Beyond Black Rage/White Supremacy

Anger and rage are the dominant emotions expressed at the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group sessions to recover from the addiction to white supremacy. The initial emotion is joy due to the relief and excitement of persons finding themselves in a safe space to express themselves, finally and freely.
Dr. M, aka, Marvin X and Land of My Daughters (poets Aries and Toya Jordan)
photo Gene Hazzard

The consensus is such a space has been long overdue and why has it taken so long to figure out the solution to an unbearable situation of stultification. What a relief to be in a space where persons can speak and be heard, accepted and not rejected or told they are too angry or too emotional.

Poetically speaking, it is as though they have been standing in the rain but finally someone has arrived with an umbrella. As each addict to white supremacy does his/her check-in, anger is clearly the dominant emotion, with women expressing the most severe degree of outrage, the men maintain their well known cool pose until they go deeper into their testimony, then we see their rage equals if not surpasses that of the women.

There are those of both genders who want to do acts of violence to white society. They are pissed at the hostile environment on the job and want to attack their boss or co-workers. Again, they are overjoyed to be in a space where their anger can be expressed without recrimination.

There are those upset at the recent arrival of white people in the hood. They don’t understand why the white people are there, how they got there, and why nothing can be done to get them out, such as burning down their houses or even burning crosses on their lawns, such is the severity of the rage—totally irrational, making those addicted a danger to themselves and others.

Some of the blacks addicted to white supremacy are angry at other blacks. They cannot understand the negative behavior of blacks, why they are killing each other nightly, why youth are out of control, or why the police harass them for simply being black.

Of course violence is the ultimate result of anger and rage, and there are quite a few men and women forced into court mandated anger management classes. Homicide and suicide are clearly on the rise, especially as we slip into the worldwide recession/depression, for tension is heightened, frustration is deep because many persons cannot decipher a solution to their economic woes.

Misplaced aggression is the order of the day because the cause is never attacked such as blood sucking oil companies, scheming and scamming mortgage companies who graciously gave sub-prime loans only to foreclose, and the perennial wage slave bosses.

More often the object of rage is the wife, another brother or sister in the hood who is just as frustrated as the victimizer. Obama’s run for president has given hope to some in the hood, but many can see how racism is tearing him down at every turn, even his wife has been attacked for saying only of late is she proud being an American, as if we owe America the Nobel peace prize for oppressing us through the centuries down to the present moment.