Are we Black anymore… or have we become the Lost Tribes of Black People? Perhaps that’s how we need to look at ourselves now. Clearly we’re no longer a monolithic group. One tribe could consist of people so frightened by uncertain times that they retreat into one rigid, backwards form of fundamentalism or another. Jungian psychologist James Hillman once said that embracing a religion based solely rules and laws leaves you with nothing when chaos comes except rules and laws.
There could be other tribes–like a tribe of black creative people that functioned as an artist gild–because we desperately need new myths and visons instead of retreating into comfortable fantasies about old, worn out myths that need revising and expanding. Humans are the only animals who live on story. “Without a vision, the people soon perish.”
There could be a tribe of black folks devoted to business and Professionalism. You could join like you join a lodge or a sorority.
Speaking of sorority–another tribe could be just for black women. It’s important to stress that black women are NOT a minority within a minority, but just as in mainstream culture, men cannot help women heal. They need to do that themselves. What black men can do is:
- Stop hurting/ victimizing black women. We’re already TOO sexualized. All creatures have sex. No big deal–but “man’s search for meaning” needs to grow UP from the groin. (There’s the life sustaining Heart and Mind that needs cultivating and evolving through their stages.)
- Do the archetypal job of defending the outside perimeter of where women are doing inside doing their work.
- Provide space… land… a building for them to do their healing work in.
[Men are tasked with the 3Ps… Providing, Protecting, and Procreation.] - Jump feet first in doing Men’s Work… the task of healing ourselves from the many traumas and un-processed grief we carry around… and embracing the many types of men in the tribe that are needed for us to advance.
Another tribe could be made up of criminals and gangsters. It’s important to add that these tribes don’t have to love one another–but they need for both the culture and the individuals within the culture, to agree on goals… a task that needs to be accomplished for the betterment of the whole.
And another for politicians. Many psychologist think of politics as, “one set of triggered complexes fighting against the opposite set of triggered complexes.” The last 40 years has given us the end true investigative journalism, and the end of any vestiges of morality within people running for political office. Black culture that came out of the rural South and stirred into a gumbo The Great Migration north to urban cities also began to end around that time.
Racist Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs” was a scandalous war on Black people. Black radio stations and DJ’s began disappearing. The oral tradition of spreading and celebrating the values of black culture was now–in the hands of white corporations… and we’re well aware of how the CIA uses Hollywood, television, the press, print media and now the internet to socially engineer “reality” to people both foreign and domestic.
The sophisticated, complex, world respected music of Jazz was replaced by immature Punk Rock, Grunge, and Gangsta Rap. Black artist who sung praises of love to “precious” black women were replaced by sub-par teenage dropouts “spitting misogynistic rhymes” that said black women were bitches, whores, and Hochies. Unlike all previous generations who knew the power that words vibrate, embraced declaring to the world that they were, “Niggers.” (Niggas, nigs, etc…)
Black small press companies were forced out of business. “Too Much Democracy” was a series of post-1980 policies and actions aimed at destabilizing and demoralizing black people. The draft was over and the military became an all volunteer force so the once, “Citizen Army” was now an, “Army of Imperialism.” Veterans who once could be depended on to defend the community now sought refuge in the identity of Right Wing Conservatism and carrying the same flag that enslaved their forefathers and mothers. Identity crisis? That’s not half the nightmare.
The sell out wasn’t just Gen X going for “Bling” because their Baby Boomer parents could no longer find employment and that, “Too Much Democracy” policies dumping cocaine and cheap guns into our neighborhoods… it was also many non-black Boomers who sold out their 60s and 70s values of humanity for that house in the suburbs and “Just Us” thinking. Combined, these were the corner stones of brainwashing Black people out of… black culture. Why?
We have demonstrated that we are powerful organizers–and the rich oligarchs are terrified at the thought of the masses rising up, pitch forks in hand, and coming for them. Instead of integrating the humanity Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fanny Lou Hamer, Audre Lorde, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, A. Philip Randolph, Frederick Douglas, and a list too long to write–the White Power structure decided to slink back into the sewers of racism, murder, and the terrorism of innocent people guilty only of the melanin in their skin. “Divide and Conquer” … the Willie Lynch story. Gone is the awareness that either we come together–or hang alone. (They don’t need lynch mobs anymore– they have Gangsta’s murdering other blacks on streets where they’ve ran off the black business that could have hired them.) We need to also note that there are women on that list of freedom fighters as well as gays, bisexuals, and lesbians.
