Buried in the comment stream of my brother Asa’s thought provoking post, “Tribal Intellectualism“, was this nugget by brother Ensayn. Please pay careful attention to this:
Revolution, is in my opinion about evoluition, to re-evolve. It is the internal thought of a person that expresses itself externally. What you think you are, you will be. If you think you are ghetto, you will express this in an external fashion, whether it be a clothing style, tatoos, the way you speak, the way you act. This is the external expression of an internal thought process, on a micro-cosmic level. This same internal thought process expressed by the many becomes a culture, when many dress a certain way, speak a certain way and act a certain way, all based on an internal thought process. So, what outside entity came to a certain group of Black people and produced the thought in them that they are ghetto and this is how ghetto acts? How can one or a group overcome an ailment by pointing at the external factor? Does this exclude the fact that external factors influence the thought process? No. Yet, we are responsible for how we internalize an outside influence. One factor in the external influence on the Black Collective are our own so called “leaders” and “professors” that influence a certain percentage of Black people’s internal thought processes. When a “leader” or “professor” continues to express a slave mentality (I will elaborate in a post what a slave mentality is), then those that believe the “leaders” and “professors” are greater than themselves fall prey to an external influence that deters positive uplifing internal thoughts in the “weaker” collective. Example, on a different level. In order to avoid the flu or a cold one MUST strengthen their OWN immune system, an internal function. When a cold or flu virus attacks a person and overcomes them, then it is the failure of the person to strengthen the INTERNAL IMMUNE SYSTEM. When the immune system is strong an outside influence is of little to no effect. The same is true with the Black collective. The Black Collective must CLEAN OUT and strengthen INTERNALLY to repel negative outside attacks. The more we focus on the outside factor, the white man, the European cultural influence on the Black collective, and racism the “weaker” the collective becomes. And, the Black collective will be defeated by those very same external forces. Therefore, the focus MUST be on cleaning OUR internal thought process, cleaning out the down pressing “leaders” and “professors”, cleaning out our vocabulary, cleaing up the way we dress, act, and feed ourselves, and clean up our dirty ways to eachother. Then and only then can we defeat racism, European cultural influence, the white man and bad Black “leaders” “and Professors”.
When we are able to really understand this post – at depth – racism won’t have to be “defeated” because racism will already be dead. In our mind, body and spirit. It only lives because we breathe the breath of life into, perform CPR on it, transfuse it with our spiritual life’s blood.
Take responsibility. Control your destiny. Abdicate responsibility. Be a perpetual victim.
Thank you for highlighting this wonderful response from Ensayn. As a professor, I can’t quite understand why he list professors alongside Black leaders as potential/likely purveyors of a slave mentality. It is among my Black colleagues that I have encountered some of the most progressive and inspiring minds in our community. Still, I find much that is useful in his emphasis on the absolute need for the Black community to purge itself of self-marginalizing attitudes and thinking.
Way too much of our activism is focused on/preoccupied with changing how other groups feel about us. A much greater obstacle to our full emancipation is the way that we feel about ourselves and each other.
We must understand that a cornerstone of any forward movement for U.S. Blacks (as a group) must necessarily involve a careful reexamination of how we feel about our history, our own Blackness, and the Black people in our midst. The power of the white mainstream hinges upon Black self-loathing, a self-loathing that is manifest in the way that we treat our bodies, our neighborhoods, our partners, and neighbors.
As bell hooks and others have reminded us, when we love and embrace Blackness (as an ethnicity, a historical legacy, a culture, a social construct, and a spiritual locus) we resist the foundation upon which white supremacy is built. When we start acting like we as Black people deserve clean streets, healthy bodies, and healthy relationships (romantic, platonic, and otherwise), then we will have sounded the death knell of white supremacy if not throughout the nation, then at least within our own lives and in our communities.
Thanks Ensayn, for your thoughtful words.
–a professor
@Black on Campus, I could have been more specific however, I feel many will consider that I’m not stating a blanket “all” when I mention leaders and professors.
check this out and make sure you are siting down
http://totalblacktv.com/myview/view_video.php?viewkey=53058db75714ac400b58
Ensayn great post!
We will probably soon experience an Obama presidency I pray that he will be safe. If it happens, the victim mentality of so many Black folks myself included, on some bad days, has got to go. Really that is happening now. A Black man could soon occupy one of the most powerful positions in the world. This will not solve many of our problems but a great start will have occurred when White power racist will be in tears an dread. I don’t trust our leaders much because I am sure that they look out for themselves and their families first. However, I do celebrate this point in time. I find myself throwing up a fist and saying Obama’s name often during the day. Yes we have to change alot of our negative thinking and the thinking that leaders can do everything but Change is something. Obamaday is coming Nov 4th
[...] House Negro – Today, 12:59 PM Tribal Intellectualism and the concept of the House Negro From the School of Critical Thinking… September 29, 2008 by thefreeslave Buried in the comment stream of my brother Asa’s thought [...]
The term “Critical Thinking” has become popular among the palefaces in recent years but how many of them saying it are doing it.
I am currently taking an economics course from a Black Professor. He is from Africa. Sometimes I have to concentrate more to understand what he is saying because of his accent than the economics he is talking about. But I noticed something peculiar about economics 30 years ago. The entire economics profession ignores the depreciation of durable consumer goods. They treat automobiles and televisions just like fruits and vegetables.
There have been 200,000,000+ cars in the United States since 1995. If each one of those cars lost $1,500 in depreciation each year that would come to $300,000,000,000 every year. That is FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS since 1995. And that is just the US. What about all of the cars in the world.
Out economists ignore all of that depreciation and don’t tell us they do it much less explain why. This professor is saying it would be too difficult to track it accurately. Even if there was a 10 or 20 percent error wouldn’t that be better than the 100% error of not doing it.
Are our economics professors practicing “Critical Thinking”?
GlobaLIES
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