Racism and Identity

I watched a three-part documentary that explored racism on a global scale instead of focusing on big nations like America. It discussed how slavery emerged through the idea of civilizing the black Negro and how this was the early form of capitalism. I learnt of how atrocities were committed on a global scale where white settlers found new land inhabited by the native people. As the documentary progressed it went into the idea of eugenics and the science of racism that was a popular topic during the 18^th century. Since it came into creation, racism is the belief system that each race possess certain abilities or tropes that are specific to that race and this brings forth the idea that certain races are inferior or superior compared to each other.

Since the abolition of slavery, there has been to this day, racist attitudes towards Blacks, Indians and Asians in America mixed with hate.

During the time eugenics and scientific racism was popular, Robert Knox, a physician from Edinburgh, Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry were people who believed that Blacks were an inferior race incapable of being ‘civilised’. Scientists and evolutionists at the time were pushing forward this idea, it became the internalized thoughts among the white population who ridiculed the black people and treated them as beneath them.

In the media and its relation to my topic, this ties in with how black people viewed themselves, since they were attacked physically and verbally, thus allowing white people to portray them with their own opinions on TV and Film, this led to multiple stereotypes linked with the black race.

Darwin explained that the hierarchy of the most criminalised races had blacks deemed the most violent even though history clearly shows white people as the oppressors and real criminals.

The talk by Panashe Chigumadzi helped influence the topic of my dissertation. She talks about how post colonialism and the media contributed to the way Africans perceive themselves in society. She makes points about stereotypical ideas that are still alive today in society and the struggles that she faces avoiding similar thoughts.






Panashe Chigumadzi is a writer , born in Zimbabwe, who is passionate about her country of origin Africa and the untold stories about Africa in popular entertainment.