Racial dehumanization intensified precisely as enslaved Africans assimilated colonial culture

Evidence

At the very same moment European labor was being thrown off the land and herded into a newly formed industrial order, Robinson argues, African labor was being drawn into the orbit of the world system through the transatlantic slave trade. European civilization, either through feudalism or the nascent industrial order, did not simply penetrate African village culture. To understand the dialectic of African resistance to enslavement and exploitation, in other words, we need to look outside the orbit of capitalism—we need to look West and Central African culture. Robinson observes, “Marx had not realized fully that the cargoes of laborers also contained African cultures, critical mixes and admixtures of language and thought, of cosmology and metaphysics, of habits, beliefs, and morality. These were the actual terms of their humanity. These cargoes, then, did not consist of intellectual isolates or deculturated Blacks—men, women, and children separated from their previous universe. African labor brought the past with it, a past that had produced it and settled on it the first elements of consciousness and comprehension” (121). — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 20 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

The reactions and the behavior patterns to which the arrival of the European in Madagascar gave rise were not tacked on to a pre-existing set. There was no addition to the earlier psychic whole. If, for instance, Martians undertook to colonize the earth men—not to initiate them into Martian culture but to colonize them—we should be doubtful of the persistence of any earth personality. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 347 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Colonial accusations of indolence and insolence were codes for racial unfitness.; Colonial racial thinking dehumanized Africans as they assimilated colonial culture; African slaves carried their full cultures and consciousness into the New World — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 20 (+11 more)

Related

• Colonial racial thinking dehumanized Africans as they assimilated colonial culture (similarity 0.92)
• Shared African culture, not tribal origin, is what resisted European dehumanization (similarity 0.85)
• African culture formed a shared shield against dehumanization in the New World (similarity 0.85)
• Colonial accusations of indolence and insolence were codes for racial unfitness. (similarity 0.82)
• Enslaved Africans carried their cultures and consciousness into slavery, contradicting primitive accumulation (similarity 0.82)
• The colonial image of Africa forced blacks into self-contempt (similarity 0.82)
• Depicting Africans as primitive legitimized colonial invasion and plunder. (similarity 0.82)
• Slavery’s meaning was psychological subjugation beyond mere economic exploitation (similarity 0.82)
• Colonized people become psychologically whiter as they adopt the mother country’s culture (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial oppression transforms the colonized psyche wholesale rather than adding to it (similarity 0.81)
• Enslavement transferred complete African ontological and social systems to the Americas (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial relations dehumanize colonizer and colonized alike (similarity 0.80)
• Slaves maintained an autonomous culture and consciousness apart from their rulers (similarity 0.80)
• African slaves carried their full cultures and consciousness into the New World (similarity 0.80)
• Enslaved Africans carried intact cultural systems, not deculturated minds, into slavery (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• African slaves carried their full cultures and consciousness into the New World #contradicts (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 20
• Colonized people become psychologically whiter as they adopt the mother country’s culture #expands (0.70)
• Enslaved women preserved their humanity by clinging to traditional African practices #corroborates (0.60) — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 380
• Missionary-educated Africans became politically demanding and threatened colonial administrators. #corroborates (0.60)
• Colonial oppression transforms the colonized psyche wholesale rather than adding to it #expands (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 347
• Colonial race was judged by conduct and affiliation rather than appearance #corroborates (0.55)
• The colonial image of Africa forced blacks into self-contempt #complicates (0.55) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 474