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Intra-racial Bonding and Africa American Psychology Herman Ong Upper Iowa University
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Abstract Recent report showed that Black people constitutes a large proportion of gangs and as the single largest ethnic of gang in United States of America. It gave people a sense of black always has a strong intra-racial bonding to black but hatred to others. However, when people tried to attribute this criminal act and personality discrepancy to black inherited characteristic, we usually neglected a powerful factor in determining Black. It is “Environment and History”. In fact, these two factors impact on the ethnic of black more than other races. Therefore, this study attempted to use the developmental psychological approach integrated with historical, cultural and environmental incidences of Africa American. A dynamic theory of developmental psychology would be introduced in order to explain the reason of black possessed a sense of inferiority and provoked a reactance under the discrimination and injustice of white-dominated society. Eventually, this study suggested that any issue related to Black may not solely derive from themselves. Environment and history had to take into account for further study of Black.
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Intra-racial Bonding and Africa American Psychology “Black Nationalism is a self-help philosophy … if you are black you should be thinking of black, and if you are black and you not thinking black at this late date, well I am sorry for you” quoted by Malcolm X in 12th April, 1964, one of his famous speech The Ballot or the Bullet. Obviously, same as Martin Luther King and William Edward Burghardt Du bois in 1960s, Malcolm X gave many famous speeches to blacks in order to motivate them for asserting the human right and joint together for the Civil Right act (Haley & X, 1998). However, one common thought or assumption lied across the black was revealed by the speech of Malcolm X we just mentioned: “Why black can solely think of black?” “What is the reason of black over-focus on intra-race relationship rather than inter-race relationship?” In fact, black likes to differentiate themselves from other races. They always concern about who is the insider and who doesn’t. Interestingly, some statistics and data of gang in United States of America were also affirming this circumstance too. In general, gang was defined as the group in which members share the common identity and act collectively (Gottfredson, 2001). It may be the best indicator to assess the tendency of intra-racial bond of black. Especially, gang members are highly concern about the “trust-circle” and “common-identity”. In order to gain a trust of group, people need to have a common characteristic with them. Skin color was definitely
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counted as one of the criterions for choosing member (Fox, 2010). According to the National Gang Centre (NGC, 2011), gang members rated “displays color and symbol” as third important characteristic of gang. One would be viewed as their brother and sister when he/she insides the trust circle and shared the same color, while one will get shot when he/she outsides. And National Youth Gang Survey (OJJDP, 2011) also reported that, 37% of gang member were black. It replaced the Hispanic (32%) to become a single race of largest number of gangs in U.S. after 2000. Perhaps, other races are pre-determined to be the outsiders of black. As Becker (1997) defined the “Outsiders” as a person who break the enforced rule or norm set by group. If skin color is one of the rule as mentioned above, then any races out of black would undeniable become their outsiders. Gang problem was a complex issue which involved political, cultural and individual differences (Curry & Spergel, 1990). However, the reason of black more likely to join the black gang is obviously correlated with their historical background which can be explained simply in terms of socio-psychological perspective, such as insecure attachment of childhood experience; reactance theory as well as identity crisis. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the intra-racial bonding of black by the above psychological theories. And review how these psychological factors affect the black collective-unconsciousness and implicate on the worldwide movement.
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Literature Review Among those Africa American psychologists who studied identity and personality of blacks, Jenkins (1994) proposed that subtle effort or behavior from Africa American was an overt form to resist the oppression and injustice by society. It meant the tendency of grouping behavior of blacks might not related to their genetic inheritance, instead it might be a product of environment. Gang or brotherhood in same ethnicity could enhance their self-definition and self-determination. Another view of environmental perspective was suggested by Grambs (1965) in terms of self-concept. He stressed that the low self-esteem of blacks contributed to their personality and value. Blacks internalized the value and belief of white-dominated society and civilization, such as white is good and black is bad; over-value the skin color etc. This may lead to the collective low-self esteem of blacks and couldn’t break the iceberg to integrate with other races’ society. In fact, some constructs of western psychology may be defined totally different from black culture, such as “Self”. Western psychology views “Self” as an individuated self while Africentric perspective will define the “Self” in social aspect. They think that the personal self is derived and indistinguishable from the African society. How well of one affiliates to his ethical group determines his/her Self (Nobles, 1991). Therefore, Africa American is very concern about their own racial collective-identity as shown in one of their proverb, “I am because we are and we are because I am” (Belgrave & Allison, 2009).
