A/74/274 period of colonization. In the 1700s and early 1800s, scientists in Europe and the Americas studied “race science” – the idea that humankind is divided into separate and unequal races. Throughout the history of humanity, people have been assigned identity based on race, as a means of control and domination. 12. According to the Equal Justice Initiative: To justify the brutal, dehumanizing institution of slavery in America, its advocates created a narrative of racial difference. Stereotypes and false characterizations of black people were disseminated to defend their permanent enslavement as ‘most necessary to the well-being of the negro’ – an act of kindness that reinforced white supremacy. The formal abolition of slavery did nothing to overcome the harmful ideas created to defend it, and so slavery did not end, it evolved. 1 These long-standing ideas and prejudices merged with colonial Europe’s desire to exploit the land and labour of indigenous peoples and Africans . At this critical juncture, racial distinctions were reinforced with legal force, as well as philosophical and scientific legitimacy, which demonized colonial subjects. These spurious ideas flourished throughout the early period, spawning false theories that were used to justify the belief in racial hierarchy. Subsequent depictions of Africans and people of African descent propagated stereotypes that advanced the colonial agenda and that of white supremacists. 13. Such depictions, or assigned attributes, which centred on the physical, intellectual and moral characteristics of people of African descent, are reflected in current incarnations of animalistic stereotypes. The sambo (a docile, child -like adult who is contented with his or her status), the coon (a lazy and inarticulate adult) and the pickaninny (a child coon, with bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips and wide mouth) are examples of the pervasive nature of these stereotypes. 14. Many of the stereotypes were used to reinforce the commodifying of black bodies and, in particular, aspects of enslavement. For example, an enslaved person forced under extreme violence to work more than 16 hours per day during the plantation period could hardly be described as lazy. Yet, historically, laziness, as well as characteristics of docility (despite resistance), backwardness, lasciviousness, treachery and dishonesty, were projected as characteristic of people of African descent. These images are powerful influences, particularly on how people of African descent are perceived. 15. Racial caricatures are enduring. 2 They influence popular belief and judgement and are evident in many discriminatory public policies. This was evident after the outlawing of enslavement. Freed people had high hopes and expectations of freedom. They imagined a society that would grant their children opportunities they were denied. Those who demanded their rightful place in society were labelled a menace, depicted as brutes, cast as dangerous criminals and subjected to exclusionary laws that denied them their rightful place in society. Such representations are immortalized in popular culture and in films such as The Birth of a Nation, which justified violence toward black bodies and the perceived need to incarcerate people of African descent. The stereotype of presumed criminality haunts black men, women and children across the globe today. __________________ 1 2 19-13272 Equal Justice Initiative, “The Legacy Museum: from enslavement to mass incarceration”. Available at https://eji.org/legacy-museum. See Susan T. Fiske, and Steven L. Neuberg, “A continuum of impression formation, from category-based to individuating processes: influences of information and motiva tion on attention and interpretation”, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 23 (1990). 5/22