Frances Cress Welsing facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Frances Cress Welsing
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Welsing receives Community Award at National Black LUV Festival on September 21, 2008
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Frances Luella Cress
March 18, 1935 |
| Died | January 2, 2016 (aged 80) Washington, D.C., U.S.
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| Alma mater | Antioch College (B.S.), Howard University (M.D.) |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors (1991) |
Frances Luella Welsing (née Cress; March 18, 1935 – January 2, 2016) was an American psychiatrist and well-known proponent of the Black supremacist melanin theory. Her 1970 essay, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy), offered her interpretation of what she described as the origins of white supremacy culture.
She was the author of The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors (1991).
Contents
Early life
Welsing was born Frances Luella Cress in Chicago on March 18, 1935. Her father, Henry N. Cress, was a physician, and her mother, Ida Mae Griffen, was a teacher. In 1957, she earned a B.S. degree at Antioch College and in 1962 received an M.D. at Howard University. In the 1960s, Welsing moved to Washington, D.C. and worked at many hospitals, especially children's hospitals. While Welsing was an assistant professor at Howard University she formulated her first body of work in 1969, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and self-published it in 1970. The paper subsequently appeared in the May 1974 edition of The Black Scholar. This was an introduction to her thoughts that would be developed in The Isis Papers. Twenty-two years later she released The Isis Papers, a compilation of essays she had written about global and local race relations.
Career
In 1992, Welsing published The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors. The book is a compilation of essays that she had written over 18 years.
The name "The Isis Papers" was inspired by an ancient Egyptian goddess. Isis was the sister/wife of the most significant god Osiris. According to Welsing, all the names of the gods were significant; however, also according to Welsing, Osiris means "lord of the perfect Black,” although there is no etymological validity to this assertion. Welsing specifically chose the name Isis for her admiration of "truth and justice" that allowed for justice to be stronger than gold and silver.
In this book she talks about the genocide of people of color globally, along with issues black people in the United States face. According to Welsing, the genocide of people of color is caused by white people's inability to produce melanin. The minority status of whites has caused what she calls a preoccupation with white genetic survival.
She believed that injustice caused by racism will end when "non-white people worldwide recognize, analyze, understand and discuss openly the genocidal dynamic." She also tackled issues such as incarceration and unemployment, in the black community. According to Welsing, the cause of these issues is white supremacy (the white man's race to the top).
Views
In The Isis Papers, she described white people as the genetically defective descendants of recessive genetic mutants. She wrote that due to this "defective" mutation, they may have been forcibly expelled from Africa, among other possibilities. Racism, in the views of Welsing, is a conspiracy "to ensure white genetic survival".
Welsing created a definition of racism, which is her theory of non-white genocide globally. She referred to racism and white supremacy synonymously. Welsing was against white supremacy and what she saw as the emasculation of black men.
Death
By December 30, 2015, Welsing had suffered two strokes and was placed in critical care at a Washington, D.C.-area hospital. She died on January 2, 2016, at the age of 80.
Film appearances
- Welsing appeared in the documentary 500 Years Later (2005), directed by Owen Alik Shahadah, and written by M. K. Asante.
- Welsing also appeared in Hidden Colors: The Untold History of People of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent, a 2011 documentary film by Tariq Nasheed.
Works
