So many of the problems that African people face in the world today are due to the assault on our minds by those who captured us and removed significant numbers of us to the western hemisphere. This also included the mind damage caused by the tampering of African lands and culture on the continent of Africa.

Most African people in America are aware that our minds were tampered with as a result of our forced capture and enslavement in America. The impact of this process is central to the international component of the Reparations Movement that we must focus on, and that is the “Repair of Ourselves” at the same time we demand reparations from the government and private corporations who benefited from our enslavement and still benefit today. Examining and reexamining the contributions of the late Dr. Bobby Wright provides a significant source we can utilize in addressing our “internal reparations” challenges.

The contributions of the late Dr. Bobby E. Wright in helping us assess this problem should be a continuous part of our study, and reflection, as we struggle to break the psychological chains of white supremacy.

Four years before Dr. Wright’s untimely death he wrote a profound article entitled, “Mentacide: The Ultimate Threat To The Black Race.” In defining “Mentacide,” Dr. Wright explains that it is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a person’s or group’s mind [which] may give a clue to why the Black race, after developing such an advanced civilization, has for the last 400 years been assisting in it own destruction and the nearly total subjugation of Africa by foreign invaders.”

In an earlier work, written in 1975 by Dr. Wright, titled The Psychopathic Racial Personality, he stated that in the relationships of whites with Blacks “whites exhibit the behavior of psychopaths and their behavior reflects and underlying biologically transmitted proclivity that is rooted deep in their evolutionary history.” Dr. Wright says, “Mentacide is the ultimate goal of the behavior.”

Any cursory examination of history will bear out, and support, the following “incomparable traits” of the white race (Europeans) that Dr. Wright reveals in terms of 1) Predatory behavior toward people and their land, 2) A predilection for senseless destruction of nature and people, and 3) The ability to persuade Blacks to support and protect them against their own interest.”

These key points described by Dr. Wright concerning the continued oppressive psychological condition of African people in the world indicates to me that our biggest challenge as a people is that of Getting Our Minds Straight and Stopping Mentacide!

Getting Our Minds Straight requires that African people begin to relearn the African principle that renowned historian Dr. Anderson Thompson has been discussing for the last twenty plus years. According to Dr. Thompson, the “African Principle represents those standards, rules, laws, and customs which guide our behavior and which serve as the foundation for all of our action.”

Dr. Thompson continues by explaining that the African Principle “is the quality underlying the source of the African value system. The gift from our Creator passes on to us through our ancestors.”

At this juncture in history, we as African people have the capacity to, Straighten Our Own Minds Out, without the help of anyone outside the African Community.

It must be understood that Africa and African people have been under siege for more that 2,000 years by Europeans, Asians, and Arabs. The invasions, intrusions, thefts, murders, pillaging, and the decimation and destruction of African lands, bodies, minds, and spirits over these 2,000 years is the basis for our on-going struggle for African Liberation worldwide.

In our efforts to Straighten Out Our Minds, the following revelation by Dr. Wright should be understood, and internalized, by all African people. Dr. Wright reveals that, “It is very clear that the Europeans have developed a method whose basic purpose is to replace all indigenous cultures with their own… Therefore, the Europeans, without any historical precedent, went forth into the civilized world and began to impose their cultures on others, mainly through religion, literacy modalities and military force.”

All roads lead to our unity. We must work together in organizing and mobilizing African people in America. All of our organizing strategies must lead to Getting Our Minds Straight and Stopping Mentacide. Without this occurring, we will continue in our present state of mental stagnation and servitude to other people.