Negropean Vs Black Negropean Vs Black Consciousess: Consciousess:

The African MindThe African Mind

Dionne WilliamsPsychologist

The NegropeanThe Negropean

The Black ConsciousnessThe Black Consciousness

Awoke vs AsleepAwoke vs Asleep

Consciousness/Awoke It is the awareness of ones self and the world they live in.

Unconsciousness/Asleep It the lack of awareness of ones self and the world they live in.

Just from the definitions we can see a relationship between identity and awareness.

These two groups in the Black community have the most influence in how others see the 釘 lack identity The �extremes of Black identity.

Why Is There This Division?Why Is There This Division?

The sole reason for Black Conscious-Negropean split is due domination.

Why are these two main groups fighting to uphold a certain and dominant 'Black identity'?

It could be explained with the Realistic Group Conflict Theory (RGCT) (Muzafer Sherif, 1961) .

Limited resources could be status, jobs, housing, prestige or power.

But while they are fighting over these resources.... the dominant society that these groups live in.

This divide and conquer type of domination.

Social Control & The MatrixSocial Control & The Matrix

The African mind is consequently divided into these two extremes of Negropeans vs Black consciousness. The divide and conqueror is a part of social control.

What is social control?

“1. The power of organisations, institutions and the laws of society to influence and regulate behaviour. 2. The impact of education, religion, media and other social forces on a person or a groups' behaviour.”- Psychology Dictionary.

I call it the Matrix.

Welcome To The MatrixWelcome To The Matrix

Media Media

The western media is built on Eurocentric individualism.

What is Eurocentric individualism?

It means the motivation of controlling others to achieve self-interest. It is through self interest the Eurocentric ideology of attaining freedom/resources only by destroying/marginalising others.

Since freedom is the most valuable resource to the oppressed, it is a lot like the Hunger Games movie. Different Black groups with different perceptions of the world and hold different values are kept busy pitted against each other for the prize of freedom, but never quite attaining it.

Is Eurocentric Individualism also seen in Black media? Yes, we see images of the so-called “Black culture”.

for examples of casting lighter skinned women for leading romantic roles, darker skin men tend to be the villain, praising black celebrities with European features or partners, sensationalising “Black on black” violence, and “I don't see colour, slavery is over!”

White media always allow the unconscious Black spokespeople to speak on Black issues but never let a Black conscious minded person who are fighting for the Black issues to have a voice, unless it is to discredit them.

Also, the matrix demoralises our racial and cultural identity which naturally makes us hate ourselves as a racial group, demobilise us from unity and organising infrastructures.

Are you unplugged?Are you unplugged?

How is consciousness achieved?How is consciousness achieved?It is through struggling.

Kwame Ture, Black Movement Activist, said “The only route to consciousness is through struggle.

Audience, what are the struggles we are facing today?

Whatever the struggle is, it brings self realisation (Know thy self). It actually doesn't matter what the struggle is to achieve consciousness.

It is how you cope and interact with the struggle. If you agree that is doesn't matter what the struggle is, can you see why the Negropean v Black Consciousness division becomes a pointless conflict?

The Rise of ConsciousnessThe Rise of Consciousness

Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology said, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

Consciousness rises more and more as our conditions get worse and shrouded in darkness. People start to ask where is the discomfort coming from, how do we stop the pain and what must I do to make sure the pain never comes back. This is the expansion of the true consciousness.

And once the true consciousness is raised then the African mind can collectively organise to make movements for mental freedom rather than been split into two.

The more people's mind become truly conscious, the more likely of mass organisation towards knowing reality from unreality, collective action to bring solutions to our problems, become “WE” centred than “ME” centred, reject social controls that is harming our psychological well-being, and have selflessness that can lead us to reaching the promised land by rowing in the same direction because we are in the same boatwe are in the same boat despite class, gender, ethnicities, immigration status, colour shade, and mixtures with the Black community.

Improving the African MindImproving the African Mind

The unconscious that becomes conscious stops reacting to the struggle and stays one step ahead of it because he or she now is unplugged from the system and know why they live in poor conditions and can do something about it together. If we can improve our conditions we can improve the African Mind.

