative nature, within the context of early childhood education, to include children’s socio-affective development. Yet, these postulations are not revolutionary as anthropologists have described the imperatives of understanding group culture for decades. For example, Meacham (1996) compared Piaget’s (1985) constructivist perspective with Vygotsky’s (1962) sociocultural theory to explore how societies reproduced themselves in the next generation through cultural transmission. Meacham explained that while Piaget focused on the construction of new knowledge, which had the potential to transform culture, Vygotsky emphasized the role of education in the reproduction and transmission of culture. More recently, Bronfenbrenner (2009) described what he termed the ecological environment where effective learning is contingent upon the home environment and the family. He stated, “The ecological environment is conceived as a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls. At the innermost level is the immediate setting containing the developing person” (p. 3). He argued that teaching strategies are useful, but a healthy home-school collaboration was needed in order for meaningful learning to take place.

Education is defined as the process of trans-generational learning by which societies transfer or pass on their culture to future generations (Ozmon & Craver, 2008). Ornstein et al. (2017) demonstrated that, other than the family, the primary institution which served to perpetuate the culture of a nation was/is that nation’s educational institutions—the schools. Ianni and Storey (1973) stated, “Education, formal and informal, is the chief medium of the transmitted behaviors anthropologists call ‘culture’” (p. vii). Jeynes (2010) described how parental influences impacted student performance which could diminish the academic achievement gap between Black and White children. And, Bronfenbrenner insisted that the ties between the school and the home is a “decisive” factor as it relates to the effective education of children.

Jeynes (2015) described how differing social scientists attempted to conceptualize and respond to the academic underachievement of African American children, stating, “Although social scientists acknowledge that an achievement gap exists, they differ widely in their suggestions about how to bridge the gap and it remains immutably wide even to this day” (p. 525). Education is critical to the sociocultural progress of groups. Thereby, the effective education of African American children is of paramount importance to academics and educators alike. How does African American culture influence African American student engagement and success? American philosopher and educator, John Dewey, as discussed in Ozmon and Craver’s (2008) The Philosophical Foundations of Education, argued that second only to the family, education or schooling provided the life-source for culture existence and culture transmission. Schools, Dewey argued, were the channeling aqueducts of culture transmission. Without schools or some type of formal education, a nation’s culture could not continue to exist. Adjaye and Aborampah (2008) described how cultural maintenance is “intergenerational.” That is, a given group’s culture is passed down from generation to generation. One of formalized educational institution’s (schools) mission is that of cultural transmission. And, whereas the majority population’s culture is effectively transferred to future generations of American children, African American students become further removed from their African culture, and, thereby, even further removed from themselves. However, Asante (1992) maintained that a more Afro-centric education was needed for African American students to become comfortable with who they are/were and from where they came. In so doing, these students would become more grounded and better able to successfully assimilate into American culture. Murrell (2007) suggested that, perhaps, too much emphasis was being placed on the type of racial discrimination of the past and not enough emphasis was being placed upon the effects of African American cultural heritage as it pertains to African American student achievement. Murrell stated, “The racism of the 21st century is not based in overt acts, but in the continued covert projections of Black inferiority and White supremacy in the American psyche” (p. 7). Researchers contended that a more thorough understanding of African American culture was essential to confronting present-day African American challenges.

African American Culture: A Historical Perspective

What are the foundational principles which construct African American culture, and, thereby, govern African American behavior? Historians and academics have, for decades, attempted to better conceptualize characteristics of African American culture. For example, Morgan (1933) argued that in order to understand African American culture, one must procure more than a superficial understanding of American enslavement of Africans, as slavery was the birthplace of African American culture. Furthermore, Conrad (1966), in his book, The Invention of the Negro, insisted that, in many respects, slave holders and White Americans created what became known as African American culture. Researchers insist that those interested in understanding and addressing the challenges faced by African American communities today must investigate the origin of those African American communities. This investigation would necessarily begin in the era of American institutional slavery.

