The American Psychosis: A Quasi-Psychoanalysis of America’s Racial Roots and Practice

Let me preface this analysis by making a full disclosure: I am in no way, shape, form, or fashion, nor do I claim to be, certified or trained in the field of psychiatry, psychology, or sociology (I did take a few psychology classes and Sociology 101 in college). Hence, that is why this is a ‘quasi-psychoanalysis.’ My field of training is theology and biblical studies, but the LORD God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary (Isaiah 50:4 ESV). This is merely my personal insights and views of the origin of the racial issues and tensions in the United States of America.

On the outside, looking into the field of psychiatry and psychology, I noticed that one of the very first things those who are trained in those areas do to assess the extent of their patient’s abnormality is to analyze significant events in the patient’s childhood years. Therefore, in seeking to find the root of America’s racial problems, we need go back to America’s childhood.

Most people, who would eventually become Americans, voluntarily migrated from other areas of the world. They came to the land, that would eventually be called; America, seeking religious freedom and opportunity to better their lives and the lives of their descendants. However, Black people did not voluntarily come to America! While the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower, seeking freedom, the Black African people were brought over in chains, in the cargo-holds of slave-ships, for the expressed purpose to serve those who were seeking freedom! This was the beginning of the American psychosis! By the way, as a matter of definition, psychosis is defined as a serious mental illness (such as schizophrenia) characterized by defective or lost contact with reality often with hallucinations or delusions. So with that definition in mind, if we are honest, we must admit that it must have been a case of delusion, a ‘divorcement from reality’ for those who voluntarily came to these shores; seeking freedom, to involuntarily bring others to these shores as slaves! That sounds a little crazy to me! That sounds like a case of psychosis!

But not only was America delusional in practice in the beginning, she was delusional in principle also. In early July 1776, a document was formally approved that would become the bedrock of American independence and freedom. It was called: The Declaration of Independence. The most famous, and most often quoted part of that declaration is the second sentence, which states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Now, here is the hypocrisy and the psychosis of that formalized statement: The primary author; Thomas Jefferson, was one of the forty-one (41) of the fifty-six (56) signers who, at the very moment they signed the document, owned slaves! You draft and sign a formalized document declaring that it is self-evident, it’s obvious, that all men are created equal and that they have a God-given right of life, liberty (freedom), and the pursuit of happiness, yet you yourselves deny freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and the self-evident revelation of all men being created equal to Black people! That’s delusional! That’s a case of psychosis!

Now I don’t know what was going on in the mind of these men, but in order for them to be oblivious to the obvious hypocrisy they engaged in, several assumptions had to have been in play. First of all, since the statement specifically said; ‘all men are created equal,’ in their minds they must have assumed that Black men were not human! Or they wrote it with the unstated understanding that it was to only apply to ‘White’ men. Whatever the reason, it is obvious that America had its inception in racial psychosis! Whichever case was the truth, it may be an indication that it was never the original intent of the majority of the founding fathers for Black men to ever be free in America! Racial discrimination and inequity was ingrained into the DNA of America! The racial tension we are experiencing in America today is nothing new; America was born with this racial psychosis!

But in all fairness, I just said that 41 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were slave-owners, consequently, that means; 15 of the 56 were not! Among those 15 were abolitionists; people who were actively working to abolish slavery. Among those 15 were people who indeed wanted freedom for ‘every’ man in America! I brought this out because I don’t want you to see this critique as being an indictment against ‘all’ White Americans past and present. No! There were some White settlers and colonists who truly believed and sought to live-out, and fight for the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence to be true for all men, including Black men! There have always been some White Americans who were not and are not infected with the American psychosis!

It wasn’t long after the formation of America that many realized their indefensible position of Black non-humanity. When the first constitution was being formed, for the purpose of taxation, the number of seats a state would have in the Congress, and the number of electoral votes, there was a debate over how slaves would be counted. Although the Southern states legally deemed the slaves as property, if they were counted as ‘people’ the Southern states would have an over-whelming majority, clout, and power in Congress, but at the same time, they would have to bear a greater tax burden than the states that had no slaves! Thus a compromise was made that involved counting only 3/5th of the slave population as people for the purpose of taxation and representation. When you deny people their humanity, all sorts of complications and psychotic behaviors come into play!

