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The Lie of Black Inferiority
“Black opportunities are inferior, not Black People.”
-Ibram X. Kendi
The idea that Black people as a whole suffer from mental deficiency, and that they are less capable than other racial groups, while a common trope, is false. This should go without saying, however, otherwise intelligent people regularly fall victim to such erroneous reasoning.
Both “well-meaning” liberals and staunch conservatives are in agreement on the idea that there is something inherently flawed within the nature of Black people. Where does this fanciful assertion of impaired mental capacity originate?
According to Ibram X. Kendi in Stamped from the Beginning, racial discrimination — born out in government policies — leads to racist ideas that in turn lead to ignorance and hatred. It is through ignorance and hatred that unfounded attitudes and beliefs about Black people have manifested and infected the minds of successive generations of unwitting bigots.
Where too many non black people have had the chance to acknowledge the industrious, creative and community centered nature of Black people, they have instead chosen to label us as unfit for life and deserving of abuse and insidious torture.
