News Release

Afrophobia and
Blackspanic College

How factual is
Blackspanic College?

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Reviews

Nightlife

FOCUS/Midwest

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Blackspanic College
funny, provocative, uplifting

Carbondale After Dark
from panty raids to riots

Lost in Cyberspace
a collection of H.B.'s writings

About H.B. Koplowitz
Who is this guy anyway?

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Order CAD or Blackspanic College here

Central to the plot of "Blackspanic College," H.B. Koplowitz's memoir about teaching journalism at a college in South-Central Los Angeles, is the question of whether Afrophobia -- and by extension, the author -- is racist.

The word "Afrophobia" has a few pop cultural references, but doesn't show up much in psychiatric literature, or dictionaries. But Koplowitz says he has Afrophobia, which he defines as a tendency to feel "uneasy around blacks. Scared of getting mugged, guilty about the slavery thing, intimidated by the jive." He further describes it as a phobia, "like homophobia, which is an irrational fear of gay people," and goes on to say he tends "to be uneasy around most everybody, not just blacks and gays, which is at least equal opportunity." He says he's not proud of it, but tells himself that as long as he makes an effort not to let his paranoia affect how he treats people, he's "not a bigot." (15) He also thinks "everyone should be treated the same." (11)

But is he a bigot? Is Afrophobia racist?

"Racism" has been defined as "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." Also, "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief."

If racism is a belief, then self-acknowledged Afrophobics would not be racist because they recognize that their fear is irrational -- it's not something they believe in. But racism is not just about beliefs. It's also about how people (and institutions) interact, and phobias can affect people's behavior, despite their beliefs.

"Phobia" comes from the Greek "phobos," which means "fear." Wikipedia defines "phobia" as "an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people."

Another definition is "an extreme or irrational fear or dislike of a specified thing or group." Most people would agree that an irrational dislike of black people is racist. But what about fear, absent dislike? Or is it impossible to feel fear without also feeling dislike?

What causes Afrophobia? Certainly, fear of the unknown plays a part. In "Racial Baggage," an auto-biographical short story Koplowitz wrote that serves as a prequel to "Blackspanic College," he examined another cause -- traumatizing interracial encounters. "Racial Baggage" can be read on the author's website at http://hbkoplowitz.com/LIC/baggage.html.

Koplowitz first used the term Afrophobia and described some of its characteristics in a column he wrote for his college newspaper in 1976. He made up the word by modifying another term that was floating around, "homophobia," and defined it as "white people who have an irrational fear of black people." He did not "come out" as an Afrophobic at the time, and instead wrote the piece in third person. He cannot claim to have coined the term, since it has yet to be coined -- the word is seldom used or discussed, perhaps because the phenomenon is rare, or because people prefer not to acknowledge its existence.

Many in America would like to "turn the page" and strive toward a "color blind" society. But if Afrophobia is one of the things that has contributed to segregation, discrimination and, yes, racism, acknowledging the condition can be a step toward a cure, on a personal as well as societal level.

A lightly edited version of the 1976 column can be read here. The unedited version can be found in "Carbondale After Dark and Other Stories," an anthology of Koplowitz's writings first published in 1982 and republished in 2007.

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"Blackspanic College," by H.B. Koplowitz, Dome Publications, 978-0-9791393-1-4, $19.95

Media Contact: Barbara Frank, bf@hbkoplowitz.com