Falsification of African Consciousness
In his book, “Falsification of African Consciousness,” Dr. Amos Wilson offers an analysis of the current state of Black people’s collective consciousness and how it prevents them from developing solutions to their collective problems.
Wilson defines consciousness in terms of three elements:
- Contents – beliefs, opinions, knowledge, perceived knowledge, self-perceptions, worldview, conditioned responses.
- Instrumentalities – how we process the contents in our mind.
- Directional Organization – how we use our consciousness to pursue goals; the values we hold; and the reasons behind our thoughts.
Via his analysis, Wilson concludes that white supremacy has altered the consciousness of Black people by giving us fabricated contents: a false history, false knowledge and false fantasies. Therefore, our ability to think and act in our own interests has been impaired because we have become confused about what knowledge is, who it belongs to, and how it should be used.
Today, because of propaganda intended to influence our thinking, many Black people perceive racism only in terms of prejudice and discrimination. Therefore we are focused on the consumption of goods we think will get other people to like and respect us, while neglecting the acquisition of real power to dominate and control our own affairs.
