Into the Black of it All

Emerge—The Journal of Black Liberation / Volume 1, Issue 7—July 2025

Photo by Taylor Turtle on Unsplash

A prevailing narrative suggests that, amid the increasing prominence of Black visibility in public, corporate, and cultural arenas, the arc of progress bends ever closer to liberation. Yet such a reading obscures a more insidious reality: that symbolic representation often masks the enduring structures of white supremacy and the deeply internalized ideologies that sustain it. This article contends that true Black liberation remains unrealized—not due to a lack of recognition or achievement—but because the foundational logics of racial hierarchy remain intact, embedded within institutions and absorbed into the collective psyche. Through a critical examination of historical indoctrination, psychological conditioning, and the commodification of Black labor and culture, this piece interrogates the myth of emancipation within a system that continues to define Black worth in relation to its utility to white patriarchal power. It argues that dismantling these layered and often invisible mechanisms is essential to forging a liberation that is not symbolic but substantive, not permitted but self-determined.

In a world that celebrates the symbolic victories of Black visibility—corporate diversity campaigns, historic political appointments, and cultural milestones—it is tempting to believe that liberation is within reach, if not already achieved. Yet beneath these surface-level gains lies a more insidious reality: the enduring psychological and ideological captivity that shapes how Black people see themselves and their place in the world. This captivity is not enforced solely through external violence or systemic exclusion but through an internalized worldview that treats whiteness as the unquestioned standard of power, reason, and legitimacy. For centuries, the machinery of slavery, colonialism, education, religion, and mass media has socialized Black communities to view white authority as not only dominant but also natural and necessary. This deeply embedded orientation positions Black worth as derivative—validated only when it aligns with or contributes to white-centered systems of power.

The continued absence of true Black liberation can be attributed, in part, to a deeply internalized fear of detaching from dominant ideological frameworks that position whiteness as inherently superior and indispensable to human progress. Over the course of centuries, Black people have been systematically indoctrinated to accept the belief that legitimate power resides in the hands of white men and that Black value is contingent upon productivity that sustains white patriarchal structures. This way of thinking is key to understanding why, even with progress in words and many people coming together, Black liberation has not yet turned into real social and political change.

Historical Indoctrination of White Supremacy as Normative

The elevation of whiteness as the normative standard of power and legitimacy is not incidental but the result of centuries of deliberate indoctrination through colonialism, enslavement, and institutional domination. The insidious ideology of white supremacy, the belief in the inherent superiority of people of European descent, has been a pervasive and destructive force throughout history. Its normalization was not a passive occurrence but a meticulously constructed project of indoctrination, woven into the very fabric of societies through powerful institutions, pseudo-scientific justifications, and pervasive propaganda. From the shores of colonial America to the brutal regime of apartheid South Africa and the genocidal ambitions of Nazi Germany, the methods of entrenching this belief as a societal norm reveal a chilling blueprint of manufactured hate.

The historical indoctrination of white supremacy as normative can be understood through a multi-faceted approach that targeted individuals from birth, shaping their understanding of the world and their place within it. This was achieved by co-opting key societal pillars—education, law, and religion—and reinforcing these teachings through cultural narratives and pseudo-intellectual justifications.

The Classroom as a Crucible of Bigotry

The education system has historically been a primary vehicle for instilling white supremacist ideology. In colonial America and the antebellum South, education for white children often explicitly taught racial hierarchies (Bell, 2015).¹ The design of textbooks and curricula portrayed people of African descent as inherently inferior, thereby justifying their enslavement (see the scholarly work of Derrick P. Alridge, Adah Ward Randolph, and Alexis M. Johnson). History was presented through a lens that glorified European conquest and minimized or erased the contributions and humanity of other races.

