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Why Inner City Individualist Struggle |
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Many stories arising out of the minds of Black folk have as their central figure a sticky tar doll used to trap a rascal. Brer Fox made a "Tar Baby" and placed it on the roadside as part of a plot to even a score with his archenemy, Brer Rabbit.
When Brer came along and spoke to the Tar Baby, he became very angry because the doll remained silent. So he struck the tar baby with his right hand and got stuck. The same thing happened when he struck it with his left hand; then his right foot; and then his left foot. Now, from impulsive actions stemming out of frustration, Brer Rabbit was hopelessly attached to the tar doll.
Similarly, trying to solve the same problem by repeatedly using the same self-defeating method is what happens to many struggling Black Americans. One category of such methods is the misfit of retaining certain African customs in an American setting. Another is retaining certain "Slave Survivals" that worked well for their slave ancestors but are bad habits in today's American society.
Ancient African society was predominately a "We" culture which encouraged individualists to contribute to the advancement of fellow Africans. Attorney Al Mariam, an Ethiopian, confirms (personal communication) the literature in saying any "We" oriented African was always surrounded by people. Since there was a powerful support structure, loneliness and depression were unheard of.
Furthermore, each African had a healthy self-esteem. Africans valued things of worth (e.g. cooperation, togetherness, sharing) and either fought or ran from things deemed evil to the "We." Those suspected of being associated with evilness were called individualist ("I'll do it my way"). Pursuing achievements not related to the collective advancement of one's villagers raised the suspicion of one being possessed by the "Evil Eye" -- an eye serving as the mirror to one's polluted soul -- a soul possessed by an evil spirit and similar supernatural forces unrelated to God -- an evil spirit believed to be darting noxious rays on any object upon which it glared.
Ancient Africans were not against individualist except those considered to possess the Evil Eye. However, between the time of Ancient Africans and the time of African American slavery, it became a practice among Africans to avoid all individualist. This unfortunate practice was brought with the slaves to the Americas. Meanwhile, the original reasons for avoiding individualist were lost.
The captors generated the beginning of new slave customs by fragmenting the fellowship of African tradition and thereby causing intra-slave dissention. Out of this fragmentation numerous and often opposing cliques developed among the slaves. Cliques of field slaves herded into plantation ghettos had none of the advantages of being close enough to the master to learn transferable knowledge of how to rise above ghetto life following slavery. Thus, once freed, they formed similar ghettos which have spiraled into today's inner city ghetto.
Members of those ghettos (among others) retain the practice of shunning all individualist who strive to leave the ghetto version of a "We" society. This version is more about alliances and liaisons at a "psychical" feeling level, as opposed to the interweaving of Ancient African "spiritual" feelings. A feature of the ghetto "We" culture is sharing material possessions. As a result, a member desiring to rise above the struggle by saving money to go to college is often seen as an individualist. Also, he/she is treated as selfish for not wanting to share his/her money reserved for college.
If ambitious youth give into such pressures, there can be no breaking of ghetto vicious cycle problems. Perhaps educating the ghetto community about self-defeating interactions which keep everybody involved in a struggling mode and perhaps by locating and mentoring ambitious youth in ways of getting around such blocks to their success will start the process of meaningful change.
website: jablifeskills.com
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.
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