Ogbu (1995a) and peers suggested that African American culture is similar to that of other involuntary minority subcultures. However, Parish (2018) described how African American culture was created, distinctively, during American enslavement of the African. That is, African American culture is the only minority culture in the United States (perhaps the world) that was founded and created in slavery. Parish stated that during slavery, “. . . [African Americans] succeeded in creating out of their African heritage and their American environment a distinctive African-American culture and life-style, with its own institutions, its own pattern of relationships, and its own communal bonds” (p. 2). Bowman et al. (2018) agreed with Sue (1981) who insisted that, “Slavery was one of the most important factors that shaped the social, psychological, economic, educational, and political development of Black people” (p. 143). Bowman et al. asserted that educators who comprehended the lingering effects of slavery and segregation would better understand African American student behavior. Salter and Adams (2016) maintained that the root cause of the present sociocultural differences in American society is the American experience of slavery. Parish described how slavery had its own unique form of culture and researchers insist that to grasp the challenges facing African Americans, one would have to gain a deep appreciation for the institution of American slavery.

European domination of Africans to serve as slaves in the American colonies often began on privately owned slave ships (Smythe, 1976; Solar & Duquette, 2017). Conrad (1966) argued that the actual culture of European slavery began on the slave ship, itself. Tannenbaum (1946) recounted how, while on board, captured Africans were chained together while lying down, with 18 inches of space separating the slave from the deck. Coombs (1972) demonstrated that the limited amount space maximized the ship’s cargo capacity, and therefore the crew’s reward, but made it often impossible for the African to turn over or to sit up during the several months voyage from Africa to the New World. Brawley (1924) recounted how many Africans suffocated to death, while many others died from diseases incurred by the ship’s unsanitary conditions. Millions of Africans were thus transported from the Western coast of Africa through the Atlantic to the West Indies and the American colonies in the early 16th century (Thorpe, 1961). Coombs stated that virtually all of the captured and enslaved Africans were made to participate in a period of seasoning in the Caribbean Islands prior to resuming their destination to North America. Coombs maintained that recently captured native Africans were considered more dangerous and strong-willed than seasoned or broken-in slaves, and thereby not preferred by North American slave owners. Seasoning consisted of a myriad of lessons inculcated to the slaves via whippings and withholding of food and similar cruelties until the slave more readily accepted his or her enslaved, inferior condition.

Steckel and Jensen (1986) discussed the Parliamentary decision to investigate the high death rates among enslaved Africans occurring on slave ships in the Middle Passage. Smythe (1976) asserted, “Mankind has experienced few tortures so ghoulish and uncivilized as the transportation of slaves from Africa to the New World, known as the Middle Passage” (p. 5). The Parliamentary inquisition determined that the tight packing of the African cargo, which precipitated diseases such as flux (abnormal flowing of fluid from the body), dysentery (severe diarrhea with flowing of mucus and blood), mortification of the bowels (local death of living tissue), consumption (wasting away of the body), inadequate food supplies, and suicide contributed to the high fatality rate of Africans. Although some writers question the accuracy of the statistics (see Solar & Duquette, 2017), it is undeniable that the middle passage was arduous and deadly. Many millions of Africans were transported to the Americas and millions (no fully accurate record exists) died during American slavery. American slavery has been compared to the Jewish Holocaust and the conquest/annihilation of the American Indian.

Socialization of African Slaves

In 1976, Anthony Albanese published a revealing view of slavery titled, The Plantation School. Therein, he asserted how virtually all historians agreed that in the New World “arrayed against the slave was a repressive apparatus of unparalleled severity” (p. 184). He argued that slavery, and the plantation itself, served as educational institutions, more specifically, school systems for both Black and White Americans. Phillips (1959) argued that no better school existed which socialized Blacks to assume their inferior role as slaves. As an American institution, slavery served as an effective acculturation tool which established and inculcated specific cultural norms to Whites and Blacks. Albanese maintained that slave behaviors that failed to conform to the slave master’s intentions were systematically expunged from the slave’s accessible repertoire. To demonstrate this point, he asserted that Blacks who refused to abdicate their individuality and culture by assimilating into this new cultural form via accepting their enslaved condition were “sent to professional Negro breakers and to be broken” (p. 185). Researchers determined that there remains little, if any, African in the African American. Kardiner and Ovesey (1951) stated, “The most conspicuous feature of the Negro in America is that his aboriginal culture was smashed, be it by design or accident” (p. 39). They insisted that this basic principle, as it affects present-day African Americans, couldn’t be overestimated.