This manipulation of education became even more systematized in later periods. In the post-Reconstruction South, the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy" narrative was aggressively promoted in schools. This historical revisionism romanticized the Confederacy, downplayed the central role of slavery in the Civil War, and portrayed enslaved people as content and loyal.² Organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy were instrumental in ensuring textbooks reflected this distorted version of history, perpetuating white supremacist ideals for generations.³

Nazi Germany represents the most extreme example of state-sponsored educational indoctrination. Nazi racial theories inundated German children from a young age (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Biology classes were repurposed to teach the supposed superiority of the "Aryan race" and the "inferiority" of Jews and other groups. Math problems were framed with eugenicist logic, and all subjects were infused with Nazi propaganda, preparing the youth for a society built on racial persecution and violence (Feldman, 2022).

Similarly, under apartheid in South Africa, the Bantu Education Act of 1953 was specifically designed to provide Black Africans with an inferior education, limiting their potential and reinforcing their subordinate status in a white-dominated society.

The Law as an Instrument of Racial Hierarchy

Legal frameworks have been instrumental in codifying and enforcing white supremacy, transforming prejudice into state-sanctioned policy. In the American colonies, laws progressively stripped away the rights of Africans and their descendants, culminating in the legal institution of chattel slavery (Rugemer, 2013). The U.S. Constitution itself, with its three-fifths compromise, enshrined the idea that Black people were not fully human.

Following the Civil War and the brief period of Reconstruction, the rise of "Jim Crow" laws in the South systematically disenfranchised and segregated African Americans. These laws, which mandated separate and unequal facilities in all aspects of life, were a daily, humiliating reminder of the state-enforced racial hierarchy. The Supreme Court's "separate but equal" doctrine, established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), gave a legal stamp of approval to this system of racial apartheid.

In Nazi Germany, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and "Aryans." These laws were the legal foundation upon which the Holocaust was built, demonstrating the terrifying power of law to legitimize and facilitate genocide.

Religion as a Tool of Justification

Often a source of moral guidance, pro-slavery theologians have also twisted religion to justify white supremacy. In the antebellum South, pro-slavery theologians developed a "Christian" defense of slavery, arguing that it was divinely ordained and that slaveholders had a paternalistic duty to "civilize" and Christianize enslaved Africans (Adam, 1985). The Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization dedicated to white supremacy, has historically cloaked its violent ideology in the language and symbols of Protestant Christianity.

The Power of Propaganda and "Scientific" Racism

Beyond formal institutions, the normalization of white supremacy relied heavily on pervasive propaganda and the veneer of intellectual legitimacy provided by "scientific racism." In the 19th and early 20th centuries, theories of eugenics and craniometry were used to "prove" the intellectual and moral superiority of whites (Stephans & Cryle, 2017). Universities and popular publications presented these now-debunked theories as objective science, giving false credibility to racist beliefs (Biondi & Rickards, 2002).

Propaganda, in the form of cartoons, films, and popular literature, consistently depicted non-white people in dehumanizing and stereotypical ways. The film "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), for example, glorified the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed African Americans as a threat to white womanhood and social order, contributing to a resurgence of the KKK and a wave of racial violence (Rice, 2006)⁴.

Resistance and the Unraveling of Normative White Supremacy

This indoctrination, despite its overwhelming and systematic nature, never found universal acceptance. Resistance has been a constant and powerful counter-narrative.

The abolitionist movement in the 19th century tirelessly challenged the moral and religious justifications for slavery, arguing for the inherent equality of all people. Figures like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, through their powerful oratory and writings, exposed the hypocrisy and brutality of a nation that claimed to be a beacon of freedom while enslaving millions.

The Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century employed a combination of nonviolent direct action, legal challenges, and moral persuasion to dismantle the legal and social structures of Jim Crow. Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently articulated the moral imperative of racial equality and exposed the injustice of segregation to a national and international audience. The movement's strategic use of media brought the violence and brutality of white supremacist resistance into the homes of millions, shaking the conscience of the nation.

Similarly, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, led by figures like Nelson Mandela and supported by international pressure, ultimately brought an end to the country's brutal system of racial segregation. The movement's dedication to equality and justice demonstrated the power of sustained resistance in the face of entrenched oppression.

