Blackness, whiteness and black-whiteness ~ Malinda Words

Jan-Erik Olson is the man associated with what is called the Stockholm Syndrome. He took four hostages during a bank robbery in 1973 and eventually the victims not only developed a bond with their captor but even defended him in court. This matter of a victim of abuse developing psychological connection with the abuser is labeled a ‘contested illness,’ because validity is hard to obtain, the sample sizes just being too small.

Extrapolations are possible of course. And indeed sample size is not a problem in all cases. For example, it is pretty evident that peoples colonised or in other ways subjugated do develop a certain fascination for the oppressor. They even end up as defenders of the oppressor or apologists for oppression.

This is erroneously called the ‘Uncle Tom Syndrome,’ thanks largely to the misrepresentation of the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ in the earlier movie versions; Stowe’s heroic Uncle Tom, loyal to slaves in hiding and eventually beaten to death, was distorted into a man who would sell out his race to curry favour with white people.

The term has stayed, though. The condition too. In all conditions of subjugation. Especially in colonial and post-colonial context. Kalu Suddas there were and are, suffice to say.

There’s a flip side and it’s Frantz Omar Fanon, the Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist and political philosopher hailing from Martinique who is best known among those who identified and studied the condition. Fanon’s in ‘Peau Noire, Masques Blancs (Black Skin, White Masks)’ and ‘Les Damnés de la Terre (Wretched of the Earth)’ published in 1952 and 1963 respectively, speaks of the condition of victims being taught to and learning to hate themselves.

Fanon contends that colonialism distorts people’s self-perception. Bombarded relentlessly by negative references and description, they begin to believe the oppressor’s version of their reality. They who are hated, detested and despised eventually begin to hate, detest and despise themselves. Shame and self-hatred are not easy to live with. So, Fanon argues, ‘black people try to become “more white”.’ Wealth alone won’t do it. Remember Michael Jackson? And this engenders further shame and consequently demands further vilification of self and greater love for the oppressor in the endless struggle for acceptance and, hopefully, emancipation.

We see this even today. People bend over backwards to ridicule and vilify anything and everything even remotely associated with who they are or who their ancestors were simple because the oppressor(s) vilified and ridiculed them for centuries and they just cannot take it. It is so much easier to agree in the belief that agreement would open doors or qualify them for membership in the exclusive club(s) of the oppressor(s). Doesn’t happen, but imagination is a powerful thing; mimic the person who vilifies and you can fool yourself into believe that you are no longer victim.

Loving the oppressor is part of the story of course. Love, they may believe subconsciously, also grants membership, enables migration to a different and privileged social class. Doesn’t happen really. There’s the Royal Family and there are subjects. There’s the elite and those vilified by the elite.

සුද්දෝ වෙත්
කල්ලෝ වෙත්
සුද්දත්වය ලබා ඇත් බැව් සිතන
ඔවුහු කළු සුද්දෝම වෙත්

සුද්දත්වය නොලත්
එනමුත් ලැබෙතැයි සිතන
කල්ලෝද වෙත්
සුද්දත්වය සඳහා
කල්ලන්ටම කල්ලත්වයටම ගරහන
සුද්දත්වය නොව කළු සුද්දත්වයවත් නොලබන
සුදු සිහින දකින කළු ජීවත වලට ඇහැරෙන
ඔවුහු මිහිපිට අපා දුක් විඳින්නෝ වෙත්.

There are those who are white
and then there are blacks
who believe they are white —
kalu-suddas they are
through and through

There are also blacks
convinced that they can be white
and to obtain whiteness
deride blacks and blackness

Denied whiteness
denied even kalu-suddatvaya
untold is the suffering
of those who dream white

and to black lives wake up

Wretched of the earth. Black skin, white masks. Two excellent examples of titles telling the story. That’s our story. Don’t believe me. Go watch some of the English satirical plays performed at the Lionel Wendt from time to time.

13 May 2023

Blackness, whiteness and black-whiteness

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]

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