Naturalization of Slavery and Discrimination in the United States: An Analysis of the Roles of Protestantism, Capitalism and Social Darwinism in the Formation of Demeaning Black Stereotypes

Beyad, Maryam Soltan
Roshnavand, Farshid Nowrouzi

Palmyra Fiber as Additional Materials on Solid Concrete Brick of Aggregate
Vol. 3 No. 11 (2012): November 2012 - Special Issue

After the first encounter between the Occident and the non-white, non-Christian subjects in the fifteenth century, theWestern mind began to Otherize blacks through a deliberate exaggeration of their physical and sociocultural differences. Thisprocess of Otherization and inferiorization was reinforced by the West’s employment of a stereotypical representational strategywhich depicted the Negroid either as a noble child of nature or a demonic savage. In the pre-emancipation United States wherethe slave trade had turned into one of the most lucrative businesses of the day, these objectifying stereotypes were sopreponderant that they battered down and almost vanished the real black presence. By demoting blacks to a subhuman statusand portraying them as brutish, heathen and depraved, the dominant white society could easily justify the atrocious deedsperpetrated against blacks during the slavery era. Even after the emancipation, the extant demeaning stereotypes served aspowerful instruments in the hands of white dominators to impose discrimination and segregation on the subalternized blacks.This paper analyzes the roles of Protestantism, Capitalism and Social Darwinism in the formation and perpetuation ofdemeaning black stereotypes, and tries to demonstrate how these major religious, economic and scientific trends of the daynaturalized the institution of slavery and the pervasive discrimination against blacks.