Tweet
I came upon a quote that read, "IT IS NOT YOUR ENVIRONMENT, IT IS YOU – THE QUALITY OF YOUR MINDS, THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR SOULS & THE DETERMINATION OF YOUR WILL THAT WILL DECIDE YOUR FUTURE & SHAPE YOUR LIVES." And this quote confirmed my belief that OUR behavior is influenced by what we think about ourselves and the world, and a LARGE number of us are imprisoned by false beliefs which generate behaviors that keep us among the poor in every nation. We all, to varying degrees as poor people socialized under the GHETTO mentality, have internalized a set of beliefs that compel us to serve the needs of a mind-set while BLATANTLY neglecting our development. These are THE INVISIBLE CHAINS THAT BIND US…So how do we EMANCIPATE ourselves from the dungeon of false beliefs about ourselves, others and the world around us? Though it is SO DEEPLY entrenched, the intergenerational, mental disorder afflicting us AND the effort to liberate ourselves from psychological enslavement is NO easy feat. It would appear to me that the emotional effects of slavery have weighed us down for far too long and our ancestors did the best they know how…But do you think they’d be proud of what we’ve made of strength AND courage today? Today, our emotional slavery in large measure is self-imposed; we have allowed a mind-set to imprison us in the GHETTO way of life, concepts AND beliefs. In short, we have been contained by our infatuation with crossing that river; therefore, we haven’t moved a muscle. However if we are to achieve OUR salvation, it will NOT come by living ALL THINGS GHETTO, but only from being our authentic, human selves. Gated communities have the mind-set that they are, therefore they are…They live as if they can rearrange OR change their life conditions without outside approval or assistance. Because they believe deeply that they are THE CAPTAINS OF THEIR FATE and THE MASTERS OF THEIR DESTINY, they feel empowered, optimistic, creative, productive, energetic, and positive. Because of this deep faith in themselves, they get what they need AND want by taking calculated risks to fulfill their dreams. Such people are successful and such communities are autonomous, wholesome places to live and raise children. Think about it…Literally from birth to death, we are awash in a sea of disinformation, misinformation, half-truths and whole lies about who we are AND what we REALLY represent. Is this accidental, part of a finely crafted, life-long campaign to stop us from connecting with ourselves? The actions shown in THE GHETTOS of the world say YES, but who is funding the campaign? If we don’t ask ourselves these questions, how are going to decolonize ourselves AND destroy these DEEPLY rooted, interconnecting networks of the internalized GHETTO? Isn’t it time that GHETTO folks stand up AND declare total war on their own GHETTO frame of mind? Is it that difficult to MERCILESSLY ATTACK the instruments and agents, deconstruct its intellectual base, and thereby break out of conceptual GHETTO incarceration? Year after year the game NEVER changes…only the playing field, while SO many are content with just completing school and getting a job to scrap by…I KNOW WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD, I KNOW WHAT THE MASSES SAY…BUT CAN SOMEONE, ANYONE TELL ME WHY WE CAN’T WORK LITTLE BY LITTLE & GET OURSELVES OUT OF THE CLUTCHES OF THE GHETTO? THE GHETTO IDEOLOGY THAT MOST SUBSCRIBE TO DOES NOT YIELD A HAPPY SOLUTION, SO WHY HOLD ONTO IT? HOW CAN MOST OF THEM THINK THAT THEY ARE JUST DOING WHAT MUST BE DONE & REMAIN UNSTAINED FROM THE MORALLY DRAINING INFLUENCES OF GHETTO? IS IT ANY WONDER THAT MOST OF US LIVE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS WITH SOULS BLASTED BY PAIN? THIS THORNY ISSUE IS NOT GOING AWAY & WE MUST FACE IT & DEAL WITH IT DECISIVELY. IT IS NOT RIGHT FOR THIS ISSUE TO DESTROY GENERATION UPON GENERATION OF FOLKS THAT CAN BE SO MUCH MORE THAN THEY ARE…
you always have the most informative post....
ReplyDelete- The Harajuku Ken Doll
Good post but I am a bit leery of the term ghetto. I dont think it is clearly defined in terms of behavior and more importantly how those behaviors are destructive. You do what you do to navigate your enviorment so you can survive. So if your enviorment stays the same than how should mind state change?
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, Gayte-keeper! I was just thinking about this over the week-end. It is a complicated scene and not so simple to deal with. But I am inclined to agree with clnmike. It's also the old nature v nurture argument. Borrowing from Newton's laws of physics, "an object at rest tends to stay at rest. An object in motion tends to stay in motion." Only when an outside force interferes with the rest or the motion will there be a change.
ReplyDeleteIf there is no outside force to interfere with the current activity of the ghetto, how will it change? There are people who make it out of the ghetto through some force of will or providence, but they do not no look back.
The ghetto, like a prison, is a contrived environment. People are simply doing what they need to survive and responding to their environment. To some degree and extent I think society makes a ghetto possible, so society has some culpability. And by that I mean the manipulation of "market forces" and the competition for and consumption of resources by the most powerful among us.
REGGIE - THANK YOU
ReplyDeleteCLNMIKE - WELL EITHER THE PERSONS WITHIN A GHETTO ENVIRONMENT CAN WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE THINGS BETTER OR DO WHAT I DID AND MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO CHANGE YOUR LIVING ENVIRONMENT...
THOMAS - I KNOW THE GHETTO IS A PRISON & MOST OF US HAVE TO LEAVE IN ORDER TO BE FREE, BUT IF SOMEONE OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE FIXES THINGS, WON'T IT BE SAME IF THEY DON'T BREAK THE INVISIBLE CHAINS THAT BIND THEM?
My mother and father were raised in the projects here in Memphis, and so were we for a good part of my childhood (myself and my siblings) but my mother made every sacrifice that she could to allow us to see there were worthwhile things outside our immediate situation. She made sure we went to the library every weekend and checked out books and read them, we took piano lessons.... even had a white teacher ask my brother at age 10 how could his mother afford to send him for piano lessons and he was on free lunch...my mother came up to the school and REGULATED!!!! but I digress. My oldest brother went to art school in summer....Although we were on an intimate basis with rice, beans, and potatoes for most meals, my mother made sure that she broke those "chains" by exposing us to a new world, one different than what we grew up in....so that change didn't come from the outside, it came DIRECTLY FROM HER OWN STUBBORN EFFORT.
ReplyDeleteMIKE - YOUR STORY IS VERY RARE...
ReplyDeleteSorry, Gayte-keeper, when I mentioned "outside force" I was not speaking particularly but universally. It's anything that changes the circumstances or interferes with the status quo.
ReplyDelete