Africans are not black

Africans are not black

Subtitle: 
Why the use of the term 'black' for Africans should be abandoned
Author: 
Tsri, Kwesi
Place: 
Oxon
Publisher: 
Taylor & Francis Group
Date published: 
2016
Record type: 
Journal Title: 
African Identities
Source: 
African Identities, Volume 14, Number 2, May 2016, PP 147-160
Abstract: 

This article argues that the use of the terms 'black' and 'white' as human categories, together with the symbolic use of these terms, help to sustain the perception of Africans as inferior, because their categorical use was accompanied by a long-standing set of conceptual relationships that used the terms symbolically to connote a range of bad and good traits, respectively. This set of associations creates an underlying semantic system that normalised the assumed superiority of those labelled white and the assumed inferiority of those labelled black. The use of this dichotomy as a human categorising device cannot be separated from its symbolic use. It is therefore incumbent on egalitarians to abandon either the symbolic or the categorical use of the dichotomy. I argue that abandoning the categorical use is the preferable option because the negative symbolism of the term 'black' is deeply embedded in the English language and in Christianity.

Language: 

CITATION: Tsri, Kwesi. Africans are not black . Oxon : Taylor & Francis Group , 2016. African Identities, Volume 14, Number 2, May 2016, PP 147-160 - Available at: https://library.au.int/africans-are-not-black