The historical indoctrination of white supremacy as a normative belief system was a deliberate and multifaceted process. Institutions that shape society embedded it, justified it with perverted interpretations of science and religion, and reinforced it with a constant barrage of propaganda (Benabderrazak, 2023). However, the long-standing tradition of resistance serves as a powerful testament to the human spirit's capacity to challenge and ultimately dismantle even the most deeply entrenched systems of hate and inequality. The struggle against the vestiges of this indoctrination continues today, a reminder that the fight for a truly just and equitable society is an ongoing and essential endeavor.

Internalized Beliefs and Psychological Conditioning

This historical indoctrination has produced a profound psychological consequence: the internalization of white superiority within Black consciousness, manifesting as fear, self-doubt, and the suppression of autonomous identity. The historical indoctrination of white supremacy has cast a long and insidious shadow, one that extends far beyond legal statutes and social segregation. Its most profound and enduring legacy lies in the deep psychological wounds inflicted upon Black individuals, leading to the internalization of white superiority. This insidious process has manifested as pervasive fear, crippling self-doubt, and a coerced suppression of autonomous identity, creating a subconscious barrier to true liberation and self-actualization.

Over centuries, the brutal institution of slavery meticulously constructed the architecture of this psychological conditioning. The constant threat of violence, the dehumanizing classification as chattel, and the systematic destruction of family and cultural ties were designed to break the spirit and enforce compliance. This era instilled a deep-seated fear—a primal, survivalist response to a world where white authority held the power of life and death. This anxiety was not merely a fear of physical harm but a fear of transgressing the rigidly defined boundaries of a white-dominated society.

The post-slavery era, while promising freedom, saw the recalibration of indoctrination methods. The rise of Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and a pervasive culture of terror reinforced the notion of Black inferiority and the ever-present danger of white retribution. This period cemented a fear that was both overt and insidious, dictating where one could live, work, and even look, lest they incite the wrath of the dominant class.

Self-doubt thrived in this climate of fear. Popular culture relentlessly bombarded Black people with negative stereotypes, depicting them as unintelligent, lazy, and subservient in minstrel shows and early Hollywood films (Bloomquist, 2015). This constant caricature, presented as a natural reflection of reality, began to seep into the collective Black consciousness. When society consistently portrays a group as "less than," it becomes increasingly difficult for individuals within that group to maintain a strong sense of self-worth (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).

Educational systems became a powerful tool in this process of instilling self-doubt. Segregated and woefully underfunded schools for Black children often used curricula that glorified white history and culture while either ignoring or distorting Black contributions. Teachers taught children a narrative that positioned whiteness as the pinnacle of achievement and Blackness as a mark of deficiency. This educational malpractice led to a state of cognitive dissonance, where the authority figures' "knowledge" contradicted the child's own identity.

The suppression of autonomous identity is perhaps the most complex and tragic outcome of this historical indoctrination. To survive in a hostile world, many Black individuals felt compelled to adopt a performative identity, one that was more palatable to the white gaze. Such behavior often meant suppressing cultural expressions, anglicizing names, and conforming to white standards of beauty and professionalism. The pressure to assimilate was immense, creating a painful internal conflict between one's authentic self and the self that was deemed "acceptable" by the dominant culture.

This suppression was not merely a conscious choice but often a subconscious survival mechanism. The fear of being perceived as "too Black"—too loud, too assertive, too different—became a powerful inhibitor. This internal censor, born of generations of oppression, stifles creativity, ambition, and the very essence of what it means to be a unique individual. The result is a fractured identity, where one's true self is hidden behind a mask of conformity.

The work of seminal thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon provides a critical framework for understanding this phenomenon. Du Bois's concept of "double consciousness" (see Kirland’s treatment; and Bruce Jr.’s work) eloquently describes the internal conflict experienced by Black Americans: "this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." The phenomenon captures the essence of an identity filtered through the lens of white perception. Fanon, in his seminal work Black Skin, White Masks, examines the deep-seated psychological trauma of colonialism and racism, arguing that the colonized individual often internalizes the colonizer's culture and values, leading to a profound sense of alienation from their identity.