Singh (2016) attempted to render further understanding of the brutality of the culture and institution of slavery, and the latitude of impunity slave owners had at their disposal in their use of violence against Black slaves. Kardiner and Ovesey (1951) maintained that flight or running away was the only form of protest African slaves had at their disposal to resist their condition. However, Katz (1968) maintained that through acts of violence and cruelty, slave owners inculcated effective lessons to slaves who ventured to participate in acts of protest. As an example, Katz reported how Lillburn Lewis (nephew of Thomas Jefferson) discouraged his slaves from running away by making an example of a captured run-away. Katz stated that Lewis gathered all of the slaves into the outhouse, and started a huge fire. Upon tying the 17-year-old slave to a meat block, and amid the pleas for mercy, Lewis commenced chopping the boy into pieces beginning at his ankles and tossing the boy’s severed body parts into the fire, while lecturing other on-looking slaves of the impropriety of disobedience and running away. Katz writes, “. . . and so were the arms, head, and trunk, until all was in the fire” (p. 200).

American socialization of Africans was based on Euro-American ideology which insisted upon the inherent inferiority of African and/or Black peoples (Davis, 2005; Du Bois, 1903; Grier & Cobbs, 1968; Horton, 1994; Oto & Udumukwu, 2015). For decades, writers have described the impact slavery had on the psychological development and well-being of African Americans. For example, Powdermaker (1939) maintained that White indoctrination of, and insistence upon, African inferiority might have been the most debilitating to the African slave and succeeding generations of African Americans. He maintained that African slaves in America came to personally believe that they were inherently inferior to Whites. Tannenbaum (1946), who participated in a comparative study of the institution of slavery in Africa, South America, and North America, argued that North American slavery was the most oppressive form of slavery in the world. And, Morgan (1933) asserted that the North American slave system, unlike others, refused to recognize and respect the humanity of the African slave. Mellon (1988) argued that the goal of slavery was to create within the slave a feeling of complete dependence upon and perpetual, unquestioned inferiority to the White race. Mellon found that this type of socialization distinguished American slavery from slavery in other parts of the world. He agreed that American slavery was the most damaging to the African slave.

Tannenbaum (1946) proceeded to describe how manumission (freeing) of slaves in Spanish countries was often encouraged and practiced. Once manumitted, African slaves easily transitioned into the free society. Tannenbaum established, however, that British and American slavery systems strongly discouraged manumitting slaves. He explained that the few American slaves manumitted were kept as close to the slave condition as possible, and assimilation into the free American society became virtually impossible. Phillips (1959) believed that the institution of slavery was quite effective in socializing the slave to accept his inferior status. Black skin, whether slave or free, was evidence of and came to represent the inherent inferiority of the Black race. Morgan (1933) wrote that African Black skin was a “clear representation of evil and godlessness” (p. 15). Blackness justified the Africans’ condition and ill-treatment (Curry & Cowden, 1972).

Former U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Justice Leon Higginbotham demonstrated keen insights into the impact slavery had on the psyche of African Americans. Higginbotham (1996) argued that American slavery caused long-lasting adverse effects for African Americans. He discussed what he termed “The Ten Precepts of American Slavery Jurisprudence.” Higginbotham maintained that the institution of slavery, above all else, insisted upon Black inferiority. Higginbotham stated that slavery, among other detrimental devices, attempted to, “Presume, preserve, protect, and defend the ideal of the superiority of whites and the inferiority of blacks” (p. 1697). Regarding the education and heritage of the Africans in America, Higginbotham writes, “Deny blacks any education, deny them knowledge of their culture, and make it a crime to teach those who are slaves how to read or to write” (p. 1697). Finally, Higginbotham discusses slavery master insistence upon inculcating the Africans with Western religious culture. He writes,

Recognize no rights of slaves to define and practice their own religion, to choose their own religious leaders, or to worship with other blacks. Encourage them to adopt the religion of the white master and teach them that God is white and will reward the slaves who obeys the commands of his master here on earth. Use religion to justify the slave’s status on earth. (pp. 1697–1698)

Interestingly, although virtually no Africans transported to American shores were Christian upon their arrival, statistics demonstrate that presently, the majority of African Americans consider themselves as Christians. The literature suggests that many, if not all, of the precepts Higginbotham delineated continue to influence African American participation in American society. Higginbotham’s first precept, that of the presumed inferiority of African Americans, became and appears to remain etched in American culture.

