Racism, inequality, discrimination, colonial past: “viruses” that undermine social cohesion.
A lecture by Boyeniak Guy Igor aka Providence
Table of Contents
Introduction
In light of the current climate of discrimination and racism against Black people, which afflicts our society and impacts the cohesion of humanity, we must intervene by making a personal commitment. As far as I am concerned, I have long believed that there is no intrinsic reality to being Black or white, that only class barriers matter, and that democratic engagement makes for a fruitful life. The younger generations take to the streets to say that these values should be universal, regardless of skin colour. Nevertheless, a successful life boils down to what one does to eradicate hatred through justice and freedom. Whether the police are Black or white, just like their victims, there is only one choice that matters, and that is to stand up for those who have no choice in how to shape their destiny. Value instead of colour, the greatness of inner values instead of what can be seen from the outside, a march of pride, and the right to be outraged.
This document is a compilation of analysis and opinions on the present-day reality of racism, inequality and discrimination, which I believe are linked to the colonial past, and constitute a “virus” that undermines social cohesion.
In addition, I will give an historical overview of the classification of races, speak about colonialism and finally explain the consequences of colonialism in terms of discrimination and racism.
Historical review of the classification of races
In the beginning the world was one and, wherever they were, everyone could enjoy their freedom unconditionally and live their own reality, adhering only to the customs and traditions established in their clan.
Then the earth was divided by a tectonic movement, by plates shifting.
So, in these new circumstances, man had the aspiration for freedom and for ways to move around. In this way, the desire for discovery grew in man’s consciousness.
What does history teach us about these resettlements in terms of today’s discrimination and racism?
Um zu verstehen, warum dieses Phänomen der Diskriminierung und des Rassismus bis heute anhält und in allen gesellschaftlichen Schichten immer wieder von sich reden macht, habe ich beschlossen, in der Zeit zurückzugehen.
Heutzutage glauben manche Menschen, dass sie aufgrund ihrer geografischen Lage, ihrer Hautfarbe oder ihrer wirtschaftlichen Stärke über andere stehen. Und andere, die nicht in der Lage sind, darauf zu reagieren oder es bestenfalls als absurd empfinden, finden sich damit ab oder verfluchen die Natur dafür, dass sie gegenüber ihren charmanten Mitmenschen “minderwertig” gemacht wurden.
To this previous question, each and every one of us has our own answer, our own perspective.
But let me first present the origin of all the false developments in relation to the hierarchical thinking of “human races”.
In 1758, CARL VON LINNE, in “Système Natura”, proposed four kinds of human beings and attributed to them unscientific characteristics:
1.The Americanus:
red skin, erect posture and angry character.
2.The Europeus:
white skin, blood and muscles.
3.The Asiaticus:
pale yellow skin, melancholy and stiff.
4.The Afer
black skin, laid-back and phlegmatic.
He also defines two other more imaginative varieties, the Monstrosities (hairy people) and the Ferus (wild children), which refer to people of small stature.
Then, in 1775, the naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach proposed a new way of classifying Homo Sapiens: “De generis humani varietate nativa”. In 1795, he adopted the following taxonomy: “the Mongolian variety (China, Japan), the pale-skinned Caucasian variety (Europe), the dark-skinned Ethiopian variety (Africa), the American variety and the Malayan variety (Polynesians, Aborigines)”.
What was notable about Blumenbach’s taxonomy was that he established a hierarchy between the varieties. He placed the Caucasian “race” above all the others according to very personal criteria: “They are the most beautiful people! ”
All others, he says, are inferior to the Caucasian race.
It is worth noting that all these writers who put forward theories on the classification of human races belonged to the “Caucasian type”. How ironic!
All these attempts to classify the world will shape our view of the world through the ages. We inherit them and they are part of our history. Some people consciously or unconsciously use these theories for racist purposes.
Colonisation
Colonisation refers to the process whereby a country or group of people establishes one or more colonies in a foreign territory. Colonisation, this negatively-viewed system, is said to aim at the exploitation of raw materials, labour, strategic positions, living space, etc.
Germany, like many of its regional counterparts, engaged in colonial ambitions. The history of colonialism in Germany began under the guidance of Carl Peters, the founder of the Society for German Colonisation, who was supported by Bismarck. Peters travelled to Africa to plunder the continent’s land in order to guarantee his people long-term economic gain and a life of prosperity, at the expense of the human rights of the African people.
