For the People
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Part 6 (1989)
Season 3 Episode 6 | 28mVideo has Closed Captions
The final installment of Listervelt Middleton's discussion with Dr. Frances Welsing.
In the concluding segment of this six-part series, Listervelt Middleton asked Dr. Frances Cress Welsing for her thoughts on the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the burning of the American flag. In response, Welsing framed the issue within the broader context of how racism operates in cycles—moving through phases of establishment, maintenance, expansion, and refinement.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
For the People is a local public television program presented by SCETV
Support for this program is provided by The ETV Endowment of South Carolina.
For the People
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Part 6 (1989)
Season 3 Episode 6 | 28mVideo has Closed Captions
In the concluding segment of this six-part series, Listervelt Middleton asked Dr. Frances Cress Welsing for her thoughts on the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the burning of the American flag. In response, Welsing framed the issue within the broader context of how racism operates in cycles—moving through phases of establishment, maintenance, expansion, and refinement.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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- [Narrator] This program is sponsored in part by a grant from the Nubian study Group of Washington DC.
- Good evening, and welcome to the sixth and final part of our conversation with psychiatrist, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing.
We begin this segment by putting this question to the highly respected psychiatrist.
The United States Supreme Court, of course, has recently handed down a number of so-called civil rights decisions, or some people would say anti civil rights decisions.
And of course, there is the, the ruling on the flag, permitting the burning of the flag.
How do you read these, the reaction to these issues, these rulings?
- Well, I spoke earlier about racism moving in a cyclic manner from establishment, maintenance, expansion, refinement, and briefly refinement would be what, you know, opening up accommodations, public accommodations, and opening up jobs to Black people.
And so that went on for 25 years.
And so now we have to stop if there's gonna be a continuance of white supremacy, do you see, if you just open the floodgates and non-white people have the same opportunities and privileges as white people, then white supremacy comes to an end.
And so we are seeing in the area of law, if you will, supreme court decisions, do you see that, are reversing the law went into a refinement of white supremacy.
And so now it goes back into the establishment pattern of white supremacy.
Okay?
- Uh-huh.
- Now you ask about the flag.
I had written a paper 10 years ago about the symbolism of the flag in the white supremacy system and culture.
And, you know, it wasn't written to be offensive to anybody.
It was just looking at different symbols.
And so, again, I talked earlier about looking at the male genitalia where you see the testicles, phallus testicles.
And if you look at a lateral view, you see phallus and testicle.
Now, if you make an abstraction of phallus testicle, that would be the equivalent of a stick or a post and a flag on it.
Now, in many of the white countries, the flags are red, white and blue, red and white, and blue and white.
Now, I say that the colors of that flag, do you see, if you understand the whole genetic issue that the flag, the colors in the flag, I say stand for white skin through which you can see red arterioles and blue veins.
Do you follow red, white, and blue?
- Okay.
- Okay.
Now the expression, blue bloods is a common expression.
Now that, you know, people say, well, that meant that the people were well to do.
Blue bloods also meant for white people, people who didn't have to work and get tanned, you see, meaning white skin through which you could see blue veins.
So even Ronald Reagan and his autobiography, "Where's the Rest of Me?
", said something to the effect that when he was born, his father said, his father, he said, was a first generation black Irishman.
We won't go into that.
And his mother was from another European country, okay?
But he said that his father said his face was white.
I think his face was, his face was blue and his bottom was red.
Do you see, when he was born, white skin and you know, the bottom being red because of spanked and the face was blue.
And he, and he said, ever since then, the red, white, and blue has been important to me.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
So that these colors and the reaction to the flag has a much deeper meaning.
Do you see?
And it is to me, extremely interesting that it is occurring.
All this response about the flag is occurring alongside the reversal of the Supreme Court ruling.
You see from where they were during the civil rights era, and back to the point where they were, and people are even saying that this is the era of the white male.
Do you see what I'm saying?
The white male is now moving, you know, if he felt that he was blocked out of jobs, then he goes back to establish, you know, to the establishment phase of white supremacy.
And at this same time they're talking about, you can't, see burning the flag in the terms that I've talked about, would be like the castration or burning of the white male genitalia.
Do you see?
And so when this survival, this question about white survival surfaces, I'm not surprised, but I would not have really, I wouldn't have been able to predict that there would've been this kind of reaction about the flag, but I can certainly understand it in the terms that I have, you see, been talking about it.
- Now, some Black people listening to this might say, oh, this is some off the wall theory.
If we wait for white people to analyze everything for us, where will we be?
