The Construction of Whiteness in America
When considering the grounds in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney supported his ruling in the Dread Scott case, it becomes quite apparent that his reasoning resonates from ideals that were engrained into the culture of the United States by its white inhabitants from its very beginning. These ideals were created in order to suppress minorities, most specifically the entire Black race, while constructing the superiority of whiteness and it’s power over the nation as a whole. This construction of whiteness was built on the enslavement of Blacks, but went so much deeper than the use of controlled labor. Within the constraints of slavery many methods were used to in order to physically, psychologically, emotionally, and culturally break down the Black race in America. The results of these varying aspects carried out not only the ability to create an identity of whites as a superior race in their own minds, but also a new identity of how Blacks self-identified themselves for generations.
Beyond the physical abuse enslaved Africans had to endure, were the slave master’s actions to strip them of their cultural identity. Despite the fact that many of these enslaved Africans came from different areas of Africa and naturally had some cultural differences amongst them from this result, shared similarities remained. One such cultural practice that carried significant importance was the ceremonial naming of newborns. The white slave masters would not acknowledge their slave’s African names and would typically assign them white names. “But no matter how determinedly they named themselves, after a name was forced on slaves by the master, the imperatives of the slave system won out. In the slave’s mind the new name was associated with the enforced obedience and powerlessness, and this is what rendered “pet names,” even African ones, of little consequence, because the language slaves increasingly heard was English. The most poignant evidence of the loss of authority
Beyond the physical abuse enslaved Africans had to endure, were the slave master’s actions to strip them of their cultural identity. Despite the fact that many of these enslaved Africans came from different areas of Africa and naturally had some cultural differences amongst them from this result, shared similarities remained. One such cultural practice that carried significant importance was the ceremonial naming of newborns. The white slave masters would not acknowledge their slave’s African names and would typically assign them white names. “But no matter how determinedly they named themselves, after a name was forced on slaves by the master, the imperatives of the slave system won out. In the slave’s mind the new name was associated with the enforced obedience and powerlessness, and this is what rendered “pet names,” even African ones, of little consequence, because the language slaves increasingly heard was English. The most poignant evidence of the loss of authority
Bibliography: Circuit Court, United States. "Dred Scott v. John F. A.. Sanford." Court Case. Stuckey, Sterling. “Slave Culture.” Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America., New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1987 Wiggins, Rosland Cobb, and Rhett S. Jones. “Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters, 1808-1817.” A Black Quaker’s “Voice from within the Veil., Washington D.C. Howard University Press, 1996.