BLACK OR WHITE? THE UGLY DOLL EXPERIMENT

In the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth Bancroft Clark (1914-2005) and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark (1917-83), designed the ‘Doll Study’ to measure the psychological effects of US segregation on Black children. The focus groups featured Black children ages 3 to 7, whom the psychologists asked to pick between Black and white dolls, which were pretty or nice, and which looked most like them.

The study found most Black children overwhelmingly attributed positive traits to white dolls and negative ones to Black dolls, confirming for the psychologists that policies, such as segregation, shaped how Black children viewed themselves. The study’s results informed the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools because it was unconstitutional.

However, racial policies continue to disproportionately affect Black people in the US through every stage of our lives.

Continued….. For example, in January, the Trump administration issued an executive order terminating DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, calling them ‘illegal.’ Thus, the US resists correcting the ills of slavery and levelling the playing field between the privileged populations and its internal colonies, with Black people being among them.

Video credit: @MSNBC (X)

Sources

https://kennethclark.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-doll-study/

https://www.naacpldf.org/brown-vs-board/significance-doll-test

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFaPb9ZReTE

STATEMENTS YOU THINK AREN’T RACIST, BUT ARE!

Racism isn’t just offensive - its a weapon that has been used to colonize, exploit and suppress Black people for centuries.

@BlackFactsMatter, a TikTok creator, highlighted 10 ignorant comments white people tend to make that are rooted in racism and directed at Black people. At first glance, they may seem like minor microaggressions - annoying, but harmless. But when we zoom out, these statements are part of a broader structure that normalizes white supremacy, making it easier to justify the violent policies that keep Black nations impoverished and under Western control.

Race science, once used to justify Africa’s conquest, now thrives in Western media and economic policies. Calling out racist statements won’t end white supremacy, but it exposes how it operates daily, challenging white people to see how even subtle actions uphold a system of oppression that spans from casual bias to geopolitical violence.

Continued……. So, rather than encouraging Black people to seek acceptance within an imperialist white-supremacist system, we pick up on a different lesson: Alerting the white community on how racism continues to fuel the a centuries-old machinery of oppression.

Listen in, and feel free to comment.

Video credit: @BlackFactsMatter (TikTok)

Sources

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

https://x.com/african_stream/status/1894110139709624518

https://www.blackagendareport.com/obama_brought_slavery_to_libya

African leaders who sell out their neighbours for temporary Western alliances should keep in mind that once their new ‘friends’ turn against them, there is no going back. Take Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, who bet everything on his Western backers, using proxy militias such as M23 to destabilise the DRC and loot its minerals. But now the tide is turning. The US imposed sanctions on a Rwandan government minister while the UK and Germany suspended new financial commitments as well as ceased attending events hosted by the Rwandan government. Kigali is no longer untouchable. Perhaps Kagame should have focused on fostering ties with his Congolese neighbours rather than attacking and robbing them to please his fake friends. Now he’s learning the hard way - Western interests are never about friendship, only exploitation.

12-YEAR-OLD: U.S. PUBLIC HOUSING A CORPORATE PROJECT

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression in the United States, the federal government could no longer ignore the lack of affordable housing. Thus began the history of US public housing, also known as the so-called ‘projects.’ The National Housing Act of 1937—among many depression-era laws—aimed to address the housing crisis through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

However, instead of encouraging ‘improvements in housing standards and conditions’ as was the FHA’s goal, the policy, like many others in the United States, discriminated against non-white, poor people. Richard Rothstein, author of the 2017 book, ‘The Color of Law’, defined the FHA to National Public Radio as a ‘state-sponsored system of segregation … primarily designed to provide housing to white, middle-class, lower-middle-class families.’

Continued……. While the US government’s homeownership programmes offered government-insured mortgages for homeowners, Black people in the US and Black neighbourhoods could not access the federal aid, one phenomenon among many that formed what is known as ‘redlining.’Redlining barred Black residents from buying homes, which led to predominantly Black communities remaining segregated, leaving many such neighbourhoods in deplorable conditions to this day. Now, about 1.1 million public-housing units, operated by over 3,000 local public-housing agencies, serve 2.2 million people.

So, in this clip, a 12-year-old brother is not wrong in saying that the projects are really ‘corporate America’s’ project for Black people, given the United States operates in the interest of big business. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made this clear during the last election year, when he said the market will remain unaffected no matter who won, Democrats or Republicans.