Underlying the whole colonial process was an apparent fact established in France: the inequality of the various human “races”. To speak of “superior races” and “inferior races”, as Jules Ferry did before the Chamber of Deputies in 1885, was not shocking. At that time, the question of racial hierarchy was not discussed; it was seen as common sense. This was confirmed and reinforced in the 19th century by new scientific discourses, such as diplomat Joseph Arthur de Gobineau’s 1855 essay on the inequality of the human races, or other anthropological works that from the physical characteristics of Black people (e.g. the size of the brain), concluded that they were “primitive”. These were then combined with new evolutionist theories which argued that “savage” people (e.g. African people) were only a precursor to “civilised” (Western) people.
"When Black men and women are exhibited in African-looking villages at the 1889 World's Fair, there is also a pedagogical logic to it," notes historian and film director Pascal Blanchard in the magazine GEO Histoire "L'Afrique au temps des colonies" (No. 24). "The theme of the exhibition is the progress of humanity and an attempt is made to show its different stages of development."
This is a powerful justification for republican colonisation. It legitimises conquest in the name of universal humanist ideals … and at the same time allows these ideals not to be applied to the local population, because in a sense they are not yet fully human. So before you civilise them, you can dominate them and rule over them. In his book “Marianne et les colonies” (published by La Découverte, 2003), the historian Gilles Manceron calls this trick “fake universalism…
..The Republic of France, especially since the beginning of the Third Republic, has formulated a specific discourse which brings human rights into play to justify colonisation. In reality, however, the message of human rights was distorted in order to authorise their violation."
At the beginning of the 19th century, “Black Africa” became the favourite territory of this new colonialism, which France extended to most of the western part of the continent, from the Sahara to the Congo – not forgetting Madagascar. At the beginning, in the 1870s, most of this vast territory was still untouched by any Western presence and posed no real challenge. For centuries, Europeans had kept to the coasts, where local traders supplied them with slaves and exotic goods, like the French in Senegal, Saint-Louis and Gorée. Exploration of the interior began during the 19th century and intensified from the 1850s onwards, especially in the southern part of the country, initiated by the English. The French, led by Colonel Louis Faidherbe, carried out an early territorial conquest and economic “development” of the Senegal interior in the years 1850-1860. With reduced troops, reinforced by native battalions, Faidherbe penetrated deep into the country, establishing protectorates and suppressing rebellions such as that of the Fulbe or the Toucouleur.
These operations were only a precursor to the “run” on Africa that was to begin in the 1870s. Historian Nicolas Bancel explains:
“One had to plant the flag as far as possible before the others did. African countries had increasingly become the focus of interest in previous decades. For the French, rivalry against other European countries, especially the English, was a powerful driving force for territorial conquest. And since the English, who embraced the economic and strategic motives of conquest even more strongly than the French, had a head start, it was necessary to advance as quickly as possible to conquer as much land as possible.” Jules Ferry would refer to this conquest frenzy with the expression “course au clocher” (race for the steeple).
SPEECH BY JULES FERRY ON 28 JULY 1885 IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
“Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say openly that indeed the higher races have a right over the lower races (…) They have a right because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilise the inferior races (…) In the history of earlier centuries these duties have often been misunderstood; and certainly when the Spanish soldiers and explorers introduced slavery into Central America, they did not fulfil their duty as men of a higher race. But, in our time, I maintain that European nations acquit themselves with generosity, with grandeur, and with sincerity of this superior civilising duty.”
Thus, over many years, the continents of Africa, Asia and America were gradually deprived of everything needed for them to thrive. In particular, this included: healthy people (enslaved), mineral and land resources, indigenous people humiliated and displaced .
“The history of colonialism and slavery by the Western world has left deep marks on the way we think about groups today,”
explains historian Pap Ndiaye. Even though this time seems long ago, its effects are still felt today in the form of racist stereotypes and discrimination against the Black population worldwide.
Colonial ideology, an influence on anti-black racism today
“Discrimination is the unfair treatment, exclusion or humiliation of people because they belong to a certain group, or because of the assumption that they belong to that group.”
This discriminatory or exclusionary treatment can result in people being denied access to certain places such as nightclubs or sports clubs, or not being hired for certain jobs. Discrimination can take the form of personal insults or boycotting the products of certain groups of people. It can take the form of stereotyping and exclusionary images found in the media or within education. Discrimination also means that the interests of a certain group are not taken into account in the political sphere or that people from this group have no political representation.
In fact, discrimination manifests itself in various forms:
- Structural discrimination, conceived at the state level through laws or legal regulations.
- Institutional discrimination in everyday life, conceived at the state level and experienced, for example, when dealing with authorities.
- Non-state institutional discrimination, e.g. in the real estate or labour market or in accessing certain services or products.
- Everyday racism in interactions between individuals, or between informal or formal societal groups.
- Cultural discrimination, e.g. in the media or in books
- Racist attacks and acts of violence.
