The Effects of Mental Slavery

The common history of slavery that unites all descendants of Africans in the Diaspora is one filled with betrayal, cruelty, and inhumanity. The people of African descent whose ancestors were stolen from Africa, chained like cattle, placed on large ships, brought through the Middle Passage to the New World is one that can no longer be overlooked by history. Branded, sold and enslaved to work in the cane and cotton fields of the main lands of the Americas and the Caribbean islands, these same lands, generations later, many now claim as their “homeland”.  Yet, could it be possible that after the many struggles for liberation and emancipation the descendants of Africans are still in chains? Someone who is in chains is in bondage.  Someone who is in chains is a servant, his will is no longer his but that of his master. To be in bondage means the state of being under the control of a force or influence outside of self. It is a state of physical, emotional, mental and sometimes spiritual subjection.  Thus, while we may no longer carry the chains that our ancestors wore on their wrists, their ankles and their necks, there are emotional, mental and spiritual chains that we may still carry that are not visible to the naked eye. These invisible chains are just as repressive as the chains that can be seen and felt. Some of us may dispute that it is impossible almost 300 years later to experience bondage from slavery because we are no longer slaves. African descendants are free. We can walk the streets. We can buy property. We can choose to be educated. In other words, we have rights!    Let me remind you that one can be in bondage by an idea, an assumption, a philosophy, a world view, even with a lifestyle. This form of bondage is usually reflected in our beliefs and our manifested behaviors.  One clear example of this manifestation of mental slavery is reflected in the way our children, youth and their parents think about and behave towards education. In the African-American community 63% of fourth grade students are below the reading level. 70% of high school dropouts are African American children. If that isnot astonishing enough, out of every100 college graduates 38 are Caucasian and 33 are Asian, yet only 18 are African Americans and 11 are Latino. In America the most important determining factor for success and the surest way to move from one social level to another is by getting an education. What happens to a people when many of their children and youth chose to remain chained to a lower station in life?  While not having a proper education can become a strong obstacle for not achieving social and professional achievement in America, there are other symptoms of mental bondage that can also be manifested in certain beliefs and behaviors. These symptoms are often manifested in the way we interact as a people, what we believe about ourselves, and how we go about seeking or not seeking success. The impact of these symptoms can be “psychologically deadly” because they can get passed on from one generation to another. An entire group of people can find themselves spinning in cycles of past pain that can result in failure to achieve success and live up to one’s full God-given potential. Let me just mention a few of these symptoms: 

1. Believing that our contributions are limited –The larger society often willfully ignores the accomplishments and contributions of African descendants in fields other than sports and entertainment. Why don’t we hear the names of David Crosthwait Jr., Patricia Bath, Mark Dean, Percy L. Julian, Dr Charles Richards Drew, Emmett Chappell – some of our black scientists and inventors? How about our Black scholars? Dr Cornell West, Dr Eric Michael Dyson, Henry Louis Gates Jr, - all heavyweight Ivy League professors and intellectuals.  Why don’t our children know these names? There is a general lack of acknowledgment of black contributions in the media, in history books and in academic curriculums. This lack of -acknowledgement often leads many of our young people to believe the lie that the only way to be successful is to play ball, sing rap, and if they are female they need to shake their booty on a stage. 

2. Our inability to affirm each other -Our mental chains have robbed us of the capacity to acknowledge and celebrate one another’s  success and to be genuinely happy for our brothers or sisters when they excel.  Pessimism and criticism are often ruled by a culture of envy of the success of people who look like us. This form of self-hatred causes us to even lose the capacity to show support for our own blood. We know how to point out the flaws and mistakes of our children and our spouses yet we can never affirm them when they do well. We rarely celebrate their accomplishments. This behavior causes our interactions with each other to be fake, contrived and unfair. 

3. Disassociation-On the other hand, when some of us a achieve success we want to separate ourselves from our people. It is as if we suddenly became of a higher caliber than our own. Instead of finding ways to help others like ourselves to get on the same path we try to disassociate ourselves from them. We forget where we came from. We forget that somebody opened up the door for us so we need to open up the door for someone else. We even dare to act as if we are better than those who look like us and who came from the same places we've come from. Some of us even deny our places of origin, culture and language to assimilate and fit in with those who are different than us, but whom we internally consider as being better than us. 

4. Self-hatred – Self-hatred comes from the often “unconscious” belief that we are in many ways not good enough, beautiful enough or smart enough. To compensate for this lie that is often brainwashed into us by the media and the society we begin living according to the lies. So, for example if we believe that we are not smart enough: Why do well in school? Why finish high school? Why bother to even try college? We also engage in self-destructive behaviors when we shoot each other up, join gangs, take drugs, call our mothers and sisters b’s and h’s. While those may be the most dangerous symptoms there are also the ones that may seem more benign. Women of African descent who believe the lies that they are not beautiful enough so they need to bleach their skins to a lighter complexion, submit their bodies to unhealthy dieting, even spend money that they do not have to put on someone else’s straighter, silkier, lighter color hair on their heads. The worst part is that often self-hatred is wrongly defined as black culture and we forget to appreciate who we really are. Emotional bondage is often so deep that it has wounded us and caused terrible scars upon our minds and spirits. Some of us are carrying these wounds that were inflicted upon us by our parents and some of us are now inflicting these wounds upon our children. These wounds have become deep-seated and emotionally painful. To free ourselves we need choices  as individuals, to follow Bob Marley’s counsel: “Emancipate ourselves from mental slavery”. This form of emancipation is necessary to break the cycle. But, emancipation is a personal choice 

Copyright  2010 by Norka Blackman-RichardsNorka Blackman-Richards is an educator, a writer, a minister’s wife, and an empowerment speaker on women, education, diversity and generational issues. Norka is the chief editor of www.4realwomen.com, the founder of 4 Real Women International, Inc., and the host of 4 Real Women Talk on BlogTalkRadio.com.  She teaches for the City University of New York at Queens College.