We definitely need more of our children to be as politically aware as this brother!

While we would love to acknowledge the speakers in this video, we unfortunately don’t have their names. Please let us know if you know who they are!

Video credit: @_velliiiiii (Instagram)

Sources

https://nlihc.org/resource/public-housing-history

https://nurseledcare.phmc.org/advocacy/policy-blog/item/641:a-brief-history-of-housing-policy-in-the-u-s.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/what-is-redlining.html

https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/11/05/blackrock-doesnt-matter-us-election-trump-kamala-harris

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america

https://x.com/african_stream/status/1853838199652553107

South African writer Athol Fugard, whose 1972 play ‘Sizwe Bansi is Dead’ brought the indignities that Black people endured under apartheid to theatre audiences around the world, died on Sunday aged 92.

Born in 1932, he was one of the few White South Africans who stood up against the regime. Not only did his plays expose its brutality, he also worked with Black actors - which was illegal under apartheid.

Fugard credited his mother with helping him “break the conditioning that was taking place on school playgrounds, in classrooms, everywhere.” In his 20s, he started working as a clerk in a court which prosecuted Black South Africans who had broken the so-called pass laws (designed to restrict their movements and employment opportunities), giving him a front-row seat to the injustices of apartheid.

Continued……This experience would serve as inspiration for ‘Sizwe Bansi is Dead.’ The play is about a Black man who steals a dead man’s identity by using his passbook (apartheid-era ID document) to take up residency and seek employment in the city.

The play, co-authored with John Kani (King T’chaka in Black Panther) and Winston Ntshona, became a hit and was screened for audiences in different parts of the world, bringing attention to the apartheid struggle. It was one of a number in which Fugard poked the apartheid beast, which at one point revoked his passport.

His contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle has been lauded across the political divide, with tributes pouring in from President Cyril Ramaphosa and the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, which described him as a writer whose life was marked by “his commitment to exposing the brutal realities of apartheid, giving voice to those silenced by a racist and oppressive system.”

Sources

https://apnews.com/article/athol-fugard-south-africa-play-apartheid-obituary-338170b79795438791d9ae1af0aad558
https://x.com/EFFSouthAfrica/status/1898980324777787865

https://www.supersummary.com/sizwe-banzi-is-dead/summary/
https://www.citizen.co.za/network-news/lnn/article/president-pays-tribute-to-athol-fugard/

MP CALLS FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN RIGHT-WING LOBBY GROUPS

A South African member of Parliament has asked the government to take stern action against members of right-wing white-settler lobby groups widely believed to be behind the diplomatic spat with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

On 5 March, Wesley Douglas, an MP representing the UmKhonto weSizwe (MK) party, called on the foreign ministry to support his party’s motion asking Parliament to summon and sanction members of white-settler organisation AfriForum. Members of the two groups recently travelled to the White House to discuss what they allege as mistreatment of white South Africans and a ‘white g*nocide’ against settler farmers. Douglas said their conduct is tantamount to undermining the country’s economic stability.

Continued……Relations between South Africa and the US have hit a historic low in recent weeks following Trump signing an executive order suspending aid to the African state over unproven claims of violent attacks against white settlers. Trump’s order came after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a new law allowing the government to confiscate private land without compensation under certain circumstances.

Most US aid in South Africa came under the auspices of the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids (PEPFAR), a US fund launched in 2003 to help fight AIDS in countries with high HIV infection rates.

Douglas said the US measures will likely hit the country’s most vulnerable, so those who caused the sanctions should not be allowed to walk free.

Last month, Douglas’ party opened a treason case against AfriForum, accusing it of lobbying ‘foreign powers to act against the sovereignty and economic interests of South Africa.’

Video credit: Parliament of the Republic of South Africa/YouTube (@parliamentofRSA on X)

Sources

https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/pepfar-global-aids/pepfar

https://mg.co.za/politics/2025-03-05-afriforum-reiterates-calls-for-us-sanctions-against-ramaphosa

https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-trump-afrikaner-aid-freeze-c93da366d91ec386adf99099441cf565

https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mk-party-accuses-afriforum-of-economic-sabotage-fa6310e9-7f62-42f7-94bb-ca82d3ae8cb5

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/02/10/mk-pary-opens-treason-case-against-afriforum

NOW DECLASSIFIED: CIA PLOTTED COUP AGAINST NKRUMAH

Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, says that newly declassified documents from the US archives implicate the CIA in the coup that ousted the nation’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Mahama made the significant announcement on 6 March during the celebrations marking Ghana’s 68th Independence Day. Nkrumah, a prominent pan-African figure during Africa’s decolonisation, envisioned an industrialised Ghana that would lead the continent towards self-sufficiency. His aspirations were abruptly halted when a military and police coup took place on 24 February 1966, while he was on a diplomatic mission in China.