We define racism as a distinct pattern of exclusion, judgement and unequal treatment based on external criteria associated with classifications such as ethnicity, nation, culture or religion. Racism manifests itself in a set of privileges, actions, laws, organisational structures, cultural images and perceptions of others that underpin this preferential treatment and exclusion. The resulting, self-perpetuating privileges are historically shaped by Europe’s colonialist past.
In the case of racism, certain personality traits (e.g. criminality, temperament or lack of education) are attributed to certain groups of people on the basis of the above criteria, and certain abilities (e.g. music and sports, but not management or physics) are attributed to other groups. It is made out as though these people are a homogeneous group and that these character traits are “innate” or can never change. It is even assumed that the boundaries that determine membership of one group or another are completely clear and obvious. Interestingly, the majority of people can see and identify the diversity of their own group (the group they identify with), especially when referring to broad categories such as nation (city/region, Berlin, Bavaria, etc.) or religion (Protestants, Catholics in Bavaria compared to Catholics in Spain). In contrast, the “others” are seen as homogeneous groups. They are said to be “all like that” or “almost all like that”, and exceptions prove the rule. This is also a component of racist thinking.
As an example, I think of the young son of a friend. One day, I go to their house and the son categorically refuses to eat a banana, his favourite fruit, at the end of the meal. We try to get him to talk, but nothing. On the third day, the father calls me and says, “Come, I need to talk to you”. His son then explains to us that he had a mental blockage because one of his classmates had called him a monkey when he ate a banana. According to his classmate, all black people were monkeys. The father stormed into the school in a rage and started getting angry at the teacher, asking, “What are you doing when children of this age already have racist ideas?” The teacher answered him, “We know this child’s situation, his grandfather brings him to school. His grandfather is a former colonist. He is the one teaching him such things”.
This theory that children do not recognise/experience racism and cannot tell the difference is completely false. There are several studies that prove this. For example, there is an experiment that was conducted in the US. Children were shown a Black doll and a white doll and asked to choose the doll they liked best. Let’s be clear: “white” does not correspond to the reality of people’s skin colour, nor does “black”, these are social realities constructed at a time when people wanted to legitimise slavery and colonisation. In this experiment (there are videos on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZ9G6T3–k ) the Black children always chose the white doll. It is interesting to hear their explanations when asked why they chose this doll. For them the Black doll is dirty, evil etc. – in fact, from the mouths of children came all the colonial stereotypes about Black people.
In addition to these experiments, I have also spoken to young people from African countries who were born on the European continent and have lived since their birth in countries like Germany, France, etc.. They feel excluded in the classroom because the original connection between them and the countries they live in is not taken into account when it comes to the subject of colonial history. They know very well that without this colonial history they might not be here, they might not be German, Belgian or French. With the internet and the Black Lives Matter movement, many have tried to learn about what happened in the USA, about the history of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Angela Davis. Many young people know these facts, but sometimes they don’t know much about them because schools doesn’t give them enough space to talk about it. So you end up radicalising and not wanting to discuss the topic as a victim of racism because you think this country doesn’t want you. Some young people have told me: “I have the identity card, but I don’t feel German”. This is what I call “de-solidarisation as a citizen”.
Student, 19 years old:
Today at school, the teacher put out some chocolate kisses and said: “I’ll leave your N….kisses here”. I asked her, “Did you just say N….kisses?” She laughed and said, “You and your chocolate kisses – we’re not allowed to call it Z………schnitzel any more, we have to call it Roma and Sintischnitzel now, hahaha” and then she left the room.
Sonja:
When we had just moved from Paris to a small town in Rhineland-Palatinate, I went to church on Sundays with my first two children, who were 5 and 4 years old. We were greeted with strange looks from all around, and I thought “yay, we are aliens”. I was even more pleased when an older couple came to us after the service, and the woman immediately started saying: “Oh, they are so cute, and those curls!” and then she had her fingers in my daughter’s hair, “we adopted some like that once, they were from India – where did yours come from?” I was speechless, I had never heard anything like it before and it kept me thinking for the rest of the day. I was annoyed with myself, I should have answered with something clever, but instead I’d quickly said goodbye and made a run for it. But it wasn’t long before I got the chance to answer more smartly. On a trip to the open-air museum, another woman – this one from Russia – came up to me to say how that she liked my cute ‘chocolate babies’ and their hair so much and wanted to know if I had adopted them. “No”, I said, “I made them myself, and it was really fun! You should try it sometime! Then you’ll have your own ‘chocolate babies'” Embarrassed, she moved away. I used this response every time someone asked me about adopting my children – and it happened very often.
Anonymous:
In a company in Potsdam there are 2 break rooms for the maintenance and cleaning staff. One room for Germans, one for foreigners. As if that wasn’t enough, the dining table and chairs were removed from the break room for foreigners on the grounds that the table and chairs were needed elsewhere. You could sit on the floor and eat, or go to the cafeteria for your break. Fortunately my husband no longer works there, but how humiliating is that?