Sleazy-greasy Snoop Dawg is now mainstream. 50-Cents, Kanye West, boot-licker Lil Wayne, Ice T (…”T” short for “Tom”), Asia Doll (… “Asia”???), Floyd Mayweather, DUMB ASS Shaquille O’Neal, and a list of other shallow, self-loathing/self-centered “black celebrities” who are some of the most troubled turds to have floated out of the black neighborhoods now turned ghettos in great part due to their help, are supporting openly racist con-man Donald Trump because of the ignorance of not knowing–and loving–their real history and culture. Thug Kulture is Borderline Personality Disorder Culture… NOT Black Culture.
The Four Stages of Human Development:
- First Stage: Like a baby, “everything is about ME. (In a narcissistic, Social Media brainwashed culture, can many grow out of this stage?) Most days con man, gangster President Trump looks stuck in this stage.) HOW can a standing president of a nation supposedly based on rules and laws openly tell his supporters to break the law by committing acts of violence against anyone who disagrees with him?? But I digress…
- Second Stage: Adolescent Stage— Everything is about my group, my gang, my church, my ethnicity, my military. [NOTE: All military societies are adolescent societies.]
- Third Stage: Heart Chakra– Here your awareness rises to your heart. You care about the whole school district because your kid goes there and you want other children to have eaten so your kid will have a better time of it. Even if you have no children, you want them to learn something so they won’t be crawling in your back window one day.
- Fourth Stage: Crown Chakra– You care about the whole planet too. We’re not going up to Alpha Centauri. This is the only planet we have and the Species Extinction Clock in Times Square is ticking backwards seven years to the point of no return. Seven years goes by fast. Celebrity culture, Social Media, and Hip Hop’s chest beating “Personal Expression” have combined to create an adolescent, malignant narcissistic culture so devoid of bonding with others that we can’t even talk to most people now days…. and if we can’t talk, we can’t solve the small problems, let alone the big ones like species extinction.
Five corporations now control EVERYTHIHNG. The filthy rich convinced Americans that everyone can be rich, so they voted out the policies of the Keynesian Economics (The New Deal) that from 1933 to the early 80s gave Americans the highest standard of living per capita in the world. The Keynesian economy gave us a five day work week, Social Security, and the end of child labor. It made monopolies illegal and taxed the rich. Nobody would get too rich nor too poor. Now we’re facing one of the worse economic crashes in history… butt naked and believing that Socialism is wrong and greedy, racist, corrupt Capitalism is right. Yet while many can’t afford health care, when Trump supposedly got sick with Coronavirus, he got the best medical treatment in the nation… FREE. Likewise do all the Senators and Representatives who work hard to keep us from getting anywhere near the free health care they receive.
W.E.B. Du Bois is arguably the greatest intellectual America has created. Black intellectuals stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any in the world. Yet the corporate media has convinced blacks to, “Let’s Get Stupid.” And the result of embracing Street Life, addiction, and the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure (devoid of joy) has ushered hundreds of thousands into State, Federal, and Privatized Prisons. Prison is designed to dehumanize you and rip out your dignity. Wen released, these convicts return to black neighborhoods with their “Criminal” identity, traumas, and many with shamed sexuality.
They ratchet up the level of Willie Lynch-ism. No longer is their identity tied to the black community… but to criminality.
“… If you lie you’ll cheat,
If you cheat, you’ll steal.
If you steal, you’ll do anything.”
And that’s the ethics they contaminate the culture with. In truth, for many, the culture betrayed them long before they entered prison. How many were left in Foster Care? How many attended rotten schools their parents lazily failed to remove them from? How many grew up in homes where they were beaten and yell at far more than they were shown constructive, nurturing love? How many were taught they could build their own businesses and the importance of creating beauty rather than the soiled graffiti that makes the transit ride uglier than Public Art that lifts us and brings us together.
Black criminals are mostly cowards. They take the easy targets. They end black business by entering and stealing everything they can–even the coper that keeps the business running. “Why go into white neighborhoods or downtown where we stick out?” asked one reformed heroin addict. Later when they want a job, none is there, and they blame the white man. That’s Criminal Thinking… “I get to steal your car because you did something to me.” (Not looked at him/her with deference and unwarranted “respect.”) It’s also a feature of Borderline Personality Disorder— “I get to act out on you because you abandoned me.” Triggered Complexes are not rational.
