African American Perception Essay

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Abstract

European Americans believe that they are the superior race to every other race. They persist in attempts to control and conquer all that exist on this earth. Their influence on the African American psyche is of interest to the current investigation. This ideology could influence four personality dimensions, for example: inferiority, dependence, helplessness, and self-hate. Experimental research is utilized in this project to test a sample of the African American population from the inner city on perception. The sample will be a group of two hundred participants both female and male whom are between the ages of eighteen to thirty. Field research and questionnaires will be utilized. It is predicted that European Americans negative perception of African Americans, related to African Americans perception of themselves.

The Impact of European Americans perception and influence

On the African American psyche in American Society

Foremost, perception is the process by which sensory stimulation is organized into usable experience, which are commonly called percepts. Percepts are acquired by past experiences, which become organized and assist in and individual s present perception. Therefore, it would not be difficult for a person to perceive themselves and other things according to prior knowledge, history, and experiences. According to the classical theory of perception advanced by the German physiologist and physicist Herman Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, depth perception is a result of an individual s ability continually to synthesize past experience and current sensory cues (Encarta, 96). In addition, perception allows an individual to recall past experiences in the present with the assistance of some type of sensory stimuli that connects the past with the present.

Significantly, self-concept and self-esteem play major roles in the personality dimensions of the African American. Self-concept and self-esteem can be interchangable. Foremost, self-concept means the totality of the individual s thought and feelings having reference to self as an object. (Rosenberg 1979). It is adopting the attitudes of others toward the self. In turn, the perceptions of society as a whole towards a group of people can manifests as attitudes of others toward the self, which can be perceived as the attitudes of others are turn inwardly to reflects ones self (Rosenberg, 1979).

Both persuasive theories of reflected appraisal and social comparison could be utilized in characterizing the personality dimensions of the African American. According to Sullivan, reflected appraisal specifies that people are deeply influenced by the attitudes of others toward the self, and that, in the course of time, they come to view themselves as they are viewed by others (Rosenberg, 1979). Therefore, it could be evident that African Americans view themselves in the small manner as European Americans. The perception of European Americans affects the African American viewpoint.

Consecutively, the social comparison theory could be adopted in assisting in the explanation of the personality dimensions of the African American. As described by Pettigrew, the basic tenet of social evaluation theory is that human beings learn about themselves by comparing themselves to others (Rosenberg, 1979). Whether the comparison is amongst individuals, groups, or social categories, people learn to judge and evaluate themselves according to the standards of others. For example, studies show that minority group members have low self-esteem because they compare unfavorably with the majority group. The unfavorable comparisons could be low economic status and poor family structure amongst other variables due to discrimination and prejudices. One might conclude that an African American may have low self-esteem because they are unable to achieve success when in comparison with their European American counterparts (Rosenberg, 1979).

The four personality dimensions that are significant in characterizing the influence and the European American perception that has been psychologically imbedded in the African American mind are inferiority, helplessness, dependence, and self-hate. The perception of superiority existed long before the Europeans colonizers brought enslaved Africans to North America. They used religion as well as several other sources as a justification for the atrocities that they committed against enslaved Africans. For example, the story of Noah and the curse of his son Ham helped to ease the conscious of the European colonizers as well as degrade and create an inferiority complex for the enslaved Africans. The Africans were led to believe that they were the descendants of Canaan, who was condemned to be, a servant of servants unto his brethren, because his father Ham looked upon his own father s nakedness. The purpose of this Bible excerpt was to make the enslaved Africans think that their skin was a curse of shame, and their rightful place was to be forever indebted to the European race.

In recent years, a study has been done that confirms the superiority-inferiority complex. In 1970, Laurence created an evaluation for white and black students. The study consisted of fifth, sixth and eighth grade students in the Sacramento area. The children were asked to compare behavior, intelligence, and honesty of both blacks and whites. The results concluded that no white student thought that blacks were better at any of these qualities, and some of the blacks agreed with this notion.

European Americans perception of African Americans assisted in creating the component of helplessness of the Black race. During the early 16th century when the institution of slavery of Africans was established, European colonizers shipped enslaved Africans to America without any sense of identity. America was one of the first nations to declare that the rights of the individual were paramont these concepts contrasted radically with the idea that a man could be taken from his home away from his family, forced to work against his will and forced to breed more people to be borne into the same life (Kolchin, 96). Although this new nation claimed to be based on equality of men, European settlers treated enslaved Africans as their own property. Enslaved Africans were considered to be three fifths human according to the Constitution. They did not have the choice to return back to their homeland. Helplessness confined their existence because another race of people was retaining them from reaching even their minimal potential for human rights.

Progressing towards present time, African Americans dependence on European Americans improved slightly in the early twenty century. Yes, the physical institution of slavery was eradicated, but many laws were implemented that continued to repress the equality of human rights for African Americans. Segregation was an attempt by white Southerners to separate the races in every sphere of life and to achieve supremacy over blacks (Norrel, 1997). Segregation was a series of...

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