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Discussion Although Africa American psychologists contributed a lot to explain the personality and behavior specifically to blacks, it hasn’t precisely interpreted their strong intra-racial bonding tendency. In fact, some general theories from western psychology may be also valid for studying Africa American, such as Freud’s psychosexual stage theory; Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory; Bowlby’s attachment theory and reactance theory. However, these theories are too fragmented and scattered explain only a narrow rather than a holistic view of individual. Therefore, a dynamic theory integrated with above constructs as well as life-span development is needed in order to examine a common characteristic of one ethnic. From the historical perspective, most Africa American ancients were enslaved from the Africa continent in eighteen to nineteen century. They were forced to stay and build up their home in America. However, it was not a companionate-home because there had no child in home. Despite Africa American women was raped by their white master and not allowed to keep their child, most Africa American family also sent out their child as slave of others, especially for a girl. This might lead to a collective developmental crisis of black children. According to Erik Erikson (1950; 1993), German American psychologist who invented psychosocial stage theory, children who were abandoned or separated by their parent early in birth to first year may lead them to have a first stage of developmental crisis in which they feel insecure to the world as well as mistrust to others. Besides, a mother is supposedly the
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primary social contact of a baby. Children who are being detached ruthlessly from their mother will definitely perceive the world as unsafe and unsupportive (Freud, 1995). Therefore, they will develop a sense of independence and mistrust to others, especially to the person who dissimilar with them i.e. skin color. Sadly, this abandoned trend of Africa American child is not exclusive to the nineteen century. According to the recent report of homeless children in United States of America, about 47% of homeless children under 18 were Black (NCFH, 2011). It was the single ethnic of largest number of homeless children in U.S. Even to the worldwide circumstance, Africa children always listed on the top of the orphans list. Most of them were due to the rape and AIDS (UNICEF, 2011). Thus, this collective mistrust and insecure feeling of blacks never fade out since the beginning of enslavement. As John Bowlby (2005) demonstrated to us how a child react differently with stranger in terms of attachment styles. Black who are abandoned or had a disorganized family will definitely generate a style of anxious avoidant attachment. Children who have anxious avoidant style of attachment would feel anxious to explore the world. They will become emotional self-sufficient and self-determinate, and gradually avoid to contact with external world. As mentioned, the definition of self of black was different from the self interpreted by western philosophy. Black viewed self as an integrated part of their black society. Therefore, the external world of black need not meant to black society but to the society apart from
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black, because black society or mate are parts of their self (Nobles, 1991). It explained the reason of black refuses and avoids contacting with the external world. Besides, this is not an individual issue happened on one or two blacks. Rather than that, it is a collective-anxious avoidant attachment due to their historical ignorance by society more than one century. As the child we just mentioned grows older, they start developing identity in adolescence. They will face another crisis which is “identity crisis”. According to the Erikson (1950), people would be influenced by cultural and historical factor more in adolescence rather than family factor in childhood. In fact, all people will have an identity moratorium in age 6 to 11. At that particular period, people will be given a buffer and opportunity to explore the world, interest and choose deliberately their companions before they fix their role and value in the society. However, not all people have this freedom to explore, especially for the black. Many black teenagers experienced the same as Malcolm X. Malcolm X’s father was killed by the local whites and Ku Klux Klan in his childhood. His mother had eight children so he could only share a little attention from his mother (Haley & X, 1998). Although Malcolm X played as a model student in the school, he couldn’t have chance to up from poverty. In fact, this was the social norm in 1920s to 1940s. Many western authorities of science slanted to racism and advocated the inferiority and discrimination to black. For example, Ferguson (1916) published a study titled The Psychological of the Negro: An Experimental Study claimed that
