Are African Americans a psychologically damaged people?

[geechiedan]

With all the statistics showing blacks to be trailing in educational endeavors and over represented in negative aspects of life (crime, drugs, prison) and it seeming to be an enduring problem is it possible that we are continuing a cycle of abuse and failure?

The chances are high that an chronically abused person will exhibit psychological damage and that most abused children will grow up to be abusers themselves...

It would seem that blacks are exhibiting the same behavior patterns...so are we psychologically damaged?

 

[g-money]

With all the statistics showing blacks to be trailing in educational endeavors and over represented in negative aspects of life (crime, drugs, prison) and it seeming to be an enduring problem is it possible that we are continuing a cycle of abuse and failure?

The chances are high that an chronically abused person will exhibit psychological damage and that most abused children will grow up to be abusers themselves...

It would seem that blacks are exhibiting the same behavior patterns...so are we psychologically damaged?

You can make a very strong case that we are. I personally would have to say yes. You can't go through so much all around the world as a collective and not have "collective counseling". Just by saying on you're free does not cut it, you have to get all of the psychological bullshit like fear of the oppressor(and those that look like your very own oppressor), lack of esteem(from lack of truth on who you reallly are and not a people that never contributed anything to humanity), hatred for your own, and etc. out of your psyche or you will continue to pass that on to the next generations until you are conditioned not to. One would be an absolute fool to say none of the past traumatic experiences does not have an pyschological adverse effect on black people.


The following excerpt comes from The African American Psychic Trauma:

Of all the havoc that the institution of slavery had created, the psychological damage seems to be far more devastating because it generated in the African American one of the deadliest character flaws-- a crisis identity! Fanon explains: "I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement." Identity crisis is an embodiment of confusion, fear, and inferiority complex combined with an extreme sense of hopelessness.

Peace

 

[batmanobx]

bump!!!!

 

[ghost of tobay jones]

Well if someone took you over a 1000 miles away from your homeland in chains, forced you to live in places that even pigs wouldn't live, forced you to do work that made your body nearly not funtcional by age 50 so they BRED the strongest of your kind and killed off the rest, not to mention forcing new religious beliefs, destroying your entire culture, language, ways you dressed, the food you ate, the climate, new diseases, and forced you to hate your own people because of their skin color,

then yeah I'd say you were born psychologically damaged (I could go on........

 

[geechiedan]

Well if someone took you over a 1000 miles away from your homeland in chains, forced you to live in places that even pigs wouldn't live, forced you to do work that made your body nearly not funtcional by age 50 so they BRED the strongest of your kind and killed off the rest, not to mention forcing new religious beliefs, destroying your entire culture, language, ways you dressed, the food you ate, the climate, new diseases, and forced you to hate your own people because of their skin color,

then yeah I'd say you were born psychologically damaged (I could go on........

while i agree with MOST of what you're saying I disagree with the whole BREEDING thing...You can't breed humans like you breed lower animals there are too many X-factors that can't be controlled..human will being one of them. Jimmy the Greek and Chris Rock are faaar from being experts on the subject as well.

 

[QueEx]

Does there come a time when you recognize what hit you; when you step back and take stock of the blow; when you shake off the cobwebs; and begin to change things. In other words, do you whallow or do you get up and hit back ? If the blow permanently damaged the psychic, why are there so many successes ? Are the successes just aberrations, or indication of what can happen ???

QueEx

 

[QueEx]

Well if someone took you over a 1000 miles away from your homeland in chains, forced you to live in places that even pigs wouldn't live, forced you to do work that made your body nearly not funtcional by age 50 so they BRED the strongest of your kind and killed off the rest, not to mention forcing new religious beliefs, destroying your entire culture, language, ways you dressed, the food you ate, the climate, new diseases, and forced you to hate your own people because of their skin color,

then yeah I'd say you were born psychologically damaged (I could go on........

