I happened upon an article in a local publication that asks and addresses the question: “Are We Carrying Around the Baggage of the Black Codes?” First, what are “Black Codes?” Black Codes are a compilation of laws which target people of color, stemming from the pre-Civil rights era belief and acceptance of the supposed inferiority of Blacks and the superiority of other races. “Black Codes helped create and enforced a negative and stereotypical belief system among Black people that they are inferior and slightly less than human.”
Among the most intriguing questions posed in the article, this one struck a cause for collaboration, “Although not actually enforced today, do these laws still linger among us, dictating our daily lives?” My personal observation and analysis would answer yes. These laws were engineered to create a social structure which would embed, over generations, into the black psyche that they were inferior, subservient, submissive, and subordinate…these are characterized by total compliance and/or absolute obedience to the white race. We’ve been collectively brainwashed.
CHEW ON THIS…a Georgia physician back in that day named Dr. Samuel W. Cartwright invented a “syndrome” to explain slave resistance. It was called ‘drapetomania’, a “disease” which caused Negro slaves to run away! The entire psychological profession enforced this and Black people were treated as such! Black people were taught that they have a mental illness if they chose to try and be free. Imagine that… the invention of a disease to describe a people who fought for their own basic rights. Was this a deliberate action? Did ‘folks’ actually sit around and think and devise ways to oppress and dehumanize Black people? Were their actions rooted in logic?
DIG THIS: “It is unlawful for any business or individual to extend credit to any person of color.” Even today, 100 years after this law, we still have a difficult time obtaining credit from institutions. We are still the targets of unfair practices and procedures. As a direct result, only 15% of Blacks in Georgia are homeowners. Blacks are shown to be the lesser within all economic analysis, even while making up a majority of the population in any given area…whether it be for ownership of property or businesses and the so-called American dream in general.
There’s very much more to speak of concerning these “Black Codes.” We collectively realize that it’s not our fault, that we’ve been brainwashed. We know that we’re the product of sociological and psychological dysfuntion due to oppression, aggression, depression and a whole lot more. We know we’ve been “taught” and “taught well” how to hate ourselves, distrust ourselves, distrust each other, accept mediority, etc, and love and trust the white man and talk about all the wonderful things he does for us! We talk about these things all the time, and many of us live our lives according to this teaching.
I shall end here. But I shall end by saying this…kudos to you Akeelah. Bravo to you Stella in getting your groove back. It’s okay to be brilliant. It’s okay to excel. It’s okay to be an independent thinker. It’s okay to fight the power. It’s okay to be afraid but jump in the water anyway. It’s okay if you can’t play basketball. It’s okay to be okay. It’s okay. Really. We will, I believe, become a “true” people and will come “out of the matrix.”
Coming Up Next Week…”Never ask Christians for spare change when they’re getting outta church!”