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black was perform bad in thinking, but very capable at motor and sensory ability. It implicated that black should only do the manual labor in the society. Thus, regardless of how hard and good of Malcolm X and other black adolescences work and perform, white-dominated society would never have opportunity for them to up from poverty and lower class. It is unsurprised most black adolescent followed the path of Malcolm X to sell drug or engaged in crime. One side they can get the money represented as identity in the capitalistic society. On the other hands, they have no choice. White-dominated society limited their chance as well as identity moratorium by social norms and scientific racism. It even deliberately labeled and categorized black people as social deviants and should not mate or contact with other races (Guthrie, 1998; Galton, 2004). Gradually, black internalized this social-expected inferiority as their value and dare to interact with black mates only. This internalization of inferiority also plays a critical role to intra-racial bonding of black. Kenneth Clark, an Africa American psychologist precisely showed us how black internalized the white-dominated norms and affected their perception of self and world. In his famous experiment of doll studies, he showed a white and black doll to black children and let them choose which one they perceived was good, which one is bad. Which one looked like them and which one they preferred. The finding was interesting as most black children chose the white doll looked like them. They all preferred the white doll and insisted it was good (Belgrave & Allison, 2009). If our sensation is objective, people shall choose the mate who
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similar with them in terms of skin color, personality or behavior etc. Then this opposite perception of black may be derived from subjective value imposed by environment i.e. white-dominated society. Although the above theories explained the reason of black closes to black, it might not address why they hatred to outsider appropriately. This question can be answered by reactance theory. Brehm (1977) found that children may display intense emotional reaction to the injustice or something frustrated them. It implicated that people as same as black innately strive for freedom and justice. When black experienced long term unreasonable oppression, discrimination and aggression by external forces, they will react with them in outburst eventually. In fact, since the 19 century, despite the obvious black codes, Jim Crow and segregation law (Horton, 1997), scholastic and scientific racism were also active too. In 1898, the Cambridge Anthropological Society found that Black man’s skull and brain was smaller than white’s one. They claimed that this was the reason of black less intelligent than white. After that moment, many comparative studies between White and Black were reported, such as Galton’s Eugenics, Binet scale to intelligence and Hokanson and Calden’s studies on MMPI (Belgrave & Allison, 2009). Most of the results were negative to blacks but positive to whites. Sadly, this scientific racism never stopped even in recent years. Herrnstein and Murray (1996) published a book titled The Bell Curve in which it implicated that black who had a lower intelligence is inheritance. The social support was meaningless to these guys and
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their unemployment and unproductivity will only cause extra problem to the United States. Honestly, these covert and ruthless discriminations further provoked the reactance of black to white-dominated society. Thus, the later black radical organization such as Black-Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA) were exactly an echo to answer those injustice and unfair. However, it is unfair to claim that Africa American treated all the non-black people as outsider. As we mentioned, the injustice and discrimination was caused by the domination of white. In fact, Africa American constitutes a large proportion of population in U.S., the ruthless discrimination, segregation and enslavement are the acts to control the black and prevent them revolution as well as maintaining white’s productivity in the capitalistic society. Since these injustice and unfair were originated in whites and their capitalism, thus the term “Outsider” of black should not including other ethnics, such as Hispanic or Asian etc. Conclusion and implication In contrary to the scientific racism, we stressed that characteristic of black are highly correlated with the environment and history rather than inheritance. It was also consistent with the view of famous western psychologist Erik Erikson. The suggested developmental theory of black from birth to adolescence constitutes a critical factor to determine the tendency of black’s intra-racial bonding as well as their perception to the outer world. In fact, many problems raised by black in the world stage may not intrinsically derived by black
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himself. Instead, it may largely due to the environmental factor. In order to resolve the discrepancy and dichotomy between blacks and whites nowadays, it is invalid and inappropriate to examine the difference between them, nor simply attributed the deviance to black then unilaterally eliminate them. Rather than that, regardless of the social, psychological or cultural issue of black, we should take the historical and environmental factor into account. Assume that black behavior and characteristic is a form to react with the society. How the society deviant to them, how the black react deviant back to the society. By this principle, we will soon to know Black has no difference from us.
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