Behavioral Racism
"In the decades before the Civil War, behavioral racists argued over whether it was freedom or slavery that caused supposed mediocre Black behavior. . . Freed Blacks 'cut off from the spirit of White society'—their civilizing masters—had degenerated into the 'original African type,' with behavioral traits ranging from hyper sexuality, immorality, criminality, and laziness to poor parenting, Philip Alexander Bruce maintained in his popular 1889 book, The Plantation Negro as a Freeman.
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"Abolitionists—or, rather, progressive assimilationists—conjured what I call the oppression-inferiority thesis. In their well-meaning efforts to persuade Americans about the horrors of oppression, assimilationists argue that oppression has degraded the behaviors of oppressed people.
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"This framing of slavery as a demoralizing force was the mirror image of the Jim Crow historian's framing of slavery as a civilizing force. Both positions led Americans toward behavioral racism: Black behavior demoralized by freedom—or freed Black behavior demoralized by slavery." — Ibram X. Kendi; How to Be an Antiracist, p. 95-97
Alex Gardner
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