Conclusion:
Even if society today is less accepting of racism when it manifests itself in the way of the “old Nazi era”, racism remains a lived reality. Laws, organisational structures and the sort of behaviour we expect from others are always imbued with images transmitted to us by others from the past. These images, which are not always noticeable at first glance, are taken for granted, making them difficult to change. There is a plethora of prejudices that date back to colonial times and are still reflected in the media and in educational content. In addition, there are our cultural values and our legislation.
However, skin colour and other physical criteria are less prominent than before. Instead, other characteristics such as name, accent or dress form implicit biases that lead people to classify “others” into certain “cultural categories”. As in the old form of racism, these cultural features (including religion) are associated with certain personality traits and abilities of people. These are also seen as immutable, quasi-biological characteristics that distinguish one group from another. This approach to racialised culture is called “culturalisation”.
Test your knowledge
Our speaker
My name is Guy Igor Boyeniak, known as Providence. I was born in Cameroon, to a nurse and a teacher.
As a child of very socially engaged parents, from a young age it was natural for me to take part in my parents’ good deeds by sharing my room with children who had no roof over their heads.
When my father lost his job, I set out at the age of 11, like many other children in Cameroon, to contribute to my family’s livelihood and pay my own school fees. Through my small business, I was able to save money for a camera and from then on, I took photographs at every opportunity to earn a living.
Since childhood I was also attracted to music, I loved to dance and was often asked to dance at events for money. I sang in the gospel choir for many years.
I passed my A-levels with distinction and then studied philosophy with the aim of becoming a priest, but since the thought of becoming a father of a child did not leave me, I later decided to leave the priest’s path and study management at university, where I obtained a bachelor’s degree in management and business administration.
During a student demonstration against the tough circumstances for young people, several students and friends were injured and detained by the police.
I had to flee and left Cameroon a short time later. I went to Spain, then to France and finally decided to move to Germany, where I became politically active in various left-wing groups.
As a member of the association Global-New-Generation e.V, Flüchtlingsinitiative berlin und Brandenburg e.V, I became more and more involved and wrote my first book entitled: “A Stay in Pandemonium” (the book has not yet been published due to lack of funds for translation, proofreading and publishing).
Today I work as a financial analyst for a bank and am a father.
I continue to champion the cause of minorities and am involved in supporting migrants.
- 1954 untersucht Albert Schweitzer im Krankenhaus von Lambaréné, Gabun, einen jungen Patienten © Ullstein bild / Getty Images
- Aimé Césaire: Discours sur le colonialisme (Rede über den Kolonialismus).
- Aikins, J. K. (2004). Die alltägliche Gegenwart der kolonialen Vergangenheit, in: The BlackBook. Antidiskriminierungsburo Köln (Antidiskriminierungsbüro Köln). Frankfurt am Main [u.a.], IKO – Verl. für Interkulturelle Kommunikation.
- Aikins, J. K. (2004). Die alltägliche Gegenwart der kolonialen Vergangenheit, in: The BlackBook. Antidiskriminierungsburo Köln (Antidiskriminierungsbüro Köln). Frankfurt am Main [u.a.], IKO – Verl. für Interkulturelle Kommunikation.
- Arndt, Susan/Hornscheidt, Antje (2004, Hrsg.): Afrika und die deutsche Sprache. Ein kritisches Nachschlagewerk. Unrast Verlag: Münster.
- rndt, Susan (2005). “Mythen des weißen Subjekts: Verleugnung und Hierarchisierung von Rassismus. Mythen, Masken und Subjekte”. Kritische Weißseinsforschung in Deutschland. Eds. Maureen Maisha Eggers, et al. Münster: Unrast Verlag.
- Arndt, Susan/Ofuatey-Alazard, Nadja (2012, Hrsg.): Wie der Rassismus durch die Wörter spricht. (K)Erben des Kolonialismus in den Archiven der deutschen Sprache. Ein kritisches Nachschlagewerk. Unrast Verlag: Münster, 2011.
- BER e.V. (Hrsg.): Wer anderen einen Brunnen gräbt. Rassismuskritik // Empowerment // Globale Zusammenhänge. Berlin.
- Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2003). Rassismus ohne Rassisten. Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Oxford a.o. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- 1758, CARL VON LINNE, schlägt in “Système Natura” vor
- Johann Friedrich Blumenbach 1775 s “De generis humani varietate nativa”.
- https://www.gnghomeschool.one/de/was-ist-diskriminierung/
- https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/biologie/menschenrassen/42123
Translation: David Pallant