A lot of people won't like what I am about to say, but fuck it. Most of what you said is true, but, those things happend over a 100 years ago. You've been as Americanized as the children of immigrants who willingly crossed Ellis Island who have also lost their language and prior beliefs. Face it. You're American of African descent. Now, what do you do about that ??? Pursue your entitlements as an American; or return to a land and culture that you don't know and that really doesn't know you either ??? Either could be accomplished, but which do you choose

QueEx

 

[Temujin]

I don't necessarily think we are born psychologically damaged. However growing up in poverty and being exposed to a violence will psychologically damage a youth. It's not like we got hit with a blow and we can recover we keep getting hit and we keep having to recover through every stage of our lives in America.

Lets look at if if you are a newborn black baby.
If you are an African American born in America there is a 30% chance your family is in poverty. There is a 100% chance you will be subject to some form of direct or indirect racism over the course of your life. You will have to fight strong negative stereotypes of society and have to find your identity with little positive guidance other than these stereotypes. You will be subject to the public education system of the place where you live which if you live in poverty will more than likely be substandard. You will witness violence regurlarly with little police assistance.

This will psychologically damage a youth. Traumatic experiences will psychologically damage adults. Our experience in AMerica has been traumatic and no individual successes do not negate the effects these experiences have had on our people. If 100 mice are in a maze and two mice find their way out but 98 starve to death you can't say all 100 mice could find their way out if they worked hard enough. The two mice that got out need to change the maze so that all 100 can get out.

 

[water]

I don't necessarily think we are born psychologically damaged. However growing up in poverty and being exposed to a violence will psychologically damage a youth. It's not like we got hit with a blow and we can recover we keep getting hit and we keep having to recover through every stage of our lives in America.

Lets look at if if you are a newborn black baby.
If you are an African American born in America there is a 30% chance your family is in poverty. There is a 100% chance you will be subject to some form of direct or indirect racism over the course of your life. You will have to fight strong negative stereotypes of society and have to find your identity with little positive guidance other than these stereotypes. You will be subject to the public education system of the place where you live which if you live in poverty will more than likely be substandard. You will witness violence regurlarly with little police assistance.

This will psychologically damage a youth. Traumatic experiences will psychologically damage adults. Our experience in AMerica has been traumatic and no individual successes do not negate the effects these experiences have had on our people. If 100 mice are in a maze and two mice find their way out but 98 starve to death you can't say all 100 mice could find their way out if they worked hard enough. The two mice that got out need to change the maze so that all 100 can get out.

Had to jump in quickly to agree........ will be back !

 

[peanut1mother]

No most you fucks are just lazy and an embarassment to my race. Go make a demo so you can buy some rims. Why are u on here anyway.

 

[fatninja]

the children you see now the 18-30 year olds i mean are the children that were raised in the 80-90's when crack was king.

remember the fiends of back in the day.

Now those same children who had nothin and took everything to survive have that mentality of get rich or die tryin. they have no morals, no center. they beleive in nothing but money as if that will help them to overcome theyre youth.

think about that. when was the last time you took a bus and you ie yungun let an old woman sit down. when was the last time any of you have done a random act of kindness to another human being. girls how old were you when you lost your virginity. hell man i got 9 sisters and they all lost theyre cherry when they were between 10 and 12. fuckin with wannabee gangsters.

we as a people have no leader to stand up for the right things and not the politically right things. and every leader we get seems to be morally bankrupt.

we have reaped what we sewn while the man still looks down on us and calls us ****** we put out our hands and ask for a slice of the devils pie.

 

[Mello Mello]

With all the statistics showing blacks to be trailing in educational endeavors and over represented in negative aspects of life (crime, drugs, prison) and it seeming to be an enduring problem is it possible that we are continuing a cycle of abuse and failure?

The chances are high that an chronically abused person will exhibit psychological damage and that most abused children will grow up to be abusers themselves...

