International Journal of Education and Research Vol. 1 No. 4 April 2013 1 THOU SHALT NOT BE BLACK “Thou shalt not be black”: The subjugation of Negroes in the Caribbean through Christianity Steffon R. K. Campbell Assistant Lecturer & Coordinator The Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) January 2013 Religion—be it a system of beliefs, a way of life or a by-product of structural functionalism—is interwoven into the fabric of any society. Its illusory nature is based on the concepts of deism and theism, which allows the beliefs and values of any particular religion to be attributed to some objective and supreme source(s). However, one argues that even if it were possible, the objective nature of values from a supreme source(s) immediately loses their objectivity by way of being processed by the subjects; the human believers who are inherently subjective. Karl Marx who, not only highlights the subjective nature of religion, but also highlights its functional role to the individual within, as well as the collective of, a society echoes these sentiments: Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But, man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man — state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification 1 . When one delves deeper into the use of religion as a means of sanctioning and justifying one’s actions, one observes that right and wrong actions from the perspective of a human being becomes more obscure as it is the ‘will of God’ for such actions to occur. Hence it is no surprise that throughout history wars, genocide,and discrimination;ostracism and slavery have all been linked to some religious purpose. It must be noted that one cannot say conclusively or definitively that all the actions of the subjects within a belief system are solely based on religion; nor is one saying that religion supersedes all other factors that affect the cognition, attitudes and behaviour of individuals who adhere to a particular belief system. The only assertion is that based on a range of literature on the role of religion in many historical events; the role of religion in the formation and structure of a society; in addition to the aforementioned illusory nature of religion; that it does play a significant 1 Joseph O’Malley, Marx’s Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843) (www.marxists.org, 1843), accessed February 15, 2011, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/Marx_Critique_of_Hegels_Philosophy_of_Right.pdf, 1.