In contemporary society, the echoes of this historical indoctrination continue to reverberate. Studies have shown a correlation between internalized racism and negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and lower self-esteem (Sanders et al., 2024). In professional settings, the pressure to code-switch and conform to white corporate culture can lead to burnout and a sense of inauthenticity. The persistent underrepresentation of Black individuals in leadership positions is not solely due to external barriers but can also be linked to the internalized self-doubt that discourages risk-taking and ambition.

The historical indoctrination of white supremacy has created a lasting and deeply damaging psychological legacy. The cultivation of fear, the instillation of self-doubt, and the resulting suppression of autonomous identity have created a formidable internal barrier for many Black individuals. Recognizing this internalized oppression is a crucial step toward healing and dismantling the vestiges of a system designed to control not just the body but the mind and spirit as well. The journey to true liberation requires not only the breaking of external chains but also the courageous reclaiming of a self that is whole, authentic, and unafraid.

Photo by Stephen Walker on Unsplash

Black Value Reduced to Productivity Within White Patriarchal Systems

Even in moments of recognition or success, Black value is often assessed through the lens of economic utility and cultural contribution to white patriarchal systems, reinforcing dependence rather than autonomy. Even in what appear to be moments of unequivocal success, the recognition of Black individuals and their contributions is often filtered through a tacit, yet powerful, lens: their utility to white patriarchal systems. Whether in the boardroom, on the athletic field, or on the world's stage, Black value is frequently assessed not on its own intrinsic terms, but by its capacity to generate profit, provide cultural enrichment, or affirm the moral standing of the dominant structure. This conditional validation establishes a secluded environment where achieving success is feasible, but achieving true autonomy remains elusive.

Can we determine how this framework of utility operates in economics and culture and ultimately how it reinforces a dynamic of dependence?

The Framework of Economic Utility: Profit and Performance

In a capitalist society, the most straightforward valuation is economic. However, Black individuals often directly tie this valuation to their ability to generate revenue for systems they do not control.

The Athlete and Entertainer as Assets: The most prominent examples of this phenomenon can be found in the fields of sports and entertainment. A Black athlete is celebrated as a "franchise player" or a superstar, but their value is fundamentally calculated by the ticket sales, merchandise, and media rights they generate for predominantly white team owners and league executives. People treat them as valuable assets, but when their physical utility diminishes due to injury or age, their economic value to the system decreases. The backlash against Colin Kaepernick starkly illustrated this dynamic. His value was immense as a quarterback, but when he repurposed his platform for activism that challenged the system, his utility was reassessed as negative, and he was effectively exiled from the NFL. His value was conditional upon his silent performance.

The Commodification of Black Culture: Black culture has been the wellspring of countless profitable global trends, from the blues and jazz that birthed rock and roll to the hip-hop that now dominates global pop music. However, the economic rewards have disproportionately flowed upwards into a white-owned and controlled industry. People often celebrate black artists for their "contributions," but this recognition is based on the raw material they provide, which the system then packages, markets, and monetizes. The value is placed on the product (the song, the style) as a commodity for mass (often white) consumption, while the creators are often left with a fraction of the wealth and control. Their contribution is valued, but their economic autonomy is curtailed.

The Lens of Cultural Contribution: Enrichment Without Disruption

When recognition is granted for cultural contributions, it is frequently for work that enriches or serves the narratives of the dominant white culture without fundamentally challenging its premises.

The "Acceptable" Genius: Black artists, writers, and thinkers are most readily celebrated when their work can be integrated into the existing canon in a non-threatening way. They are lauded for "giving a voice to the Black experience," a phrase that can subtly frame their work as a niche contribution to a broader, implicitly white, cultural landscape. The value lies in its ability to add "diversity" and a touch of the "exotic" to the mainstream, allowing the system to see itself as inclusive and enlightened. People often ignore, label as "angry," or deem work that is radically disruptive, insular, or critical of the system itself as less artistically "universal."

The Sanitization of Radicalism: Historical figures are prime targets for this reassessment. The modern, mainstream image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a sanitized hero of peace and unity, whose quotes are now ironically used to quell protests and chastise activists. The status quo has redefined his value. The current system conveniently excises his radical critiques of economic injustice, poverty, and American militarism. Conversely, more revolutionary figures like Malcolm X or the Black Panthers, whose messages are far more difficult to sanitize, are often marginalized in mainstream historical narratives, their contributions deemed less "valuable" because they refuse to be useful to a narrative of comfortable, non-disruptive progress.

