SA PSYCHOLOGY DENYING RACISM; APPROACH TO ISSUE AND APPROPRIATENESS
OF DISCIPLINE’S RESPONSE OVER TIME
Psychology as a practice is deeply entrenched in power relations and encompass a very real
capability of being oppressive and exclusive. Prior to apartheid in South Africa, psychology
promoted racism by denying its existence, perpetuating the ideologies and reinforcing these
racist ideologies academically. In the following essay,an exposition on how psychology as a
practice was racist and how institutional racism reinforced this through exclusionary practices
will be discussed.
In order to exhibit how Psychology in itself was racist, it is necessary to define the concept of
racism. Racism is described as “an ideology through which the domination or marginalization of
certain races by another is enacted or legitimised, through a set of ideas and or practices aimed
at reproduced and justifying inequality.” An examination of racist practices in psychology prior to
1994 is needed in order to understand its context. From its birth, psychologists asserted that
psychology played a role in the protection of fundamental human rights. However, psychology in
South Africa did not play this role. In fact, psychology perpetuated racist ideals through racism
of omission and commission.
First, the existence of an almost exclusive focus on the experience of Whites at the time,
accompanied a deafening silence of the suffering which Black’s experienced as a result of racist
practices. Furthermore, South African psychology was complicit in the perpetuation of racism
during apartheid through racially skewed processes of producing knowledge, as well as training.
Facilities available to Black students were not only deficient and lacking, but were limited in
number. Thus, it can be argued that South African psychology was worse off for what it did not
do than for what it did.
A number of ideologies during apartheid concerning Blacks were used to subordinate Black
individuals, whereby nothing was done by psychology to stop it. Apartheid ideologies created
different diagnostic systems for Blacks and Whites, designating them as essentially different. An
example is the notion of Bantu hysteria, which is the perception that Black individuals did not
suffer depression, as they simply experienced stress as a result of this ‘hysteria’. In addition,
Blacks were viewed as the ‘negative other’, or as being fundamentally different and alien to
Whites.
It is clear that racist ideologies were built into the psychology of the time, by which South African
psychology took no attempts to challenge it. It is imperative to examine the reasons why they
did not challenge these ideologies, as well as to demonstrate the way in which racism was built
into the organisational structures within psychology. Arguably, there are four predominant
reasons for psychology’s complicities during apartheid. First, racism perpetuated all facets of the
South African society. Second, the social class that many South African psychologists acquired
meant that they benefited directly from apartheid. Third, the abhorrent racist South African
society would have been difficult to oppose. Due to the social order favouring the already
OF DISCIPLINE’S RESPONSE OVER TIME
Psychology as a practice is deeply entrenched in power relations and encompass a very real
capability of being oppressive and exclusive. Prior to apartheid in South Africa, psychology
promoted racism by denying its existence, perpetuating the ideologies and reinforcing these
racist ideologies academically. In the following essay,an exposition on how psychology as a
practice was racist and how institutional racism reinforced this through exclusionary practices
will be discussed.
In order to exhibit how Psychology in itself was racist, it is necessary to define the concept of
racism. Racism is described as “an ideology through which the domination or marginalization of
certain races by another is enacted or legitimised, through a set of ideas and or practices aimed
at reproduced and justifying inequality.” An examination of racist practices in psychology prior to
1994 is needed in order to understand its context. From its birth, psychologists asserted that
psychology played a role in the protection of fundamental human rights. However, psychology in
South Africa did not play this role. In fact, psychology perpetuated racist ideals through racism
of omission and commission.
First, the existence of an almost exclusive focus on the experience of Whites at the time,
accompanied a deafening silence of the suffering which Black’s experienced as a result of racist
practices. Furthermore, South African psychology was complicit in the perpetuation of racism
during apartheid through racially skewed processes of producing knowledge, as well as training.
Facilities available to Black students were not only deficient and lacking, but were limited in
number. Thus, it can be argued that South African psychology was worse off for what it did not
do than for what it did.
A number of ideologies during apartheid concerning Blacks were used to subordinate Black
individuals, whereby nothing was done by psychology to stop it. Apartheid ideologies created
different diagnostic systems for Blacks and Whites, designating them as essentially different. An
example is the notion of Bantu hysteria, which is the perception that Black individuals did not
suffer depression, as they simply experienced stress as a result of this ‘hysteria’. In addition,
Blacks were viewed as the ‘negative other’, or as being fundamentally different and alien to
Whites.
It is clear that racist ideologies were built into the psychology of the time, by which South African
psychology took no attempts to challenge it. It is imperative to examine the reasons why they
did not challenge these ideologies, as well as to demonstrate the way in which racism was built
into the organisational structures within psychology. Arguably, there are four predominant
reasons for psychology’s complicities during apartheid. First, racism perpetuated all facets of the
South African society. Second, the social class that many South African psychologists acquired
meant that they benefited directly from apartheid. Third, the abhorrent racist South African
society would have been difficult to oppose. Due to the social order favouring the already