- Well, I would say that the white brain computer, even though it is able to carry out whatever is necessary for white genetic survival, do you see once, if that same brain computer was be able to look at the symbols you see, because white people don't say this is what they are engaged in.
Do you see, they say, this is democracy, this is fair.
Do, do you see?
They don't call what they're doing white supremacy, white genetic survival.
Do you see?
And so if they, if the brain computer were to simultaneously print out what you're doing is, you know, engaging in white genetic survival, do you see that's more difficult?
It's difficult for me to accept that it's easier for me to call what I'm doing.
This is democracy.
You see, and this is fair.
So it's like the brain when it's working on difficult issues will produce a dream in which the material that the person is struggling with in their conscious life is packed in symbolic form in the dream.
And so a person will wake up and say, "wow, what was that dream about?"
You see?
But the dream is dealing as subconscious symbolic, with symbolic material that the conscious mind finds difficult to deal with.
- But what about the need for us to think the unthinkable?
To free ourselves up from seeing the world in the way European, European Americans, European generally see the world.
- Now when you say free ourselves... - Because like I said before-- - See where I discuss-- - Your analysis to many people on the flag thing would sound like some off the wall thing.
- Oh, right.
Just like they would say, "oh, what is she talking about "about the ball games?"
"Oh, what is she talking "about the smoking objects?"
Do you see, so I'm prepared for that, that people are not accustomed to decoding symbols.
People haven't decoded the system of white supremacy.
Do you see?
I'm the only person talking about it on the planet in these terms.
Do you see?
But we have the problem of white supremacy and everybody, whether they're black or white, talk about the race problem.
But nobody has decoded it, you see?
And so I just say, "Well, I've done the spade work."
And even though people are having difficulty, be they Black or white, dealing with what I'm saying, if they get perplexed enough that this problem ought to be solved, other than mass genocide, do you see?
Well, maybe we ought to look at it.
Because I say that Sigmund Freud, do you see, was looked at as being, you know, one of the greatest behavioral scientists in Western civilization.
Now granted he was a Semite of the Jewish religion, but Freud talked about sex repression, and he didn't talk about white supremacy.
I say that he should have been talking about white supremacy and looking at the symbols related to white supremacy.
He might have helped save one third of the European Semitic population.
Do you see?
But he was looking and talking about something that was close, but not close enough.
Do you see?
I say that if his analysis, because you know, they were talking in a negative way about Semites in Europe for hundreds and hundreds of years.
I mean, they would have pilgrims in which the Jewish people would be beat up and kicked out of their homes and their property taken and on and on and on.
And this would happen periodically.
Do you see?
But because they wanted to integrate and be accepted in a white population, they didn't focus on that.
- How do you, in view of what you've just said, how do you view Israeli behavior now in Israel with the Palestinians?
- You see in psychiatry, if we know and understand that if a child was abused as a child, then when they become a parent, they will abuse.
You see, because of, you know, in cliche language identification with the oppressor.
And so one can see that the horrible thing that happened to the Semites of the Jewish religion in Europe, do you see is now being carried out against some non-white people?
Do you see in the area of the world that's called-- - Negative begets negative.
- Well, do you see that, you know, I was mistreated.
I haven't seen this discussed.
I don't know why people are not discussing and looking at it.
Do you see, that really, well, some people may, you know, be saying that this is tragically do you see what white supremacy did to you?
You are now doing to some other non-white people, and if your identification is with white, then you are carrying out towards non-white people what was done to you?
You see?
And maybe almost as a subconscious necessity.
- What should be, this is the last question.
What should be the ultimate goal where white supremacy is concerned?
What should be our ultimate objective where white supremacy is concerned?
- Well, I think our ultimate objective should be the elimination of white supremacy as a, you know, the highest form of injustice that has ever been perpetrated because it's the tiniest number, oppressing and demeaning the largest number of people on the planet.
That that system of injustice should be brought to a stop.
And then have all people maximally develop.
Do you see, whether they're white, Black, brown, red, or yellow?
Do you see?
But there's not going to be the demeaning of large numbers of people.
Do you see?
Because they are genetically dominant and because they are a majority people on the planet.
- What role without will our minds play, will our minds play, the importance of our mind?
What role will our minds play in effectively dealing with white supremacy?
- Well, the, you know, the mind is the brain activity.
The brain is what controls everything that we do.
And so understanding takes place in the brain computer and everything begins with understanding.
And I heard once that somebody asked my Mahatma Gandhi, what is the role of the negro or the Black people?
And Gandhi said that the role of the Black people is to bring justice to the planet.