It would seem that blacks are exhibiting the same behavior patterns...so are we psychologically damaged?

Yes to a cetain extent I believe we are? I'll make more comments on this topic later I had a discussion similar to this one on another message board; I found an article on this blacknews website that may lend more answers to your question. But there are psychological ailments that blacks have carried with them, I'll expound on this later, for now check it out.



Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome
addressed at MAAFA Commemoration

Donna Lamb
October 4, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Among the many fine presentations offered at the 10th Annual MAAFA Commemoration held throughout the month of September by the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York was an excellent session by Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary, Assistant Professor at Portland State University. In it, she laid out her theory of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), explaining what it is, how it's been passed down through the generations, and its ongoing ill effects on the Black community today. She made a clear case for the need to identify PTSS so it can be dealt with, because, as she stated, "We can't heal what we don't understand."

Leary's concept is based on the theory of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is firmly accepted by the psychiatric establishment. It's now taken as a given that there are people who will need treatment for the ongoing damage they suffered psychologically from the trauma of experiencing or witnessing life-threatening events such as military combat, a terrorist attack, natural disaster, serious accident or a violent personal assault, including rape.

People afflicted with PTSD, Leary explained, often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks. They may have difficulty sleeping, be irritable, have outbursts of anger, exaggerated startle responses and feel estranged from others. Their ability to function in social, work or family life is also impaired. This includes having trouble holding down a job, marital problems and difficulties in parenting.

As Leary also pointed out, PTSD is not a new disorder; there are written accounts of similar symptoms going back to ancient times. During the Civil War, there was documentation of a PTSD-like disorder known as "Da Costa's Syndrome". Following the Second World War and every war since, countless combat veterans have been treated for "shellshock". Both are now recognized as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Nor is it new to look at this trauma theory in a collective way, applying it to people as a group, such as the Indigenous Peoples or Jewish Holocaust survivors, who suffered historical injuries.

The thing that is new - and very much needed - is the application of this theory to Africans who were enslaved in American and to their descendants. That is what Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary has brought to the table with her identification of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

It is her contention that African Americans today are badly affected by past centuries of slavery in this country because the original enslaved Africans were never treated for the severe trauma of being degraded, beaten and abused, seeing relatives whipped, raped and killed, being forced to breed and having their babies taken from them, and all the other unspeakably horrible things that occurred during slavery.

Even after slavery officially ended, nothing was done to help Blacks recover from the trauma resulting from it. In fact, as Leary illustrated, the traumatizing circumstances continued - and one might even say increased - with the Black Codes, peonage, sharecropping, lynchings, Jim Crow laws and all the other things that, for all practical purposes, kept Blacks in bondage.

Even with the passage of the civil rights acts of the 1960s, Leary explained, no measures were put in place to help African Americans cope with all they had suffered, and to rectify the damage that the maltreatment had done to them mentally, spiritually and physically over many generations. Plus, today Blacks in America still face racism, oppression and societal inequality. "There was never a period of time when Africans in this nation were given the permission or the wherewithal to heal from our injury, so the trauma has continued," she stated.


Leary brought across how you don't have to be the direct victim of a horrible occurrence to be traumatized by it. That was clear after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon when people all over the nation were traumatized even though they, themselves, were nowhere near either event.

She showed how attitudes and behaviors resulting from trauma can be passed down from generation to generation without people even being conscious of doing it. She also broke down for her listeners how survival techniques developed during slavery have been carried down inter-generationally, even when they were no longer needed, to the detriment of the Black community.

She addressed some of the specific difficulties among African Americans and illustrated how they are symptoms of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. She showed, for instance, how various problems between Black men and women today have their origin in slavery, and how the "Crabs in a Barrel Syndrome" as it's been called, is a leftover from coping mechanisms begun when some enslaved Africans were made over-seers of others working in the fields.

There was much food for thought presented during Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary's gripping two-hour presentation. Certainly everyone went away with important new information to ponder and digest.

