Why Do White People Project Their Criminality, Evil Ways, Deviance, and Degeneracy Onto Black People? A Garveyite Perspective
From the perspective of Marcus Garvey's teachings, the projection of white criminality and degeneracy onto Black people isn’t random—it’s a deliberate tool of oppression designed to sustain white supremacy, undermine Black empowerment, and justify systemic exploitation. Let’s break it down:
1. Psychological Guilt and Projection
White colonial powers committed unspeakable crimes: slavery, genocide, theft of land, and systemic exploitation. But instead of confronting their guilt, they projected their crimes onto Black people, painting us as criminals and degenerates to absolve themselves. This allowed them to rewrite the story: “We’re not the villains—they are.”
2. Justification for Oppression
How do you justify slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration? Simple: call the oppressed group dangerous. Label Black people as deviant, violent, or immoral, and suddenly, systems of exploitation look like “necessary measures."
3. Fear of Black Empowerment
Marcus Garvey saw Black people as inherently great, capable of uniting globally and overturning centuries of oppression. White supremacy feared this potential for power. By labelling Black leaders, movements, and communities as “radical” or “dangerous,” they worked to suppress this greatness before it could rise.
4. Control of the Narrative
Garvey emphasized that whoever controls the narrative, controls power. White supremacy used media, education, and religion to push the idea that Black people are inherently deviant. This wasn’t just about slander—it was about controlling how the world saw us and how we saw ourselves.
5. Dehumanization as a Tool of Control
Labelling Black people as criminal or degenerate wasn’t just about stereotypes—it was a way to strip us of our humanity. If you see someone as less than human, it becomes easier to justify enslaving, incarcerating, or murdering them. Dehumanization made systemic violence palatable.
6. Economic Exploitation and Dispossession
Let’s be real: much of this was about money. White supremacy relied on Black labour, land, and resources. By painting Black people as unworthy, criminal, or lazy, they justified locking us out of wealth, jobs, and opportunities—and kept the profits for themselves.
7. Fear of Justice and Retribution
White societies are deeply aware of the atrocities they’ve committed. Garvey believed this fear of accountability fueled their projection. If they could convince the world that Black people were the real threat, they could avoid facing justice for their own crimes.
8. Weaponizing Law and Order
The criminalization of Black people became a cornerstone of white supremacy. “Law and order” wasn’t about justice—it was about control. Policing, surveillance, and incarceration were tools to keep Black communities oppressed under the guise of “fighting crime.”
9. Undermining Black Movements
This tactic was personal. White supremacy targeted Black leaders like Garvey himself, discrediting them with accusations of corruption, radicalism, or criminality. If you can tarnish the leader, you weaken the movement.
10. Fear of a Unified Black Identity
Garvey believed in Pan-Africanism—the idea that all Black people, globally, share a collective destiny. White supremacy, terrified of this unity, used projection to divide us. Labelling Black people as degenerate or deviant fostered internalized racism, self-doubt, and division within our communities.
Even after formal colonialism ended, white powers continued to project criminality onto African nations. “corrupt,” “unstable,” “violent”—these narratives justified intervention, exploitation, and control of newly independent Black states.
12. Religious and Cultural Distortions
Garvey called out how religion was weaponized against us. Europeans labelled Africans as “sinful” and “uncivilized” to justify slavery and colonization. But the real moral corruption lay in their theft, violence, and hypocrisy—not in African culture.
13. Strategic Scapegoating
When white societies faced internal crises—economic recessions and political instability—they often scapegoated Black people. This “blame the other” tactic kept white working-class people focused on racial divisions instead of questioning systemic inequality.
14. Normalizing White Deviance
Garvey taught us to see through the hypocrisy. White societies framed their own actions—slavery, colonization, war—as “necessary” or “civilized,” while projecting all deviance onto Black people. They made their violence look noble, and our existence look threatening.
15. Undermining Pan-Africanism
Garvey’s dream of a united, powerful Black race directly threatened white supremacy. By spreading the idea that African nations and leaders were corrupt or chaotic, they aimed to prevent global Black solidarity.
16. Perpetuating Fear to Maintain Control
Fear is one of white supremacy’s strongest weapons. By projecting deviance and danger onto Black people, they created a constant state of fear that justified segregation, policing, and control. Fear divided us, distracted us, and kept them in power.
Marcus Garvey taught us to reject these lies. Black people are not the problem—white supremacy is the problem. Their projections are just mirrors reflecting their own crimes, hypocrisies, and fears. Garvey’s message is clear:
Build your own institutions.
We are not criminals, deviants, or degenerates. We are a great and powerful people with a history that predates colonization and a future that transcends oppression.
Rise up. Reclaim. Resist.