- As you look at the economic, political and cultural condition of African Americans and Africans around the world, what do you see as the primary, as the primary obstacle blocking our development?
- Well, I would label that obstacle with one word, racism or the phrase white supremacy.
That I believe that we need to understand racism in quite a different way.
We need to understand white supremacy as we would understand the science.
And if we investigate that dynamic, not only locally, nationally, globally speaking, that we will be able to have a greater insight into, you know, what we call, what we refer to as poverty or all the problems of the so-called inner city, teenage pregnancy, you name it, failure in school, unemployment.
If we understand racism, white supremacy at another level, we will be able to, I maintain, solve these problems.
- How do you define white supremacy or racism?
- Well, I understand racism.
Well, let me just drop back.
- Okay.
- In the late 1960s, I wrote a paper on racism.
The paper was really written for fellow colleagues in psychiatry because we were looking at racism.
If you remember, 20 years ago, people were having Black caucuses and looking at the issue of racism during the civil rights era.
And so I put down my thoughts about racism, and I entitled the paper that I wrote, "The Cress Theory of Color, Confrontation and Racism" in parenthesis, white supremacy.
Cress is my maiden name.
And so I entitled the paper that, but basically I looked at racism as a behavioral dynamic that came about because the white population in the world is a tiny minority population.
It is also a genetic recessive population in terms of skin coloration.
And so I looked at racism as behavior that evolved when this minority population that was genetic recessive found itself in a world on a planet in which the vast majority of the people, Black, brown, red, and yellow, are not only the numerical majority, but they are genetically dominant in terms of skin coloration and could potentially cause white genetic annihilation.
And so if the white population consciously or subconsciously desire to survive genetically speaking, do you see, and not be, well, I think sometimes they use the terms mongrelization of the races.
But genetic annihilation is a terminology that I use.
Then that that would require that the white population hold in oppression all of the non-white people on the planet, Black, brown, red, and yellow people.
Now of all of the non-white people, Black people have the greatest genetic potential to cause white genetic annihilation.
And so when we were children, we learned if you're Black, stay back, brown, stick around, yellow, mellow, white, right.
Now, those are the gradations of the genetic production of this black pigment melanin.
And so the more melanin you have, the greater threat to the fear of white genetic annihilation.
So that's the way that I understand racism.
And racism is not something that is just operative at the economic level.
That racism, to use the terminology of a gentleman named Neely Fuller, who has also written about racism, that it is operative in all areas of people.
Activity, economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war.
In other words, there are behaviors that are carried out across the board in all areas of people activity to prevent white genetic annihilation or to maintain white genetic survival.
- Two terms, genetic recessive and genetic annihilation.
What do they mean?
- Well, genetic recessive, the inability to produce melanin skin pigmentation is a genetic recessive trait.
A genetic dominant trait is the ability to produce melanin pigment.
Now, melanin is the pigment that it's a black pigment that causes skin coloration.
And so the inability to produce that pigment is a genetic recessive trait, whereas a genetically dominant trait is the ability to produce it.
And so that's why when you mix Black people and white people, the product is a product of color.
The person is going to be a colored person.
- Okay, so in a sentence or two again, the Cress Theory of Color Confrontation says what?
- The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation says that racism, white supremacy is conscious and subconscious behavior.
To maintain white genetic survival on planet earth and to prevent white genetic annihilation.
- You mentioned the word castration.
How prevalent is that in world history?
That is people being castrated.
- Well, I say that that is peculiar to, that is peculiar to white people dealing with non-white people.
I mean, there's no record of Black men castrating white men.
There's no record of Black men tampering with the genitals of white men.
Do you see?
And so if a scientist, a behavioral scientist will say, well, this is very interesting.
Why would this occur?
What is behind this behavior?
Why this attack on the Black man's genitals?
And I say that if we begin to understand the fear of genetic annihilation, because what is in the genitals?
What is in the testicles?
Do you see?
The genetic material is in the testicles, Do you see?
And so if I have a fear of being genetically annihilated, then the brain computer will cause me to attack the person's genitals.
I even say that, you know what is called justifiable homicide.
And justifiable homicide does not refer to, because we don't have instances of Black men in police uniforms, do you see, so-called accidentally killing a white male.
We don't have any record of that.
But the record-- - Say that again.
Say that again, say that again.
- So you don't have, you don't have a record or you know, of Black police officers saying, oh, I shot that white male.
I thought he had a weapon.
There's no record of that.
But we have, you know, the record is, you know, gross with innumerable instances of a white male in uniform, you know, could be a 14-year-old Black male or it could be a 45-year-old Black male.