The great divide in America, which eventually led to the Civil War was the slavery issue! In the Southern states, cotton was king! Much like the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs who forced the Hebrews slaves to build their cities, the economy of the South was built on the bedrock of free slave labor! In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, a fundamental economic difference existed between the country’s northern and southern regions. In the North, manufacturing and industry was well established, and agriculture was mostly limited to small-scale farms, while the South’s economy was based on a system of large-scale farming that depended on the labor of black slaves to grow certain crops, especially cotton and tobacco. Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery’s extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of slavery in America—and thus the backbone of their economy—was in danger.

According to an article on History.com: “In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro- and anti-slavery forces struggled violently in “Bleeding Kansas,” while opposition to the act in the North led to the formation of the Republican Party, a new political entity based on the principle of opposing slavery’s extension into the western territories. After the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the “peculiar institution” that sustained them. Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months seven southern states–South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas–had seceded from the United States.” The obvious irony in that article that jumps out at me is the fact that the Republican Party was actually birthed as part of the anti-slavery movement in America, while the Democratic Party is the descendant of the old Dixie-crats of the South! Another example of the American psychosis!

I don’t mean to bore you with a long-drawn-out history of America’s racial issues, but I highlighted these early events to shed light on the fact that America was formed, birthed and achieved world dominance in the backdrop of and on the backs of Black slaves! There are many today who are promoting the slogan: “Make America Great Again!” The truth of the matter is: America HAS NEVER BEEN GREAT for the Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow people living in America! America’s so-called greatness was achieved at their expense! Every gain Black people have achieved in America has been through blood, sweat, tears and struggle! The truth the country’s fore-fathers talked about that were endowed by the Creator, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have never been ‘given’ to Black people! Whatever degree of those attributes Black America might possess have been purchased with blood, sweat, tears and lives!

When I saw the image of George Floyd, laying on the ground, with his hands, hand-cuffed behind his back, with three White police officers placing the full weight of their bodies on his back and neck, and one other officer standing guard to make sure there was no interference, to me, it was a picture that epitomizes the 400-year-struggle of Black America! The weight of racial bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination has been consistently weighing heavily on the backs of Black America! While there are White Americans, who proclaim to be innocent by not actively adding to the weight, they are complicit in that they have turned their backs to the obvious injustices and pretend they don’t see or that these issues don’t even exist! Just like the police officer, with his back turned to the crime, they symbolically stand guard to maintain the status quo!

How can the issue be resolved? The answer is simple, yet complex at the same time! Just do the right thing! Just resolve to live-out the true meaning of the original creed that was written in psychotic-hypocrisy: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men, not just White men, but Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow men as well, are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” I don’t pretend to have all of the answers as to how this can be practically done! But I do know that it will not be done in any form or fashion until there is an acknowledgement of the possibility that many of the original authors of that creed were suffering from a form of psychosis! How could the author of such words write and believe them while, at the same time, owning slaves, which was the very antithesis of the statement? Answers: (1) selective delusion (psychosis), (2) denial of Black man’s humanity (psychosis)! As long as there are a substantial number of White Americans who refuse to acknowledge this psychosis, the problem will persist! As long as there are a substantial number of White Americans who insist on blaming the victim to justify police brutality and injustice; the problem will persist!

I was about to end this article with that point, but I thought about another sign of psychosis that often rears its ugly head in American society. There are some White Americans who say that if Black Americans are so dissatisfied with their life in America, then why don’t they go back to Africa? How delusional can you be? Black Americans did not voluntarily come to America; they were involuntarily ripped from their native lands and brought here, in the holds of cargo ships, packed like sardines, chained as slaves! They worked as slaves, under inhumane conditions to build the economy and structure of America, not to benefit themselves, but to benefit their slave-masters! As time progressed, they work harder for less pay! They sacrificed the most and benefited the least! They were the last hired and the first fired! Whatever America is, she would not be half of what she is were it not for the free labor of slaves and subsequent unpaid and underpaid contributions of Black Americans! And then, some White people have the audacity, the gall, the nerve, the stupidity, the historically uninformed lack of reality to tell Black people to go back to Africa? Black Americans have a stake and interest in this country that has been paid for with the very lives of Black people! How dare those who have benefit the most have the audacity to even suggest that those who have paid and sacrificed the most for their benefit, leave! Not only the suggestion, but even the thought if it, suggest a severe case of psychosis! America needs help! American needs to heal! America needs to spend some time on the psychological couch to free her of her historical and current racial psychosis!

