Tom Burrell

In this powerful examination of "the greatest propaganda campaign of all time"--the masterful marketing of Black inferiority, aka the BI Complex--Burrell poses ten disturbing questions that will make Black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many Blacks still think and act like slaves.

Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

Brainwashed

I have some mixed feelings about this book, but I do feel it altered my thinking and viewing for the better.

Burrell's lenses - linking present-day moments, images and patterns to their origins in the colonial era, and transformations through the Reconstruction / Civil Rights eras; evaluating a pattern's short term benefits v long term costs; approaching racism as a 'Black Inferiority' marketing campaign, broken down into concrete themes - have clarified my own analytic process of racism in the US. It's much easier for me to identify and articulate the patterns of racism and their roots in our history than it was before picking this one up. As a teacher, the speed of identification and accuracy of articulation is pretty crucial in the day-to-day and I would recommend to fellow educators. These lenses are also supportive tools for anyone conducting sociohistorical research.

Burrell definitely had some takes I disagreed with. A central idea is well-explained here:

"People with an external view attribute their experiences to outside forces. People with an internal orientation believe they control their own destinies. Due to our historical state of "powerlessness," too many of us believe that our destinies are dictated by the whim of outside (read "white") forces, which dovetails conveniently with a system that reinforces black inferiority."

However, at times Burrell shortens / spins this into the concept that internal attitudes around racism are the greater issue than racism itself. Wasn't necessarily feeling that or the aligned arguments.

This book is addressed directly for a Black audience but was rec'd to me by a professor for a class about teaching Black male students. Def would share my copy w any other teachers!

gabrielle v

I have some mixed feelings about this book, but I do feel it altered my thinking and viewing for the better.

Burrell's lenses - linking present-day moments, images and patterns to their origins in the colonial era, and transformations through the Reconstruction / Civil Rights eras; evaluating a pattern's short term benefits v long term costs; approaching racism as a 'Black Inferiority' marketing campaign, broken down into concrete themes - have clarified my own analytic process of racism in the US. It's much easier for me to identify and articulate the patterns of racism and their roots in our history than it was before picking this one up. As a teacher, the speed of identification and accuracy of articulation is pretty crucial in the day-to-day and I would recommend to fellow educators. These lenses are also supportive tools for anyone conducting sociohistorical research.

Burrell definitely had some takes I disagreed with. A central idea is well-explained here:
"People with an external view attribute their experiences to outside forces. People with an internal orientation believe they control their own destinies. Due to our historical state of "powerlessness," too many of us believe that our destinies are dictated by the whim of outside (read "white") forces, which dovetails conveniently with a system that reinforces black inferiority."
However, at times Burrell shortens / spins this into the concept that internal attitudes around racism are the greater issue than racism itself. Wasn't necessarily feeling that or the aligned arguments.

This book is addressed directly for a Black audience but was rec'd to me by a professor for a class about teaching Black male students. Def would share my copy w any other teachers!

Brainwashed Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

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