The Hidden Hand

In order to examine the modern American black man, we have to travel back to 1712. Participating in this intellectual voyage is an essential part of understanding the societal role and behavior American Black men exhibit. There is an extremely important letter from this time period that we can connect to the social structure of the Black community. https://archive.org/stream/WillieLynchLetter1712/the_willie_lynch_letter_the_making_of_a_slave_1712_djvu.txt

“I use fear, distrust and envy for control”

WILLIE LYNCH — a vicious British slave owner who gained notoriety for the way he ran his plantation in the West Indies. As he stood on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia he gave simple, yet diabolical instructions on how to control our people for generations. These methods are no longer used — correct? That assumption is very wrong. People believe that he created a systematic way of controlling slaves. However, after taking a closer look at the dynamics within the Black Community and the Willie Lynch letter, it is far worse than we imagined. With the techniques that he introduced he actually designed a “sub-world”. A “sub-world” is a subculture within the majority culture. We still live in this sub-world today. This specialized bubble that we live in is comprised of fears, given customs, beliefs, and behaviors in which the black community still blindly functions under.

Welcome to the Conditioned Sub-World

When you open your mind and take a deeper look, you will see the strings. Within this separate world we can see the scattered remains of his teachings. In his letter he states “In this frozen psychological state of independence, she will raise her male and female offspring in reversed roles”. By this statement he meant that through fear for the life of her son, she will raise him to be mentally weak and physically strong for labor. Take a moment and think, how many relatives or people you know who were raised on the illusion of masculinity. How many mothers do you know who are subconsciously still exhibiting that fear for their sons life. The evidence is found in the households where thirty and forty year old men still live with their mothers. The concept of a “mamas boy” has taken a wrong turn. Today mothers let him (her son) run her household, which gives him the illusion of masculinity, but he is still under her watch and not free to the world. How many of us know men with children who still live at home with their mothers? In that same instance we know women who had children at early ages and were put out. Black mothers are not the only ones pulling the illusion string. The new plantation could possibly be more damaging to the masculinity of Black Men.

Let’s take a tour of the New Plantation, to your left you will see the Prison system

In order to observe masculinity in this light, we have to understand that it is shaped by social settings. James W. Messerschmidt lists three different variations of masculinity found on the New Plantation — ”rats”, “merchants”, and “gorilla”. The merchants are the inmates that deal materials within the prison and the “gorilla” is the inmate that uses violence to advance their own agenda. One of the main methods of building alliances is through rape. Through the constant domination of one man, you now have the constant submission of another. The New Plantation atmosphere is extremely hostile due to the continuous competition for domination. This kind of competitiveness would seem to be mentally damaging because of the persistent challenge to something that is truly individually defined. Just like the household within our Sub-World that is giving the illusion of masculinity, the New Plantation is playing that same string. Even though a male might feel he has displayed his dominance through violence and rape he is still truly not in control. An inmate might have control over a few other inmates but ultimately he is still ruled by the guards and the guards are ruled by the warden. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3InK6Ue6ot4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA67&dq=prison+masculinity&ots=nFlw5toa2C&sig=Eos9yBmpLhwqUaft2st56Nnzv0A#v=onepage&q=prison%20masculinity&f=false

“Buck Breaking” Breakdown

The scattered pieces of “buck breaking” is plaguing our community through prison culture. Prison culture and the structure is identical to the design of a plantation. The intense environment is the same as well. “Buck Breaking” is a method that was used by slave owners to strike fear in the witnessing slaves. This same procedure is used today. It is the process of brutally beating an individual in front of a group of people to incite fear and a sense of dominance. There is a hidden part of buck breaking. During slavery, after the male was beaten, the slave master would rape him in front of a group of people — including the black mans wife and children. After the individual was raped, he was forced to wear his clothes below his waist as a signal to other slave owners that he was already broken. This same signal is a huge part of prison culture.

The Spillover……..

Unfortunately, this environment is leaking over into our Sub-World. Men who are released from prison are psychologically damaged from that strenuous atmosphere. The same hierarchy of masculinity is present in our community upon their release. Prison culture is a major part of our community. This struggle for control can be found within gangs. Even the issue of sagging pants is one of the pieces of prison culture and it symbolizes the willingness to have sex with other men. Even though we would like to associate sagging with hip hop and a certain image, we can not change it’s original meaning. Within this system black men become psychologically weak and physically strong. This happens through the process of breaking the strong. Inmates who challenge the true authority within prison are taught a lesson. This can also happen as soon as an inmate enters prison to immediately display who is in command. Even once an individual is freed they still have to adhere to the same illusion of dominance. That person has to live with another person or a halfway house and abide by their rules, report to a parole officer, and for some people they have to wear a tether. The autonomy of the black male is lost in a hallucination.