Manichean Psychology
Intro
• Poets have the ability to communicate the conditions around them more fluidly than psychologists.
• 3 events to consider (Good poets & Psychologists can communicate these)
o Stimulus coming from the environment
o Cognitive processing (what goes in the organism)
o The responses from the stimuli
• From time to time the oppressor has to changes tactics in response to the nature of African resistance that encounters racism.
• Chapter is concerned with the Stimulus
o “joists and pillars that support modern racism”
o Their function is to ensure that a Manichean mind evolves in the African people.
o Will identify the sources and support of racism (expose subtle sources) and be mindful of how African resistance had forced these properties to change in order to maintain white supremacy.
Sources of input: An overview
• The real-life day to day circumstances of the oppressed nurtures racism. This contrasts the conditions of the non-oppressed. Such a disparity supports the development of racist thinking.
o Those who control social institutions impose standards that are valued.
▪ How is this supportive of racist thought?
• Disparities (sources of Manichean Cognition)
o Decline of material resources and perception of living conditions.
o Popular culture: The media (p.94)
▪ Blacks synthesized racist media message into stereotypes. (Carl Jung, p.95)
▪ Whites took initial control of products of black talent.
• To reinforce the notion that blacks could only create base and primitive products.
o Formal Educational System
▪ “Ultimately, educational experiences shape the perspective one takes on the events, situations, and ideas that people face as a part of living. That is, education, or better, the ideological thrust of...