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Brent Peterkin SSH231 Professor Phipps Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome 10/16/2010

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome; does it exist today many years after emancipation? In Black Family Life? In Music/Entertainment? In Sports?

Why do men of color take out their frustration on their women? How: Physically? Verbally? Mentally?

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is a multifarious enigma that has affected many African Americans since the emancipation of the slave in. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (P.T.S.S.), is the continuing existence of the multitudinous traumas suffered by Africans during slavery. Dr. Joy DeGruy coined the term P.T.S.S. and she defines it as: a condition that exists as a consequence of multigenerational oppression of Africans and their descendants resulting from centuries

of chattel slavery. A form of slavery, which was predicated on the belief that African Americans were inherently/genetically inferior to whites. This was then followed by institutionalized racism, which continues to perpetuate injury (DeGruy). P.T.S.S. could be considered an offspring of the mental conditioning and physical abuse that was conducted during slavery and reinforced during later periods of American history. Although it could be viewed as psychogenic in nature, the behavioral expressions of it can surface in a very physical way. P.T.S.S. is so permeating that it continues to impair the psychosocial and emotional behavioral growth of many African Americans, even in the twenty first century. One of the reasons why this self-perpetuating disorder continues to affect so many in the present day is because the myriad of elements from the slavery era are reproduced and modernized to fit within a contemporary veiling via todays African and Caucasian American cultural platforms. In addition, neither the emancipated slave nor the subsequent generations have received the aggregate psychological or psychiatric treatment

necessary to reverse, decelerate or circumvent the generational damage caused by hundreds of years of the systematic

reindoctrination of oppression, terrorism and white supremacy. The reality of my upbringing was quite different from that of many of my peers. My parents were immigrants from Jamaica; they

lived with us (my siblings and I), were married, and remain in matrimony until this day. To my peers it was unusual that I was being raised with both parents in the house; however I never felt that I had some exceptional stroke of fortune because to me this was normal. According to datacenter.kidscount.org 65% percent of the single parent households in America are Black or African American.

Anecdotally, it seems that many of the fathers in my community past and present, either didnt feel an obligation to parent their children or when they were involved, their preconceived notions of rearing reinforced oppressive behavior and an exhumation of a self hate ideology within their children who may already be challenged by other facets of P.T.S.S. As a result, these aspects may have added to the systematic suppression of their childrens potential due to the semiconscious reenacting of the oppressive behavior exhibited by the slave master or the enslaved. This recurrence of self-hatred has destroyed many families. During slavery the manhood of African men was stripped away like paint on the walls of a dilapidated building. At the time of slavery and throughout the Jim Crow Era the Black male was socially humiliated, oppressed and physically abused and had little or no enforcement of his legal rights as a citizen. Lynchings took place in public areas and were sometimes promoted to draw large crowds; the African male slave may have also suffered a castration before or after he was lynched. Thus, even physically he was made to no longer

have the reproductive organs of a man. In addition, the African male slave was often called upon to perform he slave masters dirty work and often was also the executor of those same atrocities upon the Black women and child in the role of an Overseer. Imagine a man stripped of his manhood; a woman forced to adopt generally intrinsic male attributes in order to survive, and children brought up with a distortion of normalcy.

An April, 2009 article on cnn.com declared that 72 percent of black women gave birth out of wedlock. It was rare for slaves to be allowed to marry and often times if they were; one would be sold off to a different plantation. In addition slave masters would breed their future slaves by allowing the male slaves with the brawny composition to mate with multiple slave women without having to bare the responsibility of fatherhood. Under slavery the African male had no substantial obligation to the African women either due to his Buck status or because he knew that he had no real control over their bond. My theoretical perspective is that the decline in the rate of marriage in the African American community is partly because of the effects of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: The proportion of young black Americans who have married has decreased dramatically in recent decades. In 1960, 80 percent of black

women and 66 percent of black men 20 to 34 had married at least once; in 1990 these figures were 46 percent and 38 percent (Wood, 1995). The female slave who is disconnected from the one, whom she would most likely view as her natural protector, is subjected to rape and abuse and must learn to suppress her pain and emotions of abandonment. There is also the possibility that the abused and conflicted African women may teach tolerance and/or the acceptance of demoralizing behavior. The African males image and position within a social, cultural and economic context was destroyed as a result of his enslavement and a number of measures taken by white supremacist such as the Jim Crow Laws. The ramifications of Post Traumatic