I shot him, I thought he had a weapon.
And then that's called justifiable homicide.
Now I say deeper what is going on is that within the white male's brain computer is, he looks at the Black man and he thinks about the Black man's genetic power that resides in the genitals and that in his mind subconsciously is a weapon.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Because see, we never talk about these issues.
These issues that I'm talking about, you see, I would guess that they've never been talked about in the history of television.
Do you see, to talk about what is actually going on around this issue of fear of genetic annihilation.
So, that I thought he had a weapon and so therefore I shot him.
Well, he does have a genetic weapon, if you wanna call it that.
And I say that that also accounts for the language that is used, the great equalizer.
I wish we had a blackboard because again, to go back to looking at the male genitalia, and you can see if the brain makes an abstraction is gonna be a cross, okay?
If you look at a lateral view of the male genitalia, you have something that looks almost like a L. Do you see?
If you turn that around 90 degrees and you have, you know, you have something that looks like this and it's an abstraction of a gun, and then we call that the great equalizer, you see?
And then it's worn at the levels of the genitals and at the hip level.
So I say that the brain computer, you see, in the white collective and white male collective specifically, that if you know there's looking at the Black male and saying he has a weapon, meaning his genitalia and his genetic material that can cause my annihilation.
And so the brain computer says, must create weapon can do same thing.
- If more African Americans and Africans around the world were to begin to look at white supremacy in the manner that you have outlined, what would it means in terms of how we respond to white supremacy as opposed to quote that traditional-- - Well that's why we had this chance to go here.
- Okay, all right, all right.
- Because I say that the dynamic, the behavioral dynamic of white supremacy is analogous to a chess game.
We haven't looked at it in that way before.
See, we've looked at it.
Everybody hold hands, ring around the Rosie, we're all in this together and found that, wait a minute, that's not what's happening.
That if we understand the game of chess where you have a white side of the chess board and you have a black side of the chess board, when people sit down to play chess, because I'm not talking about hating white people.
I am talking about analyzing the behavior, but I'm not talking about hating them.
I'm not talking about destroying white people, but I am talking about understanding this so-called game of chess.
Now, if we look further at the chess game, that in the game of chess for the last 100 years, the game has been played where white always moves first.
So that the white side of the chess board is playing offense defense.
The black side of the chess board has to play defense offense.
So I say that that's a perfect analogy to white supremacy.
White supremacy has to move against non-white people for the purpose of white genetic survival.
Do you see?
And also the game of chess is about checkmating the king, do you see, with white moving offensively and then defensively.
That means that the real issue in the game of chess is about the white king checkmating the black king.
And I say that that is perfectly analogous to racism, white supremacy, because the primary thrust of the attack of racism, white supremacy, it's against all Black people or all non-white people.
But it is most specifically against the Black male because it is the Black male who can cause white genetic annihilation.
Do you see?
And so the game of chess is about the white king check mating the black king.
And so I say that if we begin to say, oh, oh, it's like the game of chess, you see, and black people say, oh, we didn't understand that.
Oh, now we can play, because it's just a matter of tactics and strategy.
And I go further, you know, to look at the chess board as though each of these columns, each of the vertical columns on the chess board, we really need nine.
And if we looked at it, one column represents economics, another economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war.
And so you have to play on those nine fronts simultaneously, which is just like playing chess.
You don't play on just one column.
You have to play and look at all of the columns at the same time.
Do you see?
And so if we now begin to say, oh, we understand the dilemma of the white minority on the planet, that they are actually operating in fear of white genetic annihilation, you see?
And the intention then being to survive, white genetic survival by any necessary means, and I mean any necessary means.
Any necessary means.
- That one is of the virgin birth and immaculate conception.
What I'm saying here that this immaculate conception story predated the immaculate conception of Jesus to Mary by least 4,000 years.
What I wanna make it clear, the immaculate conception spoken of about Mary, the mother of Jesus, is 4,000 years later, the story of the immaculate conception of Aset, otherwise called Isis today.
Is 4,000 years older.
The historian of Mary and Jesus was copied from this, this is found in the temple of Seti One, Pharaoh Seti One at a place called Abydos.
In Abydos was the first place people went to pay pilgrimage.
It was thousands of years before the wailing war in Palestine or Israel as it's called Jerusalem, thousand more years before the Bethlehem (indistinct) thing, and thousand even more than Mecca.
This was, there's 16 such immaculate conception stories.
(upbeat music)
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For the People is a local public television program presented by SCETV
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