The ‘Good’ of the Trump Presidency

I originally posted this on my Facebook page:

The Bible says that all things work together for the good for them that love God, the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). So how is the Trump presidency and the current political and social climate working for the good of those that love God? After some introspection, here are my thoughts:

1. The exposure of religious hypocrisy: No matter how one may claim to represent God, acting in a manner that is contrary to the nature and will of God indicates you really don’t believe in the God you claim to represent. The actions of the Trump administration and the climate it fosters forces the church in America to decide, in the sight of God and the rest of the world, if it is going to truly be like Jesus or be like the Scribes and Pharisees! If a church or faith group endorses or is silent toward the racist, hateful, and inhumane actions that are currently being perpetrated and encouraged by the present administration, then they prove themselves, for all rational thinking people to see, NOT to be the real church or the real representatives of the God of the Bible! Now actually, this is a good thing, because now we have the opportunity to know who is really real and for all hypocrites to be exposed for the hypocrites they have always been!

2. The exposure of political hypocrisy: Now we see who are statesmen and who are politicians! A statesman does what he or she thinks is good and right for the country; a politician only does what serves his or her self-interests and the interests of the people who financed their campaign. A statesmen puts the good of the country before the pride and ego of political parties. The politician will defend his or her party to death; even if their position is wrong and evil! The statesmen’s politics is influenced and tempered by their morality; the politician bends and manipulates their morality to fit their politics!

3. The exposure of social hypocrisy: After all these years; race is still the number one social issue in America! Why? Because America refuses to acknowledge her historical hypocrisy! America refuses to acknowledge that much of her greatness was achieved unfairly with unpaid slave labor! America refuses to acknowledge that she has historically manipulated belief in the God she claims to trust to justify her social and political evils! Racism is WRONG! And any social, political, or religious system that supports it is WRONG!

If you are uncomfortable with the way things are in America today; that’s good, because you should be! But don’t ever think for a second that Donald Trump is to bear all of the blame! No! The biases and racist filth that have risen to the surface since the Trump campaign and presidency were there all the time; Donald Trump just created a climate wherein they can be more easily seen, recognized and expressed! So in a sense, the Trump mantra of “Make America Great Again” presents America with the opportunity to shed the hypocrisy, because in the true moral and social sense; America has never been great for all Americans! But now, since everything is so blatant and obvious; we have the opportunity to work together to truly make America great. . . for the very first time!

The Charleston Revival?

charleston monumentOn the evening of June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof; an avowed white supremacist, entered the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and sat for almost an hour in a Bible Class. At some point, he got up from his seat, began uttering racial slurs and proceeded to shoot and assassinate nine Black people in room! Among the dead was the pastor of the church, who also happened to have been a state senator. Some say that this was an attack against Christianity, but the shooter has admitted that his motivation was not religion, it was race and his intent was to start a race war!

 
But I would like to think that Dylann Roof has indeed started something, but it is something far removed from his original intent! I am reminded of what Joseph told his brothers when they stood before him as he administered food to them in Egypt: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good. . .” (Gen. 50:20 NKJ). I am praying to God that this event, which Dylann Roof perpetrated with the intent of starting a race war will indeed start a real racial dialogue that, in turn will stimulate a real revival! A revival of love that will supplant the smothering racial oppression that is yet alive and well in America today! There is evidence of the potential revival already apparent! The statements from the various families of the victims expressing forgiveness; that’s evidence of a potential revival! A renewed discussion about the removal of the Confederate flag from state buildings and state flags in the southern states; that is evidence of a potential revival!

 
Race is an issue that we don’t like to talk about in America today! Many would like to think that just because we have a Black President, all the major racial issues of the past have been resolved; but the fact of the matter is: they haven’t! In fact, I believe much of the opposition and criticisms weighted against President Obama are so, simply because he is Black! No other president has had to endure such ridiculously childish and unfounded opposition from Congress and others! We can pretend that it is simply politics if we want to; but the real truth is that many White Americans just can’t stomach a Black President! Even in 2015, the racial division in America is very much real!

 
Evidence that racial division is real was seen even in the apprehension and arrest of the Charleston shooter! He was not treated in a rough manner and was even reportedly given a hamburger from Burger King by a sheriff’s deputy when he said he was hungry! The bikers in Waco, TX, were seen sitting comfortably on the sidewalk with police standing casually nearby! But whenever there are Black suspects, police respond with riot gear and violence! When the police arrived at the scene of a pool party, they immediately zeroed in on the Black kids, chasing them down and treating them roughly while totally ignoring the White kids who were there! Oh yes! We STILL HAVE A RACE PROBLEM in America today! Do you honestly think if it had been a White church and a Black suspect, the police would have responded the same? Do you honestly think they would have given a Black suspect a hamburger? If you do, then you are part of the reason the racial issues have not been resolved! Issues that are denied and therefore not addressed can never be resolved!