As a pan-Africanist and socialist, Nkrumah launched initiatives aimed at achieving political and economic independence for Africa during a period when much of the continent remained under colonial rule.

Continued…….. He dreamed of a united Africa liberated from imperialism, a vision he actively pursued by organising the first All-African Peoples’ Conference in Accra, Ghana, in 1958. In 1963, he was instrumental in founding the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the African Union (AU).

Due to his dedication to socialism and pan-Africanism, his willingness to work with the Soviet Union and China, and his efforts to foster anti-imperialism across Africa and beyond, Nkrumah increasingly became perceived as a threat by the US government, which initiated plans to depose him.

The coup in 1966 disrupted Ghana’s path to industrialisation and led to prolonged political turmoil. Today, the West African nation grapples with substantial foreign debts owed to imperialist institutions such as the IMF, while ordinary citizens face rising living costs - an unfortunate departure from Nkrumah’s original vision.

Additionally, Western powers have similarly undermined other influential African leaders, including Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Amílcar Cabral in Guinea-Bissau and Sylvanus Olympio of Togo.

Video credit: CITI FM 97.3

Sources

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-01601R000500200001-7.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/09/archives/cia-said-to-have-aided-plotters-who-overthrew-nkrumah-in-ghana.html

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/lumumba-50th-anniversary-african-leaders-assassinations

https://liberationnews.org/cia-overthrow-kwame-nkrumah-neocolonialism-west-africa/

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000572911.pdf

https://debtjustice.org.uk/countries-in-crisis/ghana-debt-crisis-rooted-colonialism#:~:text=Ghana%20is%20in%20a%20debt,external%20debt%20payments%20each%20year.

In a futile attempt to solicit rage and position himself as a victim of racial discrimination, South Africa-born white settler Elon Musk falsely claimed in a 7 March X post that his satellite internet service Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa due to his skin colour.

On 31 March 2021, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) released the country’s ‘Regulations in respect of the Limitations of Control and Equity Ownership by Historically Disadvantaged Groups and the Application of the ICT Sector Code.’ Among the mandates issued was that Historically Disadvantaged Groups (HDGs) own at least 30 per cent of foreign-owned information and telecommunications companies’ South African subsidiaries. HDGs include Black South Africans, women, youth and individuals with disabilities.

Continued……These regulations are part of South Africa’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act introduced in 2003 to increase the participation of Black people in the country’s economy to redress decades of economic disenfranchisement via apartheid-era laws, whose legacy lingers to this day. However, Starlink, through its parent company SpaceX, has not complied with these regulations. Moreover, according to South Africa’s telecommunications authorities, Starlink has not applied for a licence.

In response to Musk’s misleading claims, South African Head of Public Diplomacy Clayson Monyela clarified that this was not an issue of skin colour or race, adding, ‘Starlink is welcome to operate in South Africa, provided there’s compliance with local laws.’ The regulations apply to foreign-owned telecommunications companies wishing to do business in South Africa. As Monyela asserted, ‘this is a global international trade & investment principle’ and ‘there are over 600 USA companies investing & operating in [the country] ... all complying & thriving!’

It seems the multibillionaire thinks South Africa should bend the rules that many other foreign businesspeople abide by while spreading disinformation about South Africa to his over 200 million followers on X.

Sources

https://www.ellipsis.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Limitations-of-Control-and-Equity-Ownership-by-Historically-Disadvantaged-Groups-and-the-application-of-the-ICT-Sector-Code.pdf

https://x.com/ClaysonMonyela/status/1897975844565397567

https://www.reuters.com/world/south-africa-rejects-musk-claim-starlink-cant-operate-there-because-hes-not-2025-03-07/#:~:text=JOHANNESBURG%2C%20March%207%20(Reuters),not%20applied%20for%20a%20licence

https://www.thedtic.gov.za/financial-and-non-financial-support/b-bbee/broad-based-black-economic-empowerment