Critical Thinking - Black History Month Special - Who is Black & Why it matters? (Part 1)

Black Spy Podcast - Season 12, Episode 0001

This week’s episode of the black spy podcast is a critical thinking episode for Black History Month, in which Carlton asks – who is it Black and why does it matter?

Carlton looks at the politics of blackness including who has decided who is and isn't classed as “Black” through the centuries. Moreover, in terms of a phenotype, what do Black people look like.

Carlton asks if its credible that Black people are only seen as one absolutely particular type of ethnic group with no variation of skin colour in nose shape, lip shape etc; whereas White people (Caucasians) can be of any hair colour blonde, dark, ginger to curly hair, to straight hair. They can have thin or thick lips, narrow, wide or hook noses and all forms of face shape. Moreover, the Europeans who ‘classified’ the as so called races, even allowed people with very white and very dark skin colour to be classified as White, because they were from a people perceived a capable in the 17th and 18th centuries. These unscientific discrepancies between phenotype classifications can clearly no longer stand?

Therefore in this episode, Carlton seeks to challenge this one sided view, which by the way isn’t maintained when it suited the post 17th Century colonial elites, slaveholders, plantocracy and pseudo-scientists that proclaimed the inferiority of the so called Black (Negro) ‘race’, and the superiority of the obviously flawed White race classification.

Hence, Carlton explains why this outdated concept can no longer stand and why Black historical figures and empires throughout the ages need to be reclaimed!

Carlton explains how being Black has been defined in various countries particularly the United states and how, just one drop of black blood was perceived to be sufficient to make a person legally and officially Black. This one drop was defined in many US states a person with 1/64th of a Black ancestor, 1/32nd Black ancestry, 1/16th or a minimum of 1/8th Black ancestry made a person Black.

Additionally, this episode also assesses what Carlton calls the ‘Balance Theory’.

Carlton’s Balance Theory explains how Black, White and other peoples of Colour have had transmitted to them, by slave trade and colonial White rulers, that Black people are ignorant, lazy, childlike, feckless and uneducated, and that they have never invented or developed anything. They have also been told that Blacks are criminal and duplicitous.

These anti-black views have been transmitted to all peoples for over 350 years, since the African Slave Trade, Colonialism up until at least the late 1970’s.

Carlton explores all these issues and many more. He assesses the effect on every day interactions with police, teachers or employers and others, who due to the extremely low expectation of Black people mentioned above, these important intermediaries, due to these attitudes see Black people as suspicious and of limited ability. Hence, what Carlton calls the ‘muck of ages’ affects relations today.

Finally, Carlton notes that this negativity against Black people has also been transmitted to Black people themselves, so they too suffer from the same prejudices brought about by the muck of ages.

Note: The picture attached is a facial reconstruction of Jesus Christ by forensic reconstruction experts. The reconstruction is not dissimilar to that of the facial reconstruction first British man known as Cheddar Man, albeit Cheddar man is shown to be even blacker than Jesus.

This is another educational yet entertaining must listen episodes of the Black Spy Podcast.

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