Black self worth and community values and mores still suffer from the disease of slavery. It is not an excuse or a plea of victimhood to understand and recognize this truth.
by Gregory Thrasher
Of late in the terrain of social commentary there has been a resurgence of the topic of internal racial themes within Black America. One of the themes has been the discussion of class and Black personalities like the Uncle Tom, a/k/a the modern day Black Apologist.
Any candid discourse and examination of race within the Black community must be viewed from the platform of minority and majority themes. Black Americans are a distinct cultural minority collective that suffered through one of America’s domestic holocausts, in a white nation.
The legacy of white supremacy in America has been lethal it stings and wounds even in the “post-racial era” of an Obama’s tenure in the white house. The pathology of racism not only is lethal for those who are victimized by it, but this evil also causes damages to those who authored white privilege and white supremacy.
For the Black folks who are stained and contaminated with white racism it produces a number of outcomes and side effects: hopelessness, anger, despair, militancy and the like. The drama of personalities like the Uncle Tom are not new in the Black community.
One of the incarnations of a community subject to the pathology of white racism in our nation is the character of an Uncle Tom, a person whose self esteem is only measured by his acceptance and validation from whites. Despite the conventional themes about the negative portrayal of Uncle Toms. In our history the Uncle Tom was not always a terrible figure. People ignore how talented they were in navigating and leveraging their race status during the plantation and post slavery eras in America.
These personalities in very oppressive situations produced effective outcomes from elevated employment opportunities on the plantation to creative tactics in avoiding and deflecting the wrath from racist whites. The Uncle Tom was a living exercise, a role model in how to manage the lethal system of slavery while creating effective strategies to excel in this inhumane and oppressive paradigm.
Some Uncle Toms were/are tragic personalities, but they would not exist unless there was white supremacy and the pathology of white privilege in America. The intra-cultural clash that exists in many Black communities, families, fraternities, organizations, churches and related groups is linked to the institution of slavery in America. This evil complex altered and influenced the very essence of family and social life in America for Black folks. All the words, studies, classes, novels, lectures will never be able to comprehend or give a full measure to the impact of this holocaust on Black Americans.
Black self worth and community values and mores still suffer from the disease of slavery. It is not an excuse or a plea of victimhood to understand and recognize this truth. Black victimhood, class envy, petty jealousy, twisted rage and even some degree of Black crime, parenting, goal shaping, psychosis, all of these relations and conditions have origins in the creation of an America that viewed Black folks as inferior beings not worthy of basic humanity.
The saga of the Black Uncle Tom shares a shelf life with White racism in our nation; it is a pathological scar, obstacle and part of the cultural DNA that still wounds and inflicts many even in the post-racial era of America.
Gregory Thrasher is a blogger and the director of Plane Ideas. You can reach him at planeidea@msn.com.
There is nothing ‘post racial’ about America so Uncle Tom gonna be who Uncle Tom is.
In a post racial era people often hide behind, pc’s, alias, and many cloaks and masks..
We need to up our game on political analysis and stop reacting to someone acting like an Uncle Tom. If we had a sound political standard from which to judge, the vast majority of our people wouldn’t be constantly going through the motions of getting hoodwinked. The truth of the matter is our standard isn’t universal. We accept whats given then complain about it when it doesn’t serve us. If we had the Unity we needed all Uncle Toms would only have a White constituency and a few like minded Negros.
If it doesn’t benefit the people as a whole, then don’t support the what-ifs of politics, have a standard. Class analysis must be applied internally so you can spot the people who would sellout the long-term interest of the group for their own short-term individual goals.In the words of the poet Heru, “Be for who who be for you”.
As far as Uncle-Tomism go the best way to classify an uncle Tom is not as some type of negro survivalist but more so an individual who wants to integrate with his perpetual victimizer and take on his identity in relationship to his own people. That Identity being in its manifestation inside the uncle tom one of escapist, irrational, self-hatred that is coupled with the emulation of the petty power of his master has over him as an oppressor. That the Uncle Tom then exhibits amongst his own people. All of this while suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and a Negative Identity crisis. The Uncle Tom also uses collectivizing phraseology and idioms on possessions that remain outside his or her’s given groups ownership and control.
Brilliant analysis, Unk. Transform the Kwanza mythology into a workable methodology! We definitely can up the game for individual responsibility to reclaim our place as a collective force to again balance this dysfunctional humanity. Heal, and break away from the Stockhlolm Syndrome. Thanks for the inspiration information. JahHannibal Abba-Ra
What a tragic figure. A booty kisser for a few crumbs. A sound way of bojangeling in the corporate world. A mid-level ‘nothing’ to himself and the world. Yuck! I can’t do it, won’t do it, and will never live to respect myself and I did it.
White folks RESPECT black people who respect THEMSELVES.
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