The "Magical Negro" Trope: In fiction and film, this dynamic is embodied by the "Magical Negro" trope, a recurring character whose sole purpose is to aid the white protagonist on their journey of self-discovery. This Black character, imbued with folk wisdom or spiritual insight, has no autonomous story of their own. Their entire value is predicated on their utility to the white character's development, perfectly illustrating how Blackness can be "valued" in culture so long as it remains in a supportive, secondary role.

The Consequence: Dependence over Autonomy

When value is consistently defined by one's utility to an external system, it inherently fosters dependence.

Conditional Success: It establishes a world in which success is not self-determined but granted. The awards, contracts, and accolades come from the very systems that are predicated on a racial hierarchy. In order to sustain this success, there is a great deal of pressure to remain useful, avoid causing trouble, continue as an entertainer, and provide non-threatening cultural products.

Internalized Metrics: Over time, these external metrics of value can become internalized. Success is seen as being well-known and making money within the current system, instead of building independent institutions or doing work that is valuable on its own, no matter how the dominant culture views it.

The assessment of Black value through the lens of economic and cultural utility is a sophisticated and subtle mechanism of control. It allows for the celebration of individual Black success stories, creating a powerful illusion of progress and equality. Yet, by making recognition conditional upon service to white patriarchal systems, it expertly reinforces the underlying power imbalance. True autonomy requires a fundamental shift: a move from a society where Black value is assessed and granted to one where it is recognized as inherent, self-defined, and foundational.

Symbolic Liberation vs. Structural and Psychological Freedom

While contemporary expressions of Black liberation have achieved symbolic visibility, they often fail to disrupt the foundational structures and internalized ideologies that sustain white dominance, leaving true freedom unrealized. Contemporary expressions of Black liberation have achieved unprecedented symbolic visibility, embedding phrases like "Black Lives Matter" into the global lexicon and elevating Black artists, executives, and politicians to positions of significant influence. Yet, beneath this veneer of progress, the foundational structures of white dominance remain largely undisturbed, and the internalized ideologies that sustain them persist. These symbolic victories, while emotionally resonant and culturally significant, often fail to disrupt the systems that perpetuate inequality, creating an illusion of freedom while true liberation remains unrealized.

The Allure and Limits of Symbolic Victories

The past decade has seen a surge in symbolic gestures aimed at acknowledging Black humanity and historical grievances. Corporations have pledged billions to racial equity initiatives, "Black Lives Matter" has been painted on city streets, and Juneteenth has become a federal holiday. In media, films and television shows with Black leads have garnered critical acclaim and commercial success, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were—up until the present Trump administration—becoming fairly common in corporate America.

These moments of recognition are not without value. They can validate Black experiences, foster a sense of collective identity, and shift cultural conversations. However, they often function as a convenient endpoint rather than a catalyst for fundamental change. This focus on symbols can be misleading, creating what scholar Nancy Fraser terms a "politics of recognition" that overshadows the more difficult "politics of redistribution."⁵

For example, corporate support for Black Lives Matter has often been criticized as "performative activism." While a company might issue a statement of solidarity or make a sizable donation, these actions rarely involve altering internal practices that contribute to racial inequality, such as discriminatory hiring processes, inequitable pay structures, or business models that exploit marginalized communities. A 2022 study from Rice University noted that while businesses backing BLM were more attractive to prospective employees, the long-term impact on deep-seated structural inequality remains questionable. Such symbolic acts can serve more as a public relations shield, inoculating a corporation against criticism without requiring it to dismantle the very systems from which it benefits.

The Unyielding Foundations of White Dominance

True freedom requires dismantling the deeply embedded, often invisible, structures that perpetuate white dominance. These foundational pillars have proven remarkably resilient to symbolic challenges.