 

[QueEx]

NaH! The whiteman is the one thats psychologically damaged and he been like that since the beginning! any man who can continually hate a man because of the color of his skin is totally insane! Slavery was just yesterday! some of yall need to go back and study what us blacks endured on those slave ships and on those plantations! Yall ----- done forgot and got comfortable with all the bling bling and shit blinding your vision! After all us African Americans been through I think we doing good mentally concidering what the whiteman has done to us! he has enslaved us,lied on us,beat us,castrated us,raped our women,beat and raped our children,took our families away,ect! NEED I SAY MORE? and slavery was'nt that far away! SO YALL ---- NEED TO GO BACK AND WATCH ROOTS by Alex Haley and it will remind you who the crazy man is! and he has pale skin!

Your comments are not only welcomed, but appreciated. On the other hand, you need to read the RULES OF THE BOARD. The "N" word is prohibited on this board. Besides, a Brother talking all the shit about Brother hood as you do, should know better.

QueEx

 

[Black_Immortal]

I don't necessarily think we are born psychologically damaged. However growing up in poverty and being exposed to a violence will psychologically damage a youth. It's not like we got hit with a blow and we can recover we keep getting hit and we keep having to recover through every stage of our lives in America.

Lets look at if if you are a newborn black baby.
If you are an African American born in America there is a 30% chance your family is in poverty. There is a 100% chance you will be subject to some form of direct or indirect racism over the course of your life. You will have to fight strong negative stereotypes of society and have to find your identity with little positive guidance other than these stereotypes. You will be subject to the public education system of the place where you live which if you live in poverty will more than likely be substandard. You will witness violence regurlarly with little police assistance.

This will psychologically damage a youth. Traumatic experiences will psychologically damage adults. Our experience in AMerica has been traumatic and no individual successes do not negate the effects these experiences have had on our people. If 100 mice are in a maze and two mice find their way out but 98 starve to death you can't say all 100 mice could find their way out if they worked hard enough. The two mice that got out need to change the maze so that all 100 can get out.

I would like to extend your analogy regarding the "maze". I personally have no great talent or influence that is going to change the maze, but in my own small way I consider myself as having made it successfully through the maze (college graduate, stable family, adequate income) so that I see myself as being able to lead my offspring through the maze and hopefully being able to contribute something to other young people (I volunteer at a school teaching computer skills). I agree with you that there a lot of negative stereoptypes that our youth are exposed to, but I think that there are many positive stories out there also. Whenever we limit ourselves only to mass media, we get a picture that is not only skewed, but is also overly simplistic. When I look at the level of serious discussion that appears in these threads, I receive a welcome reminder that while we have serious issues as a people, that we also have some serious thinking going on.

 

[nittie]

Using the maze analogy in America. If the maze is this society 1 rat will have the talent to get thru it another will get through by luck the other 98 will work for the 2 that got through. Blacks my be damaged but it is no excuse anymore because so is everybody else.

 

[Irrational32]

while i agree with MOST of what you're saying I disagree with the whole BREEDING thing...You can't breed humans like you breed lower animals there are too many X-factors that can't be controlled..human will being one of them. Jimmy the Greek and Chris Rock are faaar from being experts on the subject as well.

how can you disagree with the breeding thing when this is not an issue for opinion. IT DID HAPPEN. BLACKS WERE BRED LIKE HORSES AND DOGS> Seriously, we were looked upon as animals.

