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Psychodynamic Speculations on Derogatory Names for Blacks

The William Paterson College of New Jersey

The phenomenon of linguistic racism is explored through the application of the psychoanalytic theory of Joel Kovel's White Racism: A Psychohistory and the data of such analytic explorers as Kubie, Pinderhughes, Hamilton, and Grier and Cobbs. The psychodynamics of racism are related to the psychosexual development of the child and particularly to that phase encom passing toilet training with its conflicts, fears, and fan tasies. It is demonstrated that these psychological phenomena are corroborated by the sociolinguistic phenomenon of racial labeling. That is, each of the seventy-odd derogatory names for Blacks—e.g., nigger, boogie, etc.—embodies one or more of the three un conscious fantasies that Kovel believes Whites project: Blacks are bestial, sexual, and fecal. The three large groups are subdivided on the basis of allied characteristics, and each is then linked to the underly ing psychodynamic. The result is a further illumination of the phenomenon of racial labeling and of the power of the unconscious to determine human behavior.

Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 5, No. 2, 85-97 (1979)
DOI: 10.1177/009579847900500203


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