Economic Inequality: The racial wealth gap remains a chasm, with the median white household possessing significantly more wealth than the median Black household. This disparity is not accidental but the result of centuries of discriminatory policies in housing, lending, and employment, such as redlining and exclusionary zoning. A symbolic victory, like the appointment of a Black CEO, does not alter the fact that the majority of Black families are locked out of the primary mechanisms of wealth creation that have long benefited white families.

The Legal System: Despite the visibility of activism against police brutality, the legal and carceral systems continue to disproportionately harm Black communities. Foundational legal doctrines, qualified immunity for police officers, cash bail systems, and sentencing disparities remain largely intact. Symbolic gestures do not override the legal precedents and ingrained biases that lead to mass incarceration and state violence.

Education: While curricula may be updated to include more Black history, the funding structures that create vast disparities between schools in predominantly white and Black neighborhoods persist. Property tax-based funding models ensure that wealth dictates educational opportunity, perpetuating a cycle of disadvantage that symbolic curriculum changes alone cannot break.

The Persistence of Internalized Ideologies

Perhaps the most insidious barrier to true liberation is the perpetuation of internalized ideologies that uphold racial hierarchies. Symbolic victories can paradoxically reinforce these beliefs.

Internalized Superiority in White Consciousness: When a system allows for a few exceptional Black individuals to succeed, it can reinforce a belief among some white people that the system is, in fact, fair and that those who do not succeed are responsible for their failures. The success of a few becomes the exception that proves the rule, allowing the broader structure of inequality to be seen as a meritocracy. This process creates a "frame backfire," a phenomenon noted in a June 2025 University of California, Berkeley study, where evoking past civil rights struggles can make contemporary problems seem less severe and thus less in need of systemic solutions.

Internalized Racism in Black Consciousness: For Black individuals, the constant celebration of "firsts" or the pressure to assimilate into white-dominated spaces can reinforce the idea that success is contingent upon proximity to whiteness and adherence to its norms. It can foster the belief that liberation is an individual pursuit rather than a collective one, achieved by escaping the conditions of one's community rather than transforming them. This aligns with the psychological concept of internalized racism, where dominant cultural values are accepted as superior, leading to self-doubt and the fracturing of collective identity.

While contemporary expressions of Black liberation have masterfully commanded public attention and achieved significant symbolic milestones, these victories have proven insufficient to topple the foundational pillars of white dominance. By focusing on representation and recognition, these movements can inadvertently create a political landscape where the appearance of change substitutes for its substance. True, realized freedom requires a relentless focus on disrupting the economic, legal, and social structures that perpetuate inequality and challenging the internalized beliefs that allow these systems to endure. Without this deeper, structural transformation, even the most visible victories will remain symbolic, leaving the promise of liberation unfulfilled.

Conclusion

Despite the increased visibility of Black figures in public life and the widespread invocation of liberation rhetoric, the reality remains that Black people are not yet truly free. This essay has argued that symbolic victories cannot substitute for structural change, especially when the psychological and ideological legacy of white supremacy remains intact. Centuries of calculated indoctrination—through education, law, religion, media, and culture—have normalized whiteness as the center of power and reduced Black worth to utility within that system. Many Black people persistently internalize the belief that we must prove our value through productivity, conformity, or performance in spaces dominated by white people.

True liberation requires far more than policy reforms or corporate statements. It demands the dismantling of both the visible structures of racial hierarchy and the invisible chains of internalized oppression. Until Black value is affirmed as inherent rather than conditional, and until our visions of freedom no longer depend on white validation or patriarchal metrics of success, liberation will remain an aspiration rather than a reality. The path forward must center psychological decolonization, structural transformation, and a radical reimagining of what it means to live freely and fully—on our terms, beyond the shadow of inherited domination.

1. Bell, J. (2015, February 27). Race, power, and education in early America. Education’s Histories, 2(1). https://scholarworks.umt.edu/eduhist/vol2/iss1/4

2. Reference Set 1

3. Reference Set 2

4. Rice, T. (2007). Life after Birth: The Klan and cinema, 1915–1928. University of London, University College London (United Kingdom).

5. Nancy Fraser - Digifesto