 

[dyhawk]

A lot of people won't like what I am about to say, but fuck it. Most of what you said is true, but, those things happend over a 100 years ago. You've been as Americanized as the children of immigrants who willingly crossed Ellis Island who have also lost their language and prior beliefs. Face it. You're American of African descent. Now, what do you do about that ??? Pursue your entitlements as an American; or return to a land and culture that you don't know and that really doesn't know you either ??? Either could be accomplished, but which do you choose

QueEx

I agree

and no shit they are psychologically damage just look at the shit thats going on in New Orleans............send the mother f@#! to zimbabwe let see how long that shit will fly before the army opens fire

 

[dyhawk]

oh yeah i am talking about the shoting after emergency workers and attacking hospitals and shit not the looting cause i can understand the need for food and stuff

 

[geechiedan]

how can you disagree with the breeding thing when this is not an issue for opinion. IT DID HAPPEN. BLACKS WERE BRED LIKE HORSES AND DOGS> Seriously, we were looked upon as animals.

yes..blacks were treated and considered less than human. Yes black families were broken up and sold separately. And even if the slave owner did put a physically strong black man with a physically strong black woman that doesn't gaurantee they will produce a strong child. Again manipulating humans in that way is not even a science.

don't believe the hype.

 

[Chase Bannon]

Your comments are not only welcomed, but appreciated. On the other hand, you need to read the RULES OF THE BOARD. The "N" word is prohibited on this board. Besides, a Brother talking all the shit about Brother hood as you do, should know better.

QueEx

Amen.

I usually post on the business board because there is good networking opportunities there. It is funny to see "Black" people on this board posting about Bush don't care about black peole (which I agree) and then having threads saying check out this "Bitch". Then exploiting black women on here!!!! I have no problem with porn chicks. That is their choice. Then you see fueds between black people on here about ignorant stuff. I've had fueds on here, but they were about business disagreements and other racial issues. As far as business disagreements, we all came to a solution at the end.

 

[Chase Bannon]

yes..blacks were treated and considered less than human. Yes black families were broken up and sold separately. And even if the slave owner did put a physically strong black man with a physically strong black woman that doesn't gaurantee they will produce a strong child. Again manipulating humans in that way is not even a science.

don't believe the hype.

Wrong my Charleston friend. Usually when 2 tall people have a child, the child is likely tall. The same can be said for short people. Humans can be breeded. African American males are the strongest structure males on the planet. Just look. I won't limit this comment to African American. Any African slave decents.

Peace Bro

 

[geechiedan]

Wrong my Charleston friend. Usually when 2 tall people have a child, the child is likely tall. The same can be said for short people. Humans can be breeded. African American males are the strongest structure males on the planet. Just look. I won't limit this comment to African American. Any African slave decents.

Peace Bro

I said it doesn't gaurantee I didn't say it couldn't happen at all. Shaq's parents aren't 7 footers neither are Yao Ming's. And as far as structure goes.. There are a lot of strong structure people in world..in africa and asia and europe.

 

[nittie]

Just for the sake of arguement. Let's say there is a method to this madness...If that is the case..which race would be the so-called "master race"?

 

[Gods_Favorite]

Just for the sake of arguement. Let's say there is a method to this madness...If that is the case..which race would be the so-called "master race"?

whitey?

 

[nittie]

lmao whitey is only 10% of the world's population. They raised hell for about 300 years but it's a blimp on the historical timeline. The Ottomans dominated for 500 yrs.

 

[Chase Bannon]

Just for the sake of arguement. Let's say there is a method to this madness...If that is the case..which race would be the so-called "master race"?

I won't say one race is better than the other. I'm not participating in that argument because that is sort of racist. I will say Black people can with stand more based on history. I hate to say this but a lot of black people are use to being on the bottom and being shitted on so going broke is no big deal to us. Whites usually go into a state of depression or worse if they go broke. Sometimes black people are too use to being broke and this leads to carelessness with money and running business. All and all black folks can rise to the top easily because of what we have been through. Seperation and division tends to be our biggest obstacle from getting to the top.

 

[hawk919]

Have any of you niggas read the Willie Lynch Letter?

Everything that cracka said in the 1700's is true.

Yes we are psychologically damaged people by nature, and it takes elevated thinking and knowledge to fight that shit......