Meanwhile, the unconscious minds, do not see the matrix system. They do not see our poor condition controlled by Eurocentric dominating system.

The unconscious minds see our poverty, prevalent mental illness rates, criminality of a few, high unemployment rate as down to the the individual's character such as being unambitious or having a biological short coming.

The unconscious minds start to feel ashamed of being identified with the “others” that have inherent deficiencies and they deny their African Mind. And once they are indoctrinated, they cannot change the system because they just blame individuals that look like them. They have no room to see the inequalities in the system that is linked to the poor conditions in the first place.

Does Racism Cause Deficiencies in the Does Racism Cause Deficiencies in the African Mind or Is Racism a Blame game?African Mind or Is Racism a Blame game?

Apu Chakrabort & Kwame McKenzie (2002) did a review looking at 'does racial discrimination cause mental illness?' for The British Journal of Psychiatry. This is what they found:

High prevalence rates of depression in both South Asian and African―Caribbean populations

High incidence and prevalence rates of psychosis in African―Caribbean groups

These high rates have not been reported in the countries of origin of these ethnic groups, which led their research to investigate possible causes within the UK

Biological risk factors and the rates of psychosis in African―Caribbean people has not been demonstrated

One social risk factor frequently identified by service users and increasingly by academics is racism

An individual's perception of society as racist and the experience of everyday minor acts of discrimination are thought to constitute a chronic stressor.

Life events in African and African―Caribbean patients with psychosis are as likely to suffer life events as Whites but more likely to attribute them to racism.

Those who had experienced verbal abuse were 3 times more likely to be suffering from depression or psychosis.

Those who had experienced a racist attack were nearly 3 times more likely to suffer from depression and 5 times more likely to suffer from psychosis.

Those who said their employers were racist were 1.6 times more likely to suffer from a psychosis.

2-fold increase in the incidence of psychosis in people from ethnic minority groups in London wards with a low percentage of ethnic minority inhabitants compared with those living in areas with high ethnic minority population densities.

Fernando (1991) has argued that since European psychiatry developed when racist doctrines were rife in Western culture, the ideology of racism became incorporated into it as a discipline. He concludes that the emphasis on an individualised pathology, with insufficient attention paid to social pressures such as race and culture, renders psychiatry a racist institution.

In the UK, widespread discriminatory social policy may influence the rates of mental illnesses, their presentation and outcome.

Institutional discrimination is also reflected in the lack of research for an effective response to these societal influences which, in turn, perpetuates social disparity. Community groups in the UK claim that much has been published about increased rates of illness, but there have been few interventions.

“Mental health research into the effects of racial discrimination runs the risk of medicalising appropriate social struggle and distress.

Focusing on those discriminated against in this way may only serve to maintain the institution's power over the victimised group, while running the risk of stereotyping the group's identity as nothing more than a response to racism. It has been argued that there should be a closer examination of those bodies that discriminate, rather than their victims.”

The Battle For Your Mind The Battle For Your Mind

"If you are bitten by a snake you fear seeing a "If you are bitten by a snake you fear seeing a rope at night."- Kenyan proverb rope at night."- Kenyan proverb

We need to find ways to unlearn a lot of conditioning done to us, we need to define our own identity, and we need each other to function in our right African Mind/consciousness.

Without a sense of identity, there cannot be a real struggle; without struggle there cannot be real consciousness; Without consciousness, there cannot be real progress. And without real progress, there cannot be liberation for all.

Maybe cooperation is simply working together to have an abundance of resources to not be in conflict so we can we can unplug from the matrixunplug from the matrix, and struggle to overcome any systems that is oppressing our African Mind and achieve true consciousness where all can be mentally free and able to organise and mobilise for equality.

References

Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment. Muzafer Sherif, O. J. Harvey, B. Jack White, William R. Hood, and Carolyn W. Sherif Norman: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange, 1961. Reprint edition, Wesleyan University Press, 1988.

Apu Chakrabort, & Kwame McKenzie (2002). Does racial discrimination cause mental illness? The British Journal of Psychiatry, 180 (6), 75-477.

Contact Us For More InfoContact Us For More InfoThere will be more events in January throughout 2017

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