The Color-Confrontation Theory, as developed by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, postulates that white or color-deficient Europeans experienced a profound sense of numerical inadequacy and color inferiority upon encountering the majority of the world's people, who are of color. This psychological response, whether conscious or unconscious, is considered a foundation for the attitudes and behaviors that characterizes white responses to people of color, primarily the defensive development of uncontrollable hostility and aggression.
Dr. Welsing argues that the sense of inadequacy felt by white populations manifests in various psychological defense mechanisms, and these mechanisms have been cited as contributing factors behind racism and white supremacy. Key elements of the theory include:
1. Repression of the initial awareness of inadequacy in response to the genetic dominance of melanin-producing populations.
2. Reaction formation, where whites who desired but could not attain skin color, ultimately discredited and despised it.The projection of their own hostile and aggressive feelings onto non-whites, often claiming that it is the non-whites who hate them.
3. White fears surrounding genetic annihilation leading to aggressive behaviors and policies intended to suppress and control populations of color.
4. White desires for sexual alliances with non-whites as a subconscious wish to produce offspring with the capacity for melanin production, paired with the intense fear of white genetic dilution.
The Color-Confrontation Theory is a psychoanalytic explanation for the historical and contemporary dynamics of race relations and racism, particularly focusing on the ways in which white aggression and the construction of white supremacy have been rationalized and enacted as a defense against perceived genetic threats.