Frances Luella Welsing was an American Afrocentristpsychiatrist. Her 1970 essay, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism , offered her interpretation on the origins of what she described as white supremacy culture. She was the author of The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors. Welsing caused controversy after she said that homosexuality among African-Americans was a ploy by white males to decrease the black population.
Early life
Welsing was born Frances Luella Cress in Chicago on March 18, 1935. Her father, Dr. 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, Osiris means "lord of the perfect Black". 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 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 drug use, murder, teen pregnancy, infant mortality, incarceration, and unemployment, in the black community. According to Welsing, the cause of these issues is her definition of racism. Black men are at the center of Welsing's discussion because, according to her, they "have the greatest potential to cause white genetic annihilation."
Views
In The Isis Papers, she described white people as the genetically defective descendants of albinomutants. 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". She attributed AIDS and addiction to crack cocaine and other substances to "chemical and biological warfare" by white people. Welsing created a definition of racism, which is her theory of non-white genocide globally. She refers to racism and white supremacy synonymously. Her definition is "Racism is the local and global powersystem dynamic, structured and maintained by those who classify themselves as white; whether consciously or subconsciously determined; this system consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, as conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex, and war. The ultimate purpose of the system is to ensure white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on Earth --- a planet in which the overwhelming majority of people are classified as non-white, by white skinned people. All of the non-white people are genetically dominant compared to the genetic recessive white skinned people". Welsing was against white supremacy and the emasculation of black men.
Criticisms
Welsing stated that the emasculation of the black man prevents procreation of black people. According to Welsing, this is one of the goals of racism. She calls this effeminization as a form of oppression. An extension of feminizing black men is also described by Welsing as bisexuality and homosexuality.
Death
By December 30, 2015, Welsing 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, 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
The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors, Chicago: Third World Press, c 1992 ;,.
