Of Black Servitude Without Slavery by Agwu Ukiwe Okali

An undoubted reality of modern life is the growing dominance of English as the language of communication across cultures. With the acquisition of English, people acquire, not just the words and expressions, but, most critically, also the system of thought and mindset associated with the language, such as the inherent notion in the language of the “blackness of bad/badness of black; whiteness of good/goodness of white” embodied in such expressions as “black mark”, “black spot”, “black sheep”, “white lie”, “white knight”, “white magic” etc. The book avers that this systemic and inherent anti-black/pro-white bias in the language creates (or, maybe just reflects) a mindset, or even system of thought, that, unavoidably imported into the realm of race relations, promotes a situation in which black people effectively are held in perpetual psychological servitude, and white people may, from childhood, be burdened with a mindset of inequality of the races, which they have to work hard to overcome. Among the more serious consequences that flow from this state of affairs for both black and white people, and for society at large, as noted in the book, is the fact that the systemic defamation of the black race flowing from the blackness of bad/whiteness of good, etc. terminology, together with its underlying mindset, appears on its face, to militate against the idea of race equality; and so, far from promoting it, must, in fact, appear to the undiscerning mind, to legitimize the opposite. The result is racial discrimination, and, in the extreme case, the devaluing of a black life relative to a white one (e.g. in law enforcement situations). These matters are all explored in the book, which then goes ahead to propose an effective way for society out of this major quandary.