African Americans are fucked up, Men, Women and the Children

We fight and point fingers at each other more than come together and fight
just like Willie Lynch said: "we will put the older vs. younger, the lightskin vs. the dark skin, and male vs. female"

We dont have a home, America dont treat us right, and Africans hate us....... and worst of all we hate ourselves too.

 

[Chase Bannon]

Have any of you niggas read the Willie Lynch Letter?

Everything that cracka said in the 1700's is true.

Yes we are psychologically damaged people by nature, and it takes elevated thinking and knowledge to fight that shit......

African Americans are fucked up, Men, Women and the Children

We fight and point fingers at each other more than come together and fight
just like Willie Lynch said: "we will put the older vs. younger, the lightskin vs. the dark skin, and male vs. female"

We dont have a home, America dont treat us right, and Africans hate us....... and worst of all we hate ourselves too.

All points are so true. Especially male versus female. This message board proves that point so well. Look at a lot of the posts on here. Hated towards black females display all the time!!!!

 

[nittie]

Here's a simple experiment. If you know anything about history its gon trip you the fuck out but it will put things in perspective. MLK is arguably the greatest Black man in American history true. In your mind put him next to RamsesII..... He's dwarfed right. Why is that?

 

[Andre Nickatina]

I don't necessarily think we are born psychologically damaged. However growing up in poverty and being exposed to a violence will psychologically damage a youth. It's not like we got hit with a blow and we can recover we keep getting hit and we keep having to recover through every stage of our lives in America.

Lets look at if if you are a newborn black baby.
If you are an African American born in America there is a 30% chance your family is in poverty. There is a 100% chance you will be subject to some form of direct or indirect racism over the course of your life. You will have to fight strong negative stereotypes of society and have to find your identity with little positive guidance other than these stereotypes. You will be subject to the public education system of the place where you live which if you live in poverty will more than likely be substandard. You will witness violence regurlarly with little police assistance.

This will psychologically damage a youth. Traumatic experiences will psychologically damage adults. Our experience in AMerica has been traumatic and no individual successes do not negate the effects these experiences have had on our people. If 100 mice are in a maze and two mice find their way out but 98 starve to death you can't say all 100 mice could find their way out if they worked hard enough. The two mice that got out need to change the maze so that all 100 can get out.

couldn't agree more.

the last census data that i looked at in a lot of detail only showed a 25% chance of being born into poverty, but you're essentially right.

but as so many of us already know, that's just the tip of the iceberg. children born into this country today who are black and male have a 33% chance of coming into contact with the criminal justice system at some point in their lifetime (jail, parole or probation). and that's just the national average. in some areas like DC it gets as high as 70%+.

so to me, the hardest question is not whether or not we're psychologically damaged, but (making the assumption that we are psychologically hurt) why the damage continues to haunt us for generation after generation.

to those who posted references to Willie Lynch earlier, you are so very right. but the Lynch formula wasn't really as good as advertised. i personally don't believe the effect would ever have lasted as long as it did if the folks who run this country didn't work as hard as they did to help it along. slavery transformed into Jim Crow and Jim Crow transformed into the so called "criminal justice" we have today.

the negatives are real and they pile up real quick when you start looking with a critical eye. but that doesn't say to me that we need to sit back and wait for the next great black leader. each of us needs to do our part to impact our community. to impact those around us. and to try and improve our collective situation.

once the people are prepared, a leader will emerge.

 

[Chase Bannon]

Here's a simple experiment. If you know anything about history its gon trip you the fuck out but it will put things in perspective. MLK is arguably the greatest Black man in American history true. In your mind put him next to RamsesII..... He's dwarfed right. Why is that?

What is the answer? I know who Ramses II is, but I don't know too much about him.

 

[nittie]

lol that's the point of the experiment. Nobody really knows what Ramses looked like or who he was but he dwarfs MLK. The point is to put things in perspective. RamsesII is bigger than MLK and anyone else, because he gave more to mankind even though we don't really know him, it's intrinsic those that see him bigger see and feel the difference. When we ask are blacks damaged, compared to who? It's about our world view but in spite of everything we been through we are not damaged any more than anyone else.