They also return with the proclivity for Gas Lighting, Gang Stalking, and Scapegoating the most vulnerable instead of confronting the most powerful. So in their jealous rage, their shamed insecurity, they teach and act out predation on other black people. It’s almost like they’ve learn to treat others as the oppressive police and prison system has treated them. Most will lick the boot of any color than black. “Yessa– we’ll get dat nigga”… If you spend more time being against your neighbor than trying to get along with him or her, then YOU have a Personality Disorder and many have said, returnees along with the music that is the movie score in their heads, as sociopaths.
Anyone who is experiencing mental problems and lacks a spiritual practice in something—and Christianity with all its past sins in no way can hold itself out as “the highest” of all paths… especially since the black church has been so silent these past 40 years and its pulpits so full of “Prosperity Theology” and its ministers turned CEOs. So in this Gilded Age of corporate and judicial corruption, a country full of immaturely angry narcissistic and woefully unread citizens voting with their rage over being insignificant and purposeless, are acting just like Karl Marx predicted—voting against their self-interests and asking for their own oppression.
Poor Bi-Polar, Narcissistic Kanye. It’s well known that if a person experiences the Numinus and has no “container” they go crazy. And if they try to gain one afterwards, they’re prone to becoming a jack-leg preacher. “Why go to Theology School–Jesus already ordained me!” These types only become increasingly mired in their crazy narcissism.
Talking with a young black ex-Marine the other day and he told me, “people are looking for a strong man—and they don’t really care if he’s Left or Right.” I was kind of stunned. Dreams for a “Strong Man” is the dream for a dictator. You don’t need external strength–you need to cultivate the strength within you… and in the larger tribe. Amazing how people can be trained to be their own worse enemy.
Healing gifts of Spiritual and Cultural Transformation
Black Americans should be the leaders in taking care of HIV/AIDS patients. Why? Because so many of us continue to be infected with AIDS. Integrity and morality are NOT “purity.” As the Chinese say, “Purity is the thief of morality” … because every human being is a complex mixture of Darkness and Light. Repression holds back growth and transformation and keeps internalized shame blocked in the body-mind and the culture.
We need to be leaders in taking care of Foster Children. Why? disproportionately so many of those Foster Children are black. We need to get more of us getting Masters Degrees in Social Work so we can create non-profits that care for them and hire other black people who done their healing / character building work so that the children won’t be further hurt.
“Bring forth that which is within you,
…and it will save you.
Fail to bring forth that which is within you,
…and it will destroy you.”
As Master Teacher and Black Historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke stated, “We have yet to have a ‘Sacrifice Generation.'” The sermon of the “Fishes and the Loaves” shows how even an incomplete sacrifice reaps bounty to those who give. We are conditioned by this shallow nation to look to “get” all the time, without realizing that our greatest gifts come from giving and sacrificing for family and culture.
Black Americans should be models of what service and gracious hospitality looks like. We’ve spend hundreds of years in bondage waiting on others and caring for each other because there was no one else to care for us. How did our Egos get so lazy and anemic?
And Black Americans need to get off the bullshit and realize we need ALL our tribes and people to bring their gifts to the table. This is a time like no other… a time where if we don’t get it together…. SOON…. the earth may kick Humans off the planet.
We need to evolve into Kings and Queen archetypes… not egotistically… but as maturing people who become Elders capable of joining with other Kings and Queens so that we can create the Royal Table to which ALL belong. Christianity once held out that promise, but it got co-opted by racism and greed by selfish, undeveloped people.
Remember every knight at King Arthur’s Table were equals to each other and the king. The center society… of culture is almost always “Traditional”… heterosexual men and women who raise children to carry on the species. But culture needs to be revitalized… and that’s where the outsiders come in. Those are the ones ones who see what the “normal” people do. They are the readers of tea leaves and those born too sensitive to function smoothly with the mainstream. The artist feel the Zeitgeist first. The artist before the poets and they before the philosophers. Often they are the Queer People. In medieval times, the Lord of the realm would view his serfs and put the most rowdy trouble making boys in the military and the most gentler souls in the monastery.
“Reality” is a construct. That means it’s engineered by the leaders who are powerful enough to do so. Some believe it takes 20 years to change a culture. People depending on television and popular music to give them a sense of culture will fail in navigating through the phases of life. They will not carry their genes on to the next generation–and if they do, the offspring will be wounded and dysfunctional.
“He who does not engineer his destiny
Shall have his destiny engineered for him.” ~ Joseph Campbell
Try again. Fail higher. We are not a people of materialism. Black people are not a people of criminality nor ignorance. We are a CREATIVE, intelligent people We have big hearts and curiosity. We have always worked hard because our ancestors walked out of Africa and peopled the world.
Black Farms 