{ Disclaimer: Some of you may read this and think:
“I don’t see the problem with what Mr.Nicepsychologist wrote. He must have some validity right, ma?”
Words to which Ma will respond:
“Correct my sweet, he is right indeed.”
If that is your reaction to this, then I implore you to open your mind and get ready for a wild ride. }
While doing research for an assignment on peoples of the African Diaspora, specifically African Americans and early childhood education, I came across many things that disturbed and affected me. I was already disturbed by the action of writing a paper in the first place, so what follows sent me flying from the proverbial handle.
I was flipping my way through each article entry, reading abstract after abstract, when I saw a trend of subtly worded and cleverly hidden anti-Black remarks. Initially I was confused by the sly words, telling myself that I was imagining the slandering, but the more articles I read, the securer I felt in my intuitions.
And let me tell you, I tend to have pretty spot-on intuitions.
In the abstract of this man Micheal Norris’ dissertation titled “Exploring the beliefs African American parents and their preschool children ascribe to physical activity,” he quotes — he actually says this, I’m not lying! — “African American populations tend to be physically inactive and face many health challenges.”
Now, let’s all take a second and think about this statement. This may be the most hilarious (and let’s not forget disrespectful/INCORRECT) sentence that I have ever read from a published text in my life, and your friend Shayn J has read many an outrageous text.
Not only does he forget to cite the source he found this information on, but he also forgets to even attempt to hide the outward and aggressive anti-Blackness that this literature preaches. With his words “tend to be physically inactive,” our pal Mikey is essentially reiterating the age old stereotype of Black people being “dumb and lazy.”
And to those of you who are still confused:
AFRICANA PEOPLE ARE NOT DUMB NOR LAZY!!!!!!!!
He goes on later in his dissertation to state that Blacks are not actually unaware of the benefits of physical activity (an an extremely evident fact), and that physical activity is actually important to them. But what is even more unnerving is that it took daily, full school day length observations for Norris to feel confident in the fact that this other race could understand the benefits of something as simple and crucial as physical activity. C’mon now, Mike. :/
Maybe my argument is off (or that I just misread the paper entirely, lol) and Yung Mike is simply following the methods of observational psychology. But if that is case, psychological research methods as a whole need to be questioned for their dehumanizing tendencies. No person should ever be reduced to an object, no matter how interested or curious someone is. And one more thing:
AFRICANA PEOPLE ARE NOT DUMB NOR LAZY! I CANNOT SAY THIS ENOUGH! IT’S RIDICULOUS THAT THIS IS EVEN A NOTION THAT PEOPLE HAVE.
To move forward as conscious peoples, we need to stop stealing agency and dehumanizing each other, and in response to psychology, we need to look back on and revise our methods so that no one is imposed upon.
This may have been a little long and ramble-y, but if you stuck with it, I love you and we will talk again soon.
Always,
shayn
P.S. I saw Metro Booming and Tyler the Creator live in concert and I was front row 🙂