 
But let me get back to my point! I didn’t write this article to vent my frustrations over the racial issues in America. I did write it to point out that the Charleston shooting has the potential of being the start of a real dialogue and an honest effort to deal with the elephant in the room that America wants to deny the existence of! In the Bible, death often preceded life. May the blood of the Charleston Nine, like the blood of Jesus, be a source of revival and new life! May the blood of Pastor Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Sharonda Singleton, Dr. Daniel L. Simmons, Ethel Lee Lance, Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Tywanza Sanders, Susie Jackson, and Depayne Middleton-Doctor cry out from the ground and remind all of us that we are indeed; our brother’s keeper and motivate us to make this country indeed a place of justice and racial equality! May their deaths indeed be the source of a revival of real racial brotherhood!

“Houston; We Have A Problem!!!”

mission controlI remember years ago, whenever there was a major situation on board the command module of the Apollo space flights, the astronauts would always radio back to earth with this message: “Houston; we have a problem!” Well, in just the past couple of years, it’s been Trayvon Martin in Florida, Micheal Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, and now, Freddie Gray in Maryland, not to mention the countless others whose names I can’t recall and others who did not make the national headlines! It is fairly obvious to me that we have a problem! It is a systemic problem that springs from the core of America’s soul!

I was about to write a post about this when I came across this Facebook post from Benjamin Watson, who plays tight-end for the New Orleans Saints. I think Mr. Watson is right on with his assessment of the situation, so I’m going to let him speak for himself. The following is his Facebook post from April 29, 2015:

Benjamin Watson suit Benjamin Watson uniform“We have major problems as a nation. Yesterday Ferguson burned. Tonight ‪#‎Baltimore‬ burns. Tomorrow it will be another city in our homeland. Watching the coverage I’m hearing yet another version of a nauseatingly familiar narrative. Violence by police reciprocated by violence by the community, reciprocated by violence by police reciprocated by…. It seems fruitless to continue to analyze, condemn, and respond to these dreadful episodes. “Frustration, anger, tension boiling over, upset and unfortunate” are words we hear from Baltimore residents. When it comes to law enforcement, race, poverty, education, immigration we always talk about fixing “broken” systems. We resolve to legislate for education, job creation, and systemic overhaul. These are helpful and definitely needed BUT we have done all of these things ad nauseum and look at us!! Without a change of heart these attempts fail us. So what can we say? What can we do? Systems are broken because people are broken and if systems are fixed without hearts being changed the result will be a legalistic attempt that will lack long term results. Our problems are wholistic and common to the human heart. Hatred, prejudice, exploitation, pride, self righteousness, secrecy, and rebellion, manifest itself in the explosions we’ve seen over the last year, the last century, and the last millennia.

Tonight I see so much entrenched pain without remedy. Most are handling it without violence while a few are committing the unacceptable.
Tonight I see young children, asking like my daughter did earlier, “What’s happening daddy”, in desperate need of parents to walk them through these disturbing scenes.
Tonight I see “smoke,” but we must address the fire. The response that we are watching is just “smoke” from years of hopelessness. After each situation the more I am convinced that the love of God for our fellow brothers and sisters who were created in His image, is our only hope for reconciliation. But the only way we can even see him that way is if God illuminates our view and changes our thought process. I’m not talking about holding hands and singing. Love is an action that compels one to treat another with dignity and respect even if they don’t deserve it. It pushes for education and opportunities for those in poverty. It gives identity and self worth. It administers justice without abuse. It honors authority and promotes peace. It is not weak, but strong for what is right!
Tonight I see a brokenness that only Christ can give us the wisdom and power to mend.

We pray for every disaster that happens to us. Bombings, natural disasters, cancer and outbreaks. What we’ve seen in our country lately deserves that same attention. Our attempts to fix this have fallen short.
We, and most importantly, the body of Christ, must stand for justice in all areas, for all people. We must set the standard for the correct way to treat people.

Tonight I pray for the pastors, leaders, police and community of Baltimore.
Tonight I ‪#‎PrayForAmerica‬.”

Thank you Mr. Watson, for sharing your insightful analysis!