Posted on 10/15/2005 12:20:23 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
No, this is not about the Rev. Louis Farrakhan and his march in D.C. Instead, it’s about an article today (15 October) in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer entitled, “ 'Slave syndrome' may still affect black behavior.” The thesis of the professor appears in the early paragraphs:
“The troubling images of African Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans' impoverished neighborhoods didn't startle researcher Joy DeGruy-Leary. ‘All Katrina did was reveal what was already there. I wasn't confused, wasn't surprised,’ she said....
“DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor in Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work, will discuss her theory of the relationship between race, culture, poverty and history today at the third Seattle Race Conference and tonight in a separate talk. Her theory of "post-traumatic slave syndrome" concludes that African Americans needed to adapt to survive more than two centuries of slavery, and that those adaptations are reflected in their behaviors today.”
Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/244686_seattlerace15.html
There are two problems with this professor’s “slave” thesis, neither of them noticed or mentioned in this article. The first is that emotional reactions are not biologically inherited by children, much less great-great-great-great-grandchildren. If you go back far enough, all Americans are descended from humans who bashed in the brains of other humans, and had no aversion to cooking and eating them for dinner. Those traits are exceptionally rare among modern Americans.
The second error in the article is this: the history of race relations in Seattle itself demonstrates that the professor’s theory is a vat of snake oil, designed to deceive rather than inform. Washington State was one of the areas from which Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put in prison camps without charges or trials, at the beginning of World War II. The specific story about Puget Sound was told in the book, Snow Falling on Cedars.
Surely this reporter was aware of that. The broader story is told in the book, Manzanar, about the imprisonment of approximately 110,000 Japanese-Americans for no crime, for racial reasons only. These people, most of them American citizens, lost all or most of their property and remained in prison until 1944-1945. They were treated no better than slaves for the time of their imprisonment.
And yet, Japanese-Americans today are among the highest of all demographic groups in their achievements and success, measured by any standard. If the professor’s theory about a “slave” syndrome had an ounce of truth to it, damaging effects should appear in the Japanese-American community in Seattle itself. But they don’t. That strongly suggests that the professor’s thesis is false, and that the reporter and his editor missed the story that was right in front of them
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Wait a minute. It does sound better!
And since I'm of Slavic heritage, last of the peons in Europe to be freed from slavery, and from whence the term 'slave' come from....
WooHoo! I'm owed reparations!!!!
Isn't that something many of us know, and the Liberals want to hide? I forget the exact numbers, but among people who get at least a high school education, get a job (even minimum wage), stay off drugs, and get married before having children, only 15% are poor (regardless of race). Of those who don't, 85% are poor.
And more African-Americans than whites or Asians fail to do those things.
The facts don't suit the Liberal agenda - they put the responsibility on the individual. The Liberals need to have a "downtrodden" class, otherwise they have no claim to power. And African-Americans are willing to fill that role.
Yes there is, however I would think the linkage is more culturally based than genetic if that's where you were going.
Regards,
GtG
PS As my sainted Great-Granny used to say;"Die Welt ein besserer Platz würde mit deutschen Weisen sein."
This is along the same lines of the so called "black rage" defence.Remember the man who killed white pasangers on a bus(?)several yrs ago?His attorney claimed an uncontrolable rage against whites(because he felt opressed)drove him to kill.I don't think the jury bought it.IMO,people who believe this tripe simply want to believe it.As far as Katrina is concerned,the press went out of their way to MAKE Katrina a racial issue.They propagated the unfounded rumors of wholesale rape and murder.
Huh?
The ex-slave immigrants from the Caribbean Islands now in New York don't act this way. They also have a higher average income in NY than the average white income. One immigrant was quoted as saying: "Isn't America great, all you have to do to get rich is work."
The ex-slave BS is for the birds and intended to elicit another level of give aways for people who refuse to work and be responsible for themselves.
Yeah, and how about post Potato Famine syndrome. It makes me want to have a drink.
Nice. Thanks for the pointer.
The terrorist quote bothers me because it is annoyingly euphemistic. The poverty quote is an insidious talking point for reparationists.
Come on; How can you demand reparations for welfare syndrome???? Sarcasm / wide and deep
You are so very correct however a word to the wise I made the same point about three weeks ago and congressman billybob lit me up as a racist.
The African-American culture is a mixed-race culture, like most if not all Native-American cultures today. A mix of traditions and the surviving Africian traditon is less important than the American experience. Its a southern culture. Many years ago I read a Scientific American article which had it that one-third of all white southern families had some back/indian ancesters and two-thirds of black families had some white.indian ancestors.
Wow. That is a seriously good point.
Oh I had a good laugh when I read that line!! As my sister who is a teacher informs her students: The first slaves in America were the Irish. They were at Jamestown.
So does that mean that all the Irish in this country are suffering from "post-traumatic slave syndrome"?
I have to laugh everytime I see that!!
Thanks! I have that tome upstairs...
What we saw yesterday, is the renegade remnants of that failed war, fighting a rear guard action.
They are like the Japanese soldiers who holed up on Pacific islands for years after V-J day, except these losers get on Tee Vee.
Just starting the thread, but my reaction is that was W's "jump the shark" moment.
I heard it live, fell out of my chair and screamed so loud that I scared my dog and alarmed my family!
The sub-culture of which she speaks is an inner-city phenomenon; made worse by the constant engineering of neighborhoods by people whose motives largely arise from a personal guilt made manifest by their own unearned success.
Recent masss-immigration by people even poorer upon arrival will put the lie to poverty as a primary cause of poor social behavior at the same time these very same neighborhoods undergo a demographic shift where the culture dominant will be either replaced or drowned out by the din of the marketplace.
Traditionally black neighborhoods in Los Angeles have become almost monolithically brown in the last two decades and the schools reflect the shift in population patterns.
Take away the drug trade and many of these neighborhoods are found to be remarkably improving from the riot prone 60s.
Not surprisingly a great number of the displaced blacks in this movement returned to the south where their parents were born and where many of the now fleeing lived as children.
The problem is that there is no overarching black culture there or anywhere and many if not most lack job skills or even the trendy life skills now purported to be taught in our public schools as this pattern of nomadic and systematic failure progresses.
In New Orleans the poor moved until they reached to water's edge, but because the delta had sunk below the water line, there was still no line on the horizon of hope, success or even long-term survival.
When the money's gone and the new paint begins to fade, the new New Orleans will resemble more the old, tired isolation than the bright face of brotherhood.
I'm afraid you are correct. But, I sometimes get a hopeful thought. I had a thread called "A Tale of Two Shelters" in the immediate post Katrina.
I saw the good side of our humanity on display. It is there. And needs no government programs or so-called leaders.
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