In the Dred Scott v. Sanford case (a slave who took his master to court to secure his freedom under the Missouri Compromise), U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roger Taney, responding to the pressure of public sentiment, announced the Court’s decision to deny Dred Scott’s claim of freedom. Although the decision was not unanimous, Chief Justice Taney argued that Blacks were “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations” (Nicolay & Hart, 1914, p. 75). He included in the court’s decision that “a perpetual and impassable barrier was intended to be erected between the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery” (p. 75). He argued that Blacks were so inferior to Whites that the Negro had no rights Whites were bound to respect, and that a “stigma, of the deepest degradation, was fixed upon the whole race” (p. 75).

Powdermaker (1939) summed up White mentality of his day, stating, “Negroes are innately inferior to White people, mentally and morally.” And, he asserted, “There may be good niggers and bad niggers, but a nigger is a nigger and cannot escape the taint” (p. 23). Grier and Cobbs (1968) maintained that Blacks absorbed many of the toxins of White society and began to feel about themselves as their country felt about them. Powdermaker confirmed that assertion by recounting the statement/belief of an 80-year-old Black woman when he quoted her as saying, “The Whites has always been ahead and I suppose they always will be.” When asked why she believed this was so, she responded, “A nigger is a nigger” (p. 326).

Higginbotham (1996) discussed that a primary goal of American slavery jurisprudence was to keep Blacks “as powerless as possible” (p. 1697). This was accomplished through an inferior system of justice, and by withholding educational opportunities for Blacks. Butchart (1990) contended that slave holding states recognized the emancipatory power of education, and the potential of education to challenge White American insistence upon the innate inferiority of Africans. In order to keep Blacks powerless, Southern states’ enacted state laws to keep slaves ignorant and in awe of Whites by prohibiting slaves to participate in learning how to read and/or write (Bell, 2015). Katz (1968) stated that slave States’ aimed to “keep the [slave’s] mind in abject ignorance and degradation, lest the enslaved should grow dissatisfied, and claim the inalienable rights of humanity” (p. 233). Curry and Cowden (1972) argued that slave owners, through a myriad of often violent lessons, effectively socialized Blacks and Whites that Blacks were uneducable, and that education was for Whites. Therefore, during the acculturation process of African Blacks in America, White Americans attempted to eliminate education from African American culture. The super-imposed, internalized message that education was for Whites became a fundamental component of African American and White American culture.

Slavery’s Impact on the African’s Personality

The literature argues that Africans, shortly after their arrival, began to manifest a significantly different mentality. Psychiatrists Kardiner and Ovesey (1951) argued that the psychological effects of slavery were

1. Degradation of self-esteem

2. Destruction of cultural forms and forced adoption of foreign culture traits

3. Destruction of the family unit, with particular disparagement of the male

4. Relative enhancement of the female status, thus making her the central figure in the culture, by virtue of her value to the white male for sexual ends and as mammy to the white children

5. The destruction of social cohesion among the Negroes by the inability to have their own culture

6. The idealization of the white master; but with this ideal was incorporated an object which was at once revered and hated. These became incompatible constituents of the Negro personality. (p. 47)

Albanese (1976) stated that slavery’s mark can be visibly seen today. He asserted, “There are many parallels between the slave family and the modern-day lower-class black family. Both are characterized by a strong mother, instability, poverty and a father either absent or constituting a marginal personality” (p. 165). He determined that the sheer brutality and socialization of slavery led to the eventual destruction of the independent and individual nature of the African, and within a few short years a “Sambo” personality emerged. Albanese suggested that ingratiating, cowering, and obsequious behaviors distinguished the Sambo personality. He, too, noted similarities in African slaves in the United States and many of the Jews discovered in Nazi German concentration camps. Kardiner and Ovesey (1951) insisted that the Africans acquired these personality characteristics as they adapted to intensely difficult social conditions.

