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
John / Billybob
Facts are to a liberal, what salt is to a garden snail - death.
I guess "slave syndrome" sounded better than "welfare syndrome."
This is being discussed here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503038/posts
I do not deny that there might be something like a post-slavery syndrome. There has to be. No other group of people, even Africans from other nations who immigrate here, don't act in the same way. It is clearly not biological but sociological. That being said, the solution to the problem is not with more "programs" hand-outs, western civilization bashing re-education, but with internal change in the black community itself. No one except them can change it. However, this appears unlikely given the "keeping it real" crowd. This explains why most of us, almost all of us who have had family members who were slaves (think Rome) got over it. Because we did not want to "keep it real", not because we had a government program help us. (To date, Rome has not asked for forgivness or paid reparations for their conquest and subjugaton of Spanish peoples after the Punic Wars).
That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.
George W. Bush ( Katrina aftermath address to America )
FMCDH(BITS)
In poverty, the correct quote would be, "give everyone a fair opportunity, encourage everyone to take advantage of it." As my all-so-brief article notes, failure is not a racial matter. It is a matter of family, and commitment, and hard work.
John / Billybob
Although I must say the whole agenda was given away by the first sentence::
DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor in Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work, will discuss her theory
There's no way an assistant professor in the "graduate" field of "social work," with the foresight to hyphenate her name, in Portland (of all places!) is going to produce anything scholarly. Maybe scatological, but certainly nothing of intellectual substance.
Why didn't you respond to my post of the article...and your views more important than anyone else's?
...and did you do a search to see if it was posted???
Well, it is true that the "hillbillys " of Appalachia exhibit much the same behavior. My wife's sister-in-law , who is from West Virginia, has very little contact with her family, who are caught in the same cycle of poverty as urban blacks. But one can see still see the same lethargy in white families who migrated to the iindustrial areas of the north. A culture can be a prison.
But one can see still see the same lethargy in white families who migrated to the iindustrial areas of the north.
--
Yeah and unfortunately these poor whites aren't given the same assistance such as affirmative action, business loans, etc. because their skin isn't the right color.
It's not race, it's culture, stupid. I wish this dirty little secret would get out so we could stop hearing about racism. And maybe even fix the problem.
That coul also go a long way in explaining it, I agree.
Black people are oblivious to the problems of the white poor.
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