Black shame

Black shame is a term used to describe how people of black African descent view themselves among societies in which they are a minority and feel oppressed. It results in psychological contemptuousness and denial about one's "blackness", and is worsened by a feeling that black people are responsible for a disproportionate amount of the crime in the country the person is in.

When written as Black Shame, the term may refer to the English translation of the German "Schwarze Schande", which is how German propaganda referred to the French deployment of African soldiers. The term was coined during the Second Moroccan crisis of 1911 but was most associated with the Allied occupation of the Rhineland (1918-30).

References

* Clyde Wilcox and Leopoldo Gomez, "Religion, Group Identification, and Politics among American Blacks". "Sociological Analysis", Vol. 51, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 271-285.
* "FRONTLINE: Two Nations of Black America" (2008). PBS (DVD) ASIN: B001690X2O
* Jane Gaines "The Scar of Shame": Skin Color and Caste in Black Silent Melodrama", "Cinema Journal", Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1987), pp. 3-21.
* Kevin Merida (2007). "Being a Black Man: At the Corner of Progress and Peril", PublicAffairs. ISBN 1-5864-8522-9
* W. E. B. Du Bois (1903, 1953), "The Souls of Black Folk", Bantam Classic. [http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=DubSoul.sgm&
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* William, H Grier and Price, M Cobbs (1992). "Black Rage: Two Black Psychiatrists Reveal the Full Dimensions of the Inner Conflicts and the Desperation of Black Life in the United States", Westview Press (2nd edition). ISBN 0-4650-0701-5