Curry and Cowden (1972) noted that although demeaning, ingratiating behaviors were essential to the physical well-being of slaves, they were the very behaviors slaveholders despised. Horton (1994) argued that although the West Africans sold into slavery often had cultural legacies of heroic traditions, they underwent far-reaching mental and personality changes in the New World. In a short period, they were converted from oftentimes warriors to slaves. Belgrave and Allison (2014) and Blassingame (1972) maintained that regardless of the African slave’s previous culture, upon landing in the New World, the African-born slaves had to learn the language and culture his master initiated.

African American Self-Perceptions and the Depreciation of Africanaity

Markus and Kitayama (1991) insisted, “In sum, we have concluded that the view one holds of the self is critical in understanding individual behavior” (p. 248). Ellis-Hervey et al. (2016) described that many researchers have explored the correlation between racial identity and self-perception. However, Conceptualizing African American self-esteem is fraught with challenges (Belgrave & Allison, 2014).

Okeke-Adeyanju et al. (2014) discussed the complicated nature of assessing African American self-esteem. They described how decades of research has been dedicated to exploring the correlation between higher self-esteem and academic success. However, researchers often find themselves in a quandary because although many African Americans reported high self-esteem, many African Americans continued to perform at subpar levels of their White peers. Constantine and Blackmon (2002) discussed how parental influences related to their perceptions of White institutions influenced African American student self-esteem. DeFraitus and Rinn (2013) stated, “Self-concept can be defined as an individual’s evaluation of self that is based on his or her experiences and interpretations of those experiences” (p. 57). They argued that when an individual does a thing well, she or he, thereby, feels a greater sense of accomplishment which lends itself to increased levels of self-esteem. Conversely, failure often exacerbates one’s sense of ineptitude and diminishes one’s sense of self-concept. It would then be inferred that due to repeated academic underachievement, many African American children’s belief in their inability to academically compete with their peers is reinforced. Gordon, Iwamoto, Ward, Potts, and Boyd (2007) insightfully stated, “connecting one’s self-evaluation to their academic performance can help to explain academic achievement for adolescent African American male students” (p. 285). Crocker and Major (1989) attempted to determine how social stigma impacted African American self-concept. They discussed how African Americans, similar to the physically disabled, physically deformed, mentally retarded, homosexuals, mentally ill individuals, and other marginalized groups in society, with negative stereotypes and social stigmas. Crocker and Major asserted, “Our analysis applies to individuals who by virtue of their membership in a social category are vulnerable to being labeled as deviant, are targets of prejudice or victims of discrimination or have negative economic or interpersonal outcomes” (p. 609).

Elrich (1994) pointed to this social stigma when he discussed his alarm when his predominantly African American sixth-grade class described their beliefs as they pertain to African Americans. He stated that his “A” student disturbed him when the sixth-grade child declared, “Everybody knows that Black people are bad. That’s the way we are” (p. 12). Elrich stated that he thereby sought the consensus of his predominantly African American class to determine whether or not the student’s beliefs were isolated. The consensus of the class was

(a) African Americans were poor and stayed poor because they were dumber than Whites and Asians; (b) Black people don’t like to work hard; (c) White people are smart and have money; (d) Black kids who do their schoolwork and behave want to be White; (e) White kids who do poorly or who want to be cool dress and act like Blacks; (f) Black men get women pregnant then leave; (g) Hispanics are more like blacks than whites. They can’t be white so they try to be black; and, (h) Hispanics are poor and don’t try hard because, like blacks, they know it doesn’t matter. (pp. 12–13)

Elrich found that the Black students in his class did not lack pride. He stated, “They are, in fact, quite proud of what they are. They were good at being bad, some were excellent at it, and the badder they were, the greater their social status” (p. 14).

