With the recent discussions and debates taking
place around the country regarding apologies, covenants, affirmative
action, reparations, re-gentrification, and reverse discrimination,
I can’t help but to ponder the question: Are we suffering
from some sort of post traumatic inferiority syndrome? And not
just Black people, but are White people suffering from a post
traumatic superiority syndrome?
Have we, as Black people, been brainwashed so thoroughly
and systematically that we are now our own worst enemy? And have
Whites been taught so ferociously to wear their veil of superiority
that nothing short of a miracle could bring them out of their
stupefied existence?
While working on the book Black Codes in Georgia:
(a compilation of laws targeting people of Color), this question
kept entering my thoughts: were these laws created for the destruction
of an entire race of people? And although not enforced today,
do they still linger amongst us, dictating our daily lives?
The other day I was watching a very popular sitcom
featuring four African-American women, one of whom was pregnant
and her husband was White. She was arguing with her mother, and
in response to the threat of not being too old to spank, she said
“I know you’re not going to hit me, I’m pregnant
with your only good-haired grand baby!” Laughter rose from
the in-studio audience, but I sat there in awe thinking, did she
just say that! And are Blacks & Whites around the country
laughing at that comment? Do we still believe that having White
mixed-in our blood somehow makes us better? And do Whites still
believe that having Black blood