Universally Speaking
The State of Black America
Rahim Islam is a National Speaker and Writer, Convener of Philadelphia Community of Leaders, and President/CEO of Universal Companies, a community development and education management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Follow Rahim Islam on FaceBook(Rahim Islam) & Twitter (@RahimIslamUC)
Rahim Islam
Every society has norms and cultures that are interchangeable and that indoctrinate each member of the society with its own propaganda. A society’s norms and cultures will determine the individual’s outlook and perspective on life.
The socialization process will shape the individual’s entire framework of thinking. What is good? What is bad? What is valuable? The question of what is not valuable, is all defined within one’s culture. This culture is transmitted through the socialization process. Socialization is so important because it actually forms the individual personality.
It is through this process we adopt our religious beliefs and we subscribe to their associated rituals. All of this is learned behavior and much can be seen in the word “nigger.”
Nigger is a part of the American cultural inheritance, and generates extreme and powerful meanings and messages. Some have called it the “nuclear bomb” of racial epithets. The word carries with perfection white supremacy and black inferiority. Until just recently, many whites in positions of authority called Blacks as a safe indulgence and during slavery; it was absolute. The word portrayed the status of Blacks as completely uneducated buffoons and represented the sad reality of being owned by white people. It also reflected the position that many Blacks took to protect their master at all cost, even if it meant absorbing pain and sacrificing one’s own human dignity. Numerous uses of the word nigger captures the sub-servant of the enslaved (i.e. “nigger, who do you belong to”).
I am not sure what came first “the chicken or the egg,” “racism or culture” – it really doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is that racism is fully embedded within the American culture. Racism, a byproduct of slavery, has produced a generally accepted culture wherein white people learn that they are in control and Blacks learn that they are inferior and dependent upon White people for their survival. Slavery and all of its supporting systems are deeply rooted into American culture and is socialized from one generation to another. How else could this vicious institution begin let alone last for hundreds of years? How did America engage in slavery and for so long? How did America allow the horrible treatment of Black people? What is the culture of America? How did the American culture justify slavery? How did the American culture describe Black people? Based on the reality of slavery, it’s pretty obvious that the American culture fully supported racism. How else can you justify the massive disparities that Blacks face daily in this country without any relief from its cause? ALL OF AMERICA HAS BEEN DAMAGED BY A CULTURE OF WHITE SUPREMACY.
Over the years, America has created a culture of racism that allowed and condoned slavery. That same culture is being socialized today throughout every American institution (i.e. education, religion, arts, media, laws, politics, etc.).
Unfortunately, for reasons that are just inexplicable, America has become a culture of HATE against the Black family with generation after generation perfecting this phenomenon to heights of racism that the world had never seen before.
All of America is both so naïve and ignorant to believe that this dangerous “mind” has all of a sudden disappeared with the emancipation of Black people?
The internal mind (culture) of America is passed down from one generation to another.
That culture survives and thrives in its oppression of Black people and every issue that Black people face today can be traced directly back to the American climate and culture of hate and oppression. While Jim Crow, who was the child of the white supremacist slave owner, doesn’t exist anymore, his child James Crow, Esq does.
THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA IS RIDDLED WITH THE TRAUMA OF SLAVERY, WHICH WAS NEVER CORRECTED AND/OR TREATED AND ITS IMPACT IS MOST OBVIOUS WITH THE DAMAGE TO THE BLACK FAMILY.
I find the argument of whether there was serious trauma and harm caused to the Black family as a result of the Black Holocaust absurd and asinine. Today, we have diagnosed veterans that return home from war with having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and because of this diagnosis, they receive significant levels of therapy, not only for them, but also for members of their families. This diagnosis also includes those who survive “mass” killings, and they too receive significant therapy until they are able to resume to normal levels of human interaction (i.e. pre-trauma event). These isolated and singular events don’t come near to the trauma caused by the American institution of slavery and the viciousness of white supremacy. Yet, there is no real support for the trauma inflicted onto a whole race of Black people.
In fact, America is in deep denial as to the validity of slavery and we hear statements like “get over it.” The reason why this obvious omission occurs is directly tied to the racist beliefs that Blacks have no feelings. That Blacks are not human. It is like those that argue that racism doesn’t exist. They are likely the racist themselves. What are the real impacts of generations of slavery and oppression on Black people? Can the trauma inflicted of this type and level be diagnosed, and what does it look like today? What is the impact of this trauma on the Black family today? The ineffective role of man; the role of woman, the function of the family; the negative attitudes towards education, work, and property; the inability to love, trust each other; and the high levels of anti-social behavior are all the legacy of slavery.
THE BLACK CULTURE IS LIKE A BIG PIECE OF ICE THAT IS MELTING WITH ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR BECOMING NORMAL.
There are very few actual and/or factual representations of the American institution of slavery and the all of its consequences. Specifically, the damage that it has caused to the Black family. There are hardly any studies regarding the impact that slavery has had on the descendants of the enslaved or the “legacy of slavery.” How much damage was done to Black people – or are we expected to believe that there was no damage done at all? How did the first generation of “freed” Blacks think, behave, feel, and believe about themselves? How was this connected to conditions of slavery? What did they teach their children? In addition, what was the society like and how did the overall society function?
In the context of the emancipation of the Black man and the end of slavery, it was not because American society had corrected itself and the value of Black people had risen above the culture that promoted and defined them as nothing more than property and less in value than an animal, especially a dog or horse (there were more laws on the books that protected animals than enslaved Blacks).
The truth of the matter is that emancipation was motivated by a political reality that threatened to break the union and, in effect, destroy the concept of America. The end of slavery was a byproduct of the political reality, and the fact that there was no economic need for slavery.
Racism and the oppression of Black people never subsided because the American culture is the “mind” that produced the oppression.
The traumatic experience of Black people in America has never ended, and continues to impact the Black community and Black family.
Slavery was so damaging to the Black family because it has hijacked and redefined a deadly and dysfunctional socialization process for Black people. There is no getting around it.
There are just too many anti-social behaviors evident today that are tied directly to the behaviors sustained in slavery.
The culture and socialization process in place for Blacks today has been passed down from our ancestors as a conditioning to accept poverty as a way of life and inferiority as a mandate.
The socialization process produces trauma on a daily basis and is primarily responsible for the predictors of addiction, conduct disorder and criminal behavior. Wrapped in the current Black culture is a whole host of acts of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that we perpetuate against each other, all of which contribute to one’s negative self-image.
There was no reconciliation. There was no apology. There was no acknowledgement of the massive wrongdoing perpetuated by both a legal and economic system, and a culture of racism and hate of the Black man.
There was no reference to the physical and psychological harm experienced by the Black man through this horrific experience. Nearly nine million slaves were left to make the transition in the most hostile environments imaginable, but they did and they survived.
There was no real effort orchestrated by the government to fully end slavery and to integrate Blacks into the American society. For the most part, Blacks remained outcasts.
There was no treatment and as a result, the trauma has been passed down to subsequent generations.