African Americans often express similar aversions and deplorable attitudes toward Blackness and African features and characteristics. Anderson and Cromwell (1977) asserted that African Americans adopted the belief and practice of devaluating Black skin and African features centuries ago. They ascertained that within the Black culture, the agreed upon sentiment was the darker the African American’s complexion, the more unattractive the individual was. Anderson and Cromwell found that in the Black community, dark-skinned African Americans came to accept and believe that his or her dark complexion was evidence enough that he or she was “negative, inferior, and less attractive” (p. 76).

Johnson et al. (2017) described how the elevation of “whiteness” and devaluation of “blackness” is inculcated into our culture and images, stating,

Most symbols and words that are associated with white symbolize purity and cleanliness (e.g., “white as snow,” “little white lie,” and “that’s very white of you”). For this reason, the language used to describe Black bodies derives from disdain, disrespect, and devaluation of Black people. (p. 60)

More than two decades earlier, Keith and Herring (1991) found that skin tone within the African American community itself predicted African American occupational opportunities and income more so than the individual’s parent’s socioeconomic status. They found (a) darker complexioned African Americans were less educated than lighter skinned African Americans, (b) darker complexioned African Americans represented the lowest socioeconomic status among Blacks, and (c) darker skinned African Americans were most likely to be relegated to more menial occupations. Keith and Herring found that as the shade of the African American’s skin became lighter, the more his or her actual earnings increased. They found the lighter the shade of skin the African American possessed, the more education he or she acquired. And, finally, they found that the lighter the skin the African American had, the more professional occupational position he or she held. Kardiner and Ovesey (1951) claimed that during slavery, “Gradations of color became the fixed method of determining status which persists to this day” (p. 47). Grier and Cobbs (1968) lamented that often the unfortunate Black child finds himself in a world where even his own parents cannot see beyond the color of his skin.

Summary

The literature seemed to support the contention that African American culture was historically instituted and established during the period of American slavery. The enslavement of Africans by European Americans persisted, virtually unabated, for nearly 400 years. The literature posited that, although Native Americans and a few other nationalities were in bondage for a short period, slavery became essentially synonymous with Black people, and Black skin became synonymous with slavery and inherent Black inferiority. The literature argued that the culture of slavery, by its very nature and existence (human bondage in the land of human freedom), imposed upon Blacks a culture of inferiority. It was argued in the literature that, in many respects, White Americans (during slavery) created what became known as African American culture. Researchers and authors asserted that slave holders, determined to secure their fortunes and futures, purposely attempted to create within Blacks a perpetual feeling of inferiority to their masters, in particular, and to all Whites, in general. Slaveholder reasoning suggested that Blacks who believed in their innate inferiority to the White race would more readily accept their enslaved condition and would less frequently participate in seditious, rebellious behaviors. The literature elucidated that the absence of slave revolts in the American colonies was pronouncedly atypical in other parts of the world, assuming a virtual eerie quality, further supporting the contention that European influence on African American culture was pervasive.

Blacks socialized and enculturated in the American system, the literature suggested, eventually began to view themselves as inherently inferior to Whites. In order to maintain this process of socialization, institutional slavery had to be immune to outside agitators and corruptive forces. Education, due to its liberating potential, was considered a corrupting influence for slaves. Therefore, it was legally determined that education, at virtually all costs, had to be systematically and consciously extricated from the socialization process of Blacks. Teaching slaves to read and/or write became a serious legal offense, resulting in stiff fines and, oftentimes imprisonment for the White Americans caught educating Blacks. Slaves (often any Blacks) who were discovered in the process of learning how to read or write were legally beaten; the customary punishment was 39 lashes with a whip. Slaves’ ability to read, it was believed, would liberate the mind of the slave, and had the potential to threaten the entire slave system, including the safety of their masters (perhaps Whites, in general). Therefore, the literature suggested that, during African American acculturation into American society, education was withheld from the African American socialization process and/or culture. African Americans, in actuality, would have to conform what is/was perceived as “white” when/if she or he pursued intellectual development. These cultural contaminants continue to influence African American and White American culture.