We had a very interesting discussion on a quote below from Toni Morrison’s book The Origin of Others, on themes that dominate to this day our nation: race, fear, borders, mass movement of people, and the desire of belonging. Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? Why we cannot celebrate rather diversity, multi-culturalism, and learn from others rather than fear them? Morrison’s book is based on her 2016 lectures at Harvard on “the literature of belonging”. Below is a quote from the book that illustrates the largely obscured humanity of slaves and the power manipulation strategy used by slave owners to justify economic exploitation:

“The necessity of rendering the slave a foreign species appears to be a desperate attempt to confirm one’s own self as normal to conform to society’s norms. The urgency of distinguishing between those who belong to the human race and those who are decidedly non-human is so powerful the spotlight turns away and shines not on the object of degradation but on the creator. Even assuming exaggeration by the slaves, the sensibility of slave owners is gothic. It’s as though they are shouting, “I am not a beast! I’m not a beast! I torture the helpless to prove I am not weak.”. The danger of sympathizing with the stranger is the possibility of becoming a stranger. To lose one’s racial-ized rank is to lose one’s own valued and enshrined difference”.

The need to confirm one’s humanity while committing inhumane acts is key, according to Morrison. By convincing oneself that there is some sort of natural delineation between the individual and the Other (someone less than human), one attempts to justify their “torture” against the “helpless”; a contradiction that illustrates the need for the “spotlight” to shine on the “creator” so that they can understand their actions.

Morrison’s book is inspirational as it demonstrates that racial prejudice is an unnatural and a learned phenomenon, and that we should all remember that there is after all only one human race!