Applying Odier’s trauma theory to Negrophobia raises doubts about actual sexual trauma

Evidence

The same point may be made, in extenso, for all those explanations which ascribe racism-in-general to some universal functioning of individual psychology—the “racial itch,” the “race instinct”—or explain its appearance in terms of a general psychology of prejudice. The question is not whether men-in-general make perceptual distinctions between groups with different racial or ethnic characteristics, but rather, what are the specific conditions which make this form of distinction socially pertinent, historically active. What gives this abstract human potentiality its effectivity, as a concrete material force? … Appeals to “human nature” are not explanations, they are an alibi. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 634 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sexual phenomena are central to understanding racial experience psychoanalytically; Negrophobic women project onto Negroes the sexual powers their own lives lacked; Negrophobic women’s fear arises from imagination, not real danger (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Universal-psychology accounts of racism substitute an alibi for explanation #complicates (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 634
• Colonial neurosis does not stem from a repressed personal trauma #corroborates (0.70)
• Negrophobic women’s fear arises from imagination, not real danger #responds-to (0.50)