Mandingo Theory

Mandingo Theory is a name given to one of the popular stereotypes of African Americans, which focuses on their alleged sexual prowess and large genitalia.

Concept originating from white slave owners

This stereotypical concept was invented by white slave owners who promoted the notion that male African slaves were animalistic and bestial in nature asserting, for example, that "in the Negro all the passions, emotions, and ambitions, are almost wholly subservient to the sexual instinct..."^{[1][non-primary source needed]} and "this construction of the oversexed black male parlayed perfectly into notions of black bestiality and primitivism."^{[2][non-primary source needed]} Describing slaves in this way allowed them to justify the wealth, privilege and social benefits they gained through slavery as a moral action since they did not see the slaves as fully human.

Need to control the sexuality of slaves

In order to maintain this illusion slave holders had to attempt to completely control the sexuality of their slaves. Hence, the laws of sexual assault and rape were used as a tool to fortify white male power and control over their possessions, black women and white women.^{[3][non-primary source needed]}

Rumors of black male sexual prowess continued to simultaneously stimulate and intimidate the imaginations of white America. Henry Havelock Ellis, a sexual psychologist, noted:

I am informed that the sexual power of Negroes . . . are the cause of the favor with which they are viewed by some white women of strong sexual passions in America and by many prostitutes. At one time there was a special house in New York City to which white women resorted for these 'buck lovers." The women came heavily veiled and would inspect the penises of the men before making the selection.^{[4][non-primary source needed]}

Mandingo theory

With such societal preconceptions by the majority of the white community gave birth to and further reinforced the 'Mandingo theory' which to several attempts by many doctors and pseudoscientists to "deemphasize the gravitational force of the Mandingo obsession by advancing theories that the larger genitalia coincided with a smaller brain, lower intellectual endowment, and increased lasciviousness."^{[5][non-primary source needed]}

One proponent is perhaps John Philippe Rushton a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada who became controversially popular upon the publication of his book entitled Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective (1995).^{[citation needed]}

Backlash against the notion

However, there was a backlash to the popularity of the Mandingo Negro stereotype which led to the rise of several accounts of brutal castration of Negroes across America whereby the "use of castration, in many respects, reveals that the act of lynching represented an attempt to dehumanize and emasculate black men, thereby indirectly reinforcing white male superiority."^{[6][non-primary source needed]}

Mandingo Negro stereotype today

Today, the Mandingo Negro still has a large societal preconception that has spread beyond the borders of America which has been perpetuated particularly by the pornographic media and the adult industry (and to some extent the television medium), examples include adult film actor, Mandingo.

Footnotes

1. ^ Rogers, J. A. in Richeson (2009) p. 103
2. ^ Richeson (2009) p. 103
3. ^ Richeson (2009) p. 104
4. ^ Ellis, H. H. in Rogers, J. A. in Richeson (2009) p. 103
5. ^ Richeson (2009) p. 105
6. ^ Richeson (2009) p. 107

References

• Richeson, Marques P. (2009). "Sex, Drugs and ... Race-to-Castrate: A Black Box Warning of Chemical Castration's Potential Racial Side Effects". Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal 25. http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/blj/vol25/95-132.pdf. Retrieved February 10, 2010.