Slave Syndrome may have also induced the growing disparities between African American woman and men in categories such as education and employment. Black women are earning college degrees and are entering the corporate work force at a much larger rate than Black males. And while unemployment for black women dropped from 13.2 percent to 12.6 percent, the rate for black men rose from 17.3 percent in August to 17.6 percent in September. There are now 1.4 million black men out of work nationally (Belser, 2010). According to americanprogress.org the root causes of black mens difficulties in the labor market, including high rates of incarceration, limited education, child support arrearages, and discrimination (Cawthorne, 2009). This

reality is accompanied by the notion that there are no suitable or worthy Black men available to be potential mates for Black women due to high levels of incarceration, insufficient education and employment. In addition there is the circumstance of young Black men being raised singlehandedly by Black women. Without a father in the home or the provision of an intimate relationship with a positive Black male role model there are multitudes of young African American boys learning how to become men from women. Hip Hop is currently one of the most popular genres of music. It has its roots in the inner city but its popularity and influence has reached across the globe. The images of African American rappers are filled with the symptoms of P.T.S.S. The revenue generated from slavery allowed the slave masters to afford large plantation mansions, fine clothes for him and his loved ones, jewelry and his horse and carriage. Slaves were dressed poorly, were often shoeless and lived in small shacks under appalling conditions. Even after slavery ended there were many strategic initiatives such as Jim Crow that were taken in order to keep African Americans out of certain economic levels. After generations of poverty and deprivation one can develop a voracious desire to obtain the luxuries that were once inaccessible to him or her. This behavior of excessive spending, financial mismanagement and gaudy displays of wealth and affluence by many rap artists may be attributed to the long standing denial of access to their share of the

American Pie. There is a parallel in the recording industry; with the major corporate record labels are owned by a Caucasian. In the songs and music videos of many contemporary Rap and R&B artists we see an extreme misogynist attitude and denigration of women. There is also an alarming absence of African American women from the music videos, which tells a two-fold tale. On one end you have the glorification of women who are not Black which decreases the notion of the beauty of Black women in popular culture; while on the other end when a Black women is featured in a video she is often shown having an intense promiscuous nature and with Eurocentric and Caucasian features i.e. hair weaves and fair skin. In professional sports we also see the manifestations of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Many African American athletes come from meager living conditions and modest upbringings. On the contrary, almost all of the owners of professional sports organizations are Caucasian and make a sizable fortune from the exploitation of Black athletes. Most of these athletes never attempt to expand their financial growth through the ownership of a professional sports organization. This can also be compared to the recording industry where we find many successful rap artists are unable to take a majority ownership in the music they create. They often remain limited in scope regarding their potential to transform themselves from a slave to the master of their own destiny.

The willingness of a male slave to exert any level of defiance or stir insurrection on a slave plantation meant that he was prepared to die. During slavery the life of a Black person was worth as much as they could be sold for. This reinforces a systematic teaching of low or no self-value; a defeatist mental state that leads to the accumulation of aggression. The desire to be respected as a man and the denial of significance that may fester inside a Black man can erupt in acts of aggression and violence. According to research, Black females experienced intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced intimate partner violence at a rate about 62% higher than that of white males and about 22 times the rate of men of other races (Welchans, 2000). This purging of internalized pain may be the cause of the high levels of domestic violence and verbal abuse in the African American community. By the time these boys become men, their internalized oppression is transformed into violent acts against the people closest to them, their women and children (Jordan). Again there needs to be a concerted effort within the Black community to re-evaluate the effects of Post traumatic Slave Syndrome and apply the necessary levels of treatment in order to resurrect the bond between Black men and women.

Works Cited
Belser, A. (2010, 10 10). Black unemployment rate slower to recover. Retrieved 10 16, 2010, from www.post-gazette.com: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/10283/1093758-407.stm Cawthorne, A. (2009, 04 15). Weathering the Storm: Black Men in the Recession. Retrieved 10 16, 2010, from www.americanprogress.org: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/04/black_men_recession .html DeGruy, D. J. (n.d.). Be The Healing - Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome P.T.S.S. | Dr. JoyDeGruy. Retrieved 10 16, 2010, from www.joydegruy.com: http://www.joydegruy.com/ptss/index.html Jordan, L. M. (n.d.). Domestic Violence in the African American Community. Retrieved 10 16, 2010, from www.new.vawnet.org/: http://new.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/RoleoftheBlackChurch.pdf Welchans, C. M. (2000). Intimate Partner Violence. Retrieved 10 16, 2010, from www.ojp.usdoj.gov: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/ipv.txt Wood, R. G. (1995, 01 01). Marriage rates and marriageable men: a test of the Wilson hypothesis. Retrieved 10 16, 2010, from www.accessmylibrary.com: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article1G1-16662258/marriage-rates-and-marriageable.html

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