A summary of the SLK 320(A) semester test question: "Discuss the active role of psychology in the perpetuation of racism in South Africa by referring to racism prior to 1994. Your answer should include a discussion on why psychology did not resist racism and apartheid and specifically what measures...
SA PSYCHOLOGY DENYING RACISM; APPROACH TO ISSUE AND APPROPRIATENESS OF
DISCIPLINE’S RESPONSE OVER TIME
Psych as practice: deeply entrenched in power relations & very real capability of being
oppressive & exclusive
Prior to apartheid in SA: psychology promoted racism by denying that it existed &
perpetuating ideologies & reinforcing racist ideologies academically
In essay: discuss how psychology as practice was racist & how institutional racism
reinforced it through exclusionary practices
Important to define racism to show how psychology was in itself racist
o Racism: “an ideology through which the domination/marginalisation of certain races by
another is enacted/legitimised, through a set of ideas and/or practices aimed at
reproducing & justifying inequality”
1 : examine racist practices in psych prior to 1994
st
From start psych‟gists claimed psych played role in protection of fundamental human rights
o However: psych in SA did not reflect this
Psych perpetuated racist ideals through racism of omission & commission
o 1st was almost exclusive focus on experience of whites at time & deafening silence of
negative impact of racism of blacks
o 2nd SA psych was complicit in perpetuation of racism during apartheid through racially
skewed processes of knowledge production & training
Very few facilities available for black students = available facilities were poor
o Thus: SA psych worse off for what it didn‟t do than what it did
Various ideologies around blacks during apartheid used to subordinate black people &
psych did nothing to stop it
Apartheid ideologies created different diagnostic systems for Blacks/Whites making them
essentially different
o Bantu hysteria notion: that stress is result of condition & Blacks didn‟t get depressed
o Blacks also seen as „negative other‟ or being fundamentally different/alien to Whites
Racist ideologies were built into psych of time & SA psych did nothing to challenge it
Examine reasons why ideologies weren‟t challenged & show how racism was built into
organisational structures within psych
Arguably 4 main reasons for complicities of psych during apartheid:
o 1st racism perpetuated all facets of society
o 2nd social class of many SA psychologists meant they benefitted directly from apartheid
o 3rd abhorrent racist SA society would‟ve been difficult to oppose
Due to social order favouring already dominant White male, no surprise psychologists
advanced fundamentally racist policies in which they were situated
Isn‟t excuse = psychologists used power of psych as means to control power (many
of their recommendations used in legislation & formed pillars of apartheid)
4 note SA psych didn‟t exist in isolation from rest of SA & international society
th
o SA psych essentially formed on principles/perceptions advocating genocide of unfit races
(held by Nazism, Spencer/Thorndike) = SA psych identified with & within this community
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