The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors

The Isis Papers
£ r the evolution of these patterns of social
group .levels, co~ld account -o ntl function in all areas of human activity
behavwral pracuce that appare Y li · religion sex
· t rtainment labor, law, po ucs, •
(economics, educauon, en e ' th 1
this "system" consists of
) While Fuller clearly suggests a
:..:~!:.:~~;r.c:::;:~.==:::.:::::y'::
makes is that:
k o le The reason that most white
Most white people hate Bl~ pe p .bites are not Black people. If
people hate Black people is ecause w ed know little else If you
kn this bout white people you ne .
you ow a . ,1 irtually all else that you know
do not know this about white peop e, v
about them will only confuse you.
furth
· t hould be noted that, in the
To take Fuller's account a step er, I s . ed
. . urotic drive for superiority usually IS found
majonty ofmstances, any ne . d inferiority. Is it not
upon a deep and pervading sense of mad~quacy an small minority.
. 1 resent in numencal terms a very
true that wh1te peop e rep f dly is not "white" itself the very
of the world's peo~~e? And more pr~o~~nl re:.Son, then, that the quality of
absence of any abihty to pr~~ce :eqo ua~y or a relative genetic deficiency
whiteness is indeed a geneuc ma . . f
state, based upon the genetic inability. to produce the sk:::=e: ~e
lanin (which is responsible for all skm color). The vast J . Y al
me . d h" h suggests that color 1s nonn
world's people are not so afflicte ' ~ lC 1 Additionally' this state .
~ human beings and color absence 1s abnorma · . .
~or . ive to the dominant geneuc
of color absence acts always as a geneuc re~~=nihilates" (phenotypically- .
factor of color-produ~tion. Color alwl ays bite Black people possess the.
· all peaking) the non-co or, w ·
and geneuc y-s . 'th b red and yellow peoples possessing
greatest color potenual, Wl rown, . a1
.. respectively This is the genetic and psychologic
'lesserquant1Ues, · d Racism
for The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation an .
Supremacy). .
The Color-Confrontation theory states that the white or
Europeans responded psychologically, with a ~ofound se~se of 'th
cal inadequacy and color inferiority' in therr confrontatlo~s Wl
,? majority of the world's people- all of whom possessed varymg
'~-·-
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The Cress Theory
of color-producing capacity. This psychological response, whether conscious
or unconscious, revealed an inadequacy based on the most obvious
and fundamental part of their being, their external appearance. As might
be anticipated in terms of modem psychological theories, whites defensively
developed an uncontrollable sense of hostility and aggression. This
attitude has continued to manifest itself throughout the history of mass
confrontations between whites and people of color. That the initial
hostility and aggression came only from whites is recorded in innumerable
diaries, journals and books written by whites. Also, records indicate that
only after long periods of great abuse have non-whites responded defensively
with any form of counterattack. This perplexing psychological
reaction of whites has been directed towards all peoples with the capacity
to produce melanin. However, the most profound aggressions have been
directed towards Black people, who have the greatest color potential and,
therefore, are the most envied and feared in genetic color competition.
The experience of numerical inadequacy and genetic color inferiority
led whites to implement a number of interesting, although devastating (to
non-white peoples), psychological defense mechanisms. The initial
psychological defense maneuver was the repression of the initial painful
awareness of inadequacy. This primary ego defense was reinforced by a
host of other defense mechanisms.
-One of the most important of these defense mechanisms was reaction
formation, a response that converts (at the psychological level) something
desired and envied but wholly unattainable, into something discredited
despised. The whites, desiring to have skin color but unable to attain
,~,••""'~""'uvu (consciously or unconsciously) that skin color was disgusting
, and began attributing negative qualities to color- especially to
Interestingly, the tenn "non-white" is a double negative result-
.. .a positive statement. This is perhaps a Freudian slip, wherein the
QJ J:an~~ua!~e ultimately reveals the primary psychological dynamic.
to have colored skin can be observed at the very first signs
or summer when they begin to strip off their clothes (as many
law will allow), often pennitting their skins to be burned
attempt to add some color to their pale bodies and rendering
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