 

[BUMBAY DA DOGG]

lmao whitey is only 10% of the world's population. They raised hell for about 300 years but it's a blimp on the historical timeline. The Ottomans dominated for 500 yrs.

"They raised hell for about 300 years"

What about Chris Columbus li'l trip in 1492? The funky British, stank'in ass French, low lifed Dutch, punk ass Portugese, dispicable Spanish, Gay ass Greeks and Romans these nasty cracka been causing havoc for several hundred more years than 300.

In "Destruction of Black Civilization" Chancellor Willams called the influx of "white-asians" one of the major downfalls of Africa. That book traced back 6,000 years of BLACK HISTORY.

The bullshit the cracka been do'in aint new. It's old and we should all be sick and tired of being tired, up on game.

And ready to embrace freedom more than life itself. HOWEVER!! BLACK PEOPLE got to get it let's get it!

 

[Temujin]

It's about our world view but in spite of everything we been through we are not damaged any more than anyone else.

I have to disagree. Black children in America grow up nt experiencing psychological trauma that white children do not have to face. The institutionalized racism is the maze we have to travel as stereotyped minorities in a society. The most significant hurdle in overcoming these obstacles is the illusion that they do not exist. We are raised with these conflicting theories. The American dream of equality and infinite potential vs. the stereotypes of blacks not being able to achieve or limited achievement in limited arenas.

What happens is the mice who make it out believe that equality in America exists and that everyone in America has an equal chance to be succesful. While the mice that do not make it out view the maze as impossible and either believe or fall into the stereotypes that were given to them from birth. The truth I feel lies somewhere in the middle. However when we who have success ignore the struggle and the differences in our struggle as a minority vs. everyones struggles as America we do a great disservice to those fighting the maze.

We who have obtained success often forget or choose to forget the pain of our childhoods. The questions we had to ask ourself when first faced with racism. Why I am treated different when I walk in a store? Why do my teachers call on me last or spend less time with me than my white classmates. What was slavery? These things our minds can understand as adults are troubling for children. The children learn to adapt often times in negative ways. The reason we still face many of the same problems as a people, the reason why we have had limited success as a people is that we still deny that we have a problem.

Realizing that we are psychologically damaged and dealing with the effects it has on our children is not liberal whining or excuses it is empowerment. We have the power to heal the minds of our children. We need to understand where we are to move ahead.

 

[nittie]

I would like to know how

Realizing that we are psychologically damaged and dealing with the effects it has on our children is not liberal whining or excuses it is empowerment

I would think it would be just the opposite, acknowledging damage is counter productive in my opinion.

I have to disagree. Black children in America grow up nt experiencing psychological trauma that white children do not have to face. The institutionalized racism is the maze we have to travel as stereotyped minorities in a society.

I tried to point out earlier we should put this subject in some kind of perspective so if we use white kids as a barometer lets ask which race of children would have a better future from this point on. White kids unfortunately will have to deal with the sins of their fathers, in a society where their majority is eroding and a world wanting revenge for America's racial crimes I worry for a white child born today. I think in tomorrows world an educated and informed black child will have a big advantage.

What happens is the mice who make it out believe that equality in America exists and that everyone in America has an equal chance to be succesful. While the mice that do not make it out view the maze as impossible and either believe or fall into the stereotypes that were given to them from birth. The truth I feel lies somewhere in the middle. However when we who have success ignore the struggle and the differences in our struggle as a minority vs. everyones struggles as America we do a great disservice to those fighting the maze.

The million dollar question what is success? I believe success is relative, what's success to me is different for the next man, I think Black people are on the verge of defining our own success when we liberate ourselves from mainstream America's bigoted labels we will finally be free. For us the next step is realizing we are not damaged.