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For #ScholarStrike today, here's a thread about medieval Christian depictions of devils as Black people, including as Black children. This is part of the long history of white depictions of Black people as less innocent.
[TW: racism, dehumanization, violence]
[TW: racism, dehumanization, violence]
Frantz Fanon spoke about the historical inheritance from European culture of the image of Black people as demonic and sinful, innately less innocent. #ScholarStrike
Starting in very early Christian depictions, demons were often portrayed as black-skinned people. They were frequently called "Ethiopians," the generic term for Black Africans.
There are so many examples, but I want to focus on the medieval trope of Black children as demons.
There are so many examples, but I want to focus on the medieval trope of Black children as demons.
The archetype of this is probably the Life of St. Antony, one of the most popular early saints' lives, in which the devil appears to Antony "like a black boy," telling Antony it is "the spirit of lust." Antony drives it away, saying it is "black-hearted" and "weak as a child."
Other monastic visions recount monks finding devils in the form of "Ethiopian children" riding their backs. These demons are driven out by violence: one monk sees an Ethiopian girl sitting on his knees and strikes her away. Another throws a child violently.
4th-century Macarius of Alexandria had visions of devils in the form of "little black Ethiopian boys" tormenting his brother monks.
St. Benedict had a vision that explained a brother monk's inability to make it through prayers: he saw a little black boy tugging at the monk.
St. Benedict had a vision that explained a brother monk's inability to make it through prayers: he saw a little black boy tugging at the monk.
The Old English Martyrology describes St. Benedict of Nursia beating his brother monk with a stick to drive away the "fiend" in the shape of a "small black boy" who distracts the monk. #ScholarStrike
Many scholars have dismissed the portrayal of devils and demons as black, saying that it's a metaphor or has nothing to do with Black people. But, as Fanon recognized, a nearly two-thousand year tradition of depicting devils as Black people, even as Black children, has an effect.
Western people from late Antiquity onward depicted demons as little "Ethiopian" or Black children who represented sex, temptation, and the threat of hell, and who are driven away often by violence. #ScholarStrikeeo
It's not hard to make the connection to the NYT calling murdered Black teen Michael Brown "no angel" in his obituary. #ScholarStrike https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28929087
Studies have shown that Black boys are viewed as "less innocent" than white children. #ScholarStrike https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140306095117.htm
Black girls as young as 5 are also viewed as more mature and less innocent than their white peers. #ScholarStrike https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/6/29/15893172/study-racism-innocence-black-girls
Black children are perceived as angrier than white children. #ScholarStrike https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200702113650.htm
And this all means that Black children are more likely to be disciplined than their white peers. #ScholarStrike https://www.marketwatch.com/story/black-children-are-more-likely-to-be-disciplined-than-white-kids-for-the-same-behavior-2019-10-16
See, for instance, a Black boy who was suspended recently for playing with a toy Nerf gun during a virtual Zoom lesson. Literally, playing with a toy in his house caused the school to suspend him and send the police to his family's home. #ScholarStrike https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/08/colorado-springs-boy-suspended-toy-gun-virtual-class-police
Is there a direct line from medieval depictions of demons as Black children who must be driven away with violence to modern racist ideas about Black children and modern white violence against them? It's obviously complicated. #ScholarStrike
But it's hard to imagine that 2000 years of European theology, literature, and culture dehumanizing Black people, including Black children, does not have a serious impact on modern anti-Blackness in schools and elsewhere. #ScholarStrike
