Consider this 1930s quotation from George Bernard Shaw, the British playwright and author: "The haughty American nation … makes the Negro clean its boots, and then proves the … inferiority of the Negro by the fact that he is a bootblack." Shaw's statement describes the concept of:

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Shaw's statement illustrates the self-fulfilling prophecy, where an initially false definition of a situation evokes a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true. The quote suggests that the societal role forced upon the Negro (being a bootblack) is used to justify the false notion of their inferiority, thus fulfilling the prophecy of their supposed inferiority.

Consider This 1930s Quotation from George Bernard Shaw, the British