When I was little, and someone would insult me, I was taught to say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Well, if that wasn't the biggest lie. Words do hurt. And long after the bones heal up and the bruises disappear, the hurt and pain inflicted upon me by words linger. As a matter of fact, I still feel the pain from certain things that have been spoken to me, no matter how much I try to "get over it" and move on. The fact is, words do hurt us as individuals, and as a collective body.
In my African American literature class, somebody always makes the statement, "Man, I couldn't be no slave. It was more of us than them. How could folk just let themselves be slaves?" First, I tell my students that it is very dangerous to judge the past based on present-day standards. Second, while African Americans have done a wonderful job of attacking the external injustices of slavery and racism, we have NEVER attacked the psychological. Not only have we failed to addressed the psychological, we don't even mention it. The chains that bound slaves were not that strong, but certain slave narratives describe the psychological horrors and traumas which kept them enslaved.
If we recall, the case Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was won on a psychological test case. Lawyers presented little Black girls with two dolls: one white and one Black. The little girls overwhelmingly responded that the little white doll was prettier and just all-around better than the Black boy. Though this evidence was used to win the case, actual work to reverse this type of thinking was never done. So, we had the 1970s where we said it out loud, "I'm Black and I'm proud." We had bell-bottoms, Afros, dashikis, and African-inspired names. But, there was no real work behind all of that, and all of it boiled down to nothing but a few catchy phrases, a new Hollywood movie industry, and fashion fads.
Fast-forward to the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and we're right back where we started from psychologically. Every day, young, Black people say things to indicate that we're still shackled mentally by the chains of slavery. For instance, I went to an all-Black elementary and high school, and the children teased me about my "soup-cooling" lips from kindergarten to senior year. And looking back, I can't help but wonder where these Black children learned so much self-hatred. Even when I'm teaching at the community college, I still hear statements like, "She's pretty cute for a dark-skinned girl." Well, that's what the mouth says. What the world's ears hear is, "By default, all dark-skinned people are ugly, but since this girl looks good, she's an exception to the rule."
One of my students even "testified" in class that she had to go to court because another girl vandalized her car. The girl painstakingly etched in the words, "Pretty Bitch," "White girl," and "Bitch" into my student's car. According to my student, once inside the courtroom, the judge asked this girl what would possess her to do such things. The girl replied, "She think she better than us. She's trying to be white." If I had a quarter for every time I've heard that, I'd be a millionaire. When African Americans try to change our lives, or to better our economic situation, we get charged with being "bourgeoisie" or "acting white." So, that's what the mouth say. What the world's ears hear is, "By default, white people are better than us, so when we try to better ourselves, we aspire to whiteness." Or, "Acting a like a low-class trollop signifies Blackness, so when I act as if I have some home-training with common manners, that signifies whiteness."
The last two and the ones which chap my ass the most are "good hair," and the way we use the word, "Black." When we say "good hair," many of us mean that our hair resembles that of Europeans. But in order for something to be "good," another thing must be "bad," and the "bad" in this case is African-textured hair. Just because the hair is not straight or is more like yarn than silk, we label it as "bad." As a consequence, African Americans are the only people in the world who have a label for the hair God gave us. The chemically altered hair has become our default. To wear our hair the way God intended is considered out of the norm, so we have a label called "natural." We are the only ethnicity who have labeled hair products for "natural" hair. We are the only people in the world who use our skin color as an insult. We all grew up hearing stuff like "Get your Black ass in here." One common insult in my hometown is, "Black bastard," or "Black dog." I have never heard Asian Americans tell their children to get their yellow asses somewhere or call someone a yellow bastard. Just us.
Because America does not value the lives of Black men, neither do we. Yes, the Trayvon Martin case is a tragedy, but I'm upset any time a young, Black man is shot in the street. Why does the color of the finger pulling the trigger have to be white for us to care and get upset? Last week, Chicago had 40 homicides, most of them Black men. If we don't care about our lives, why should anybody else value them?
How could I make such a broad assessment? I've already demonstrated to you. The language that we use speaks volume. And it says to me and all who listen with the mind's ear that African Americans are psychologically stuck on the plantation. When I hear such insults and read such stories as the one in Chicago, I think it's safe to say that we never left…at least that's what our mouths say. And the sad part is, my students tell me all the time, "You thinking on it too deep. We don't think about it that deep." I always respond, "Maybe that's the problem. We're not thinking before we speak."
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