Originally Posted by
I AM KNOWLEDGE
Your original point related to self-conscious buy-in of white supremacy and self-hatred... I don't think the portrayal of Jesus as being white (like the slave master) did so much of that.... it is certainly an example of the exercise of perceived white-supremacy... but I don't know that it spawned self-hatred or feelings that White must be right (since Jesus was too)--Again, just sharing what I learned through actual research.
Now I can't speak for Malcolm, but in my opinion the depiction of Jesus as White not only works to decimate blacks self image, and to promote the belief that the Euro-centric way of life and study of history is the correct form of thinking. In X's biography he discusses a situation that occurred in jail when he got into an argument with a Priest and the basis of the argument was of Jesus' skin color. Now many people will argue that Jesus' skin color is a trivial matter, but the fact remains the color of one's 'savior' is really important. Think about this...would Christianity have become the force in the West that it has if Jesus was portrayed in a manner that truly reflected his true looks? There's a reason that the slaves were in Church every Sunday.
Hell if you look at any stratified society, the dominate religion will support the stratification. As a descendant of the diaspora, I have real issues with Christianity. The pacifist mentality that it teaches, the Protestant work Ethic, and I also agree with Marx in regards to almost all religions, that religion works to numb oppressed individuals to the real problems that they face. Many practitioners of the religion will tolerate a life full of oppression because they believe in a reward in the after life.
However, I was raised in a Baptist home, and despite how much I try to distance myself from the teachings, there are certain things that are ingrained within my DNA. As a result, I've found peace in the fact that the same religion that was used to captivate us, was also used to liberate us.
But back to Jesus being depicted as white and its role in negative self-esteem in blacks. You said that you've done your research, and I've definitely done mine. Look at the Kenneth and Mamie Clark study. Why do you think the young black girls preferred white dolls over black dolls? Now it's not just because of the white portrait of Jesus, but it's the entire spectrum of euro-centrism. In our world, white is right. We've had so much mental poison instilled within us that we don't even realize the roots to this crap.
But with that said, that's why Malcolm felt that it was important for Blacks to get a true representation of history.
In an article entitled Beyond Fad and Fashion Understanding The Essence of Malcolm X RonDaniels explains that Malcolm believed that the understanding of one’s totalessence as a human being began with a keen understanding of history. Daniels explains that Malcolm was concernedwith probing for the true knowledge of the history of African people in theunfolding of human history and civilization. As a result, it was important for African Americans to move beyond theEurocentric version of history so that they could discover the real contributionsof African people to the development of humans. Also, Malcolm realized that by studying history, one could analyze apattern of oppression, and also learn the many different methods used to obtainliberation in the past.
Now I know I went on a tangent, but I figured I could rebut your statement, while also dropping some more knowledge on Brother X.
Good points all around. Your approach makes more sense--the whole white is right mentality is a result of a number of images, experiences, yadda yadda yadda... but Malcolm had a tendency to make one-sided statements blaming an institution, a person, a mindset for the entirety of our plight. You can't make statements like that because people take them for face value. Learned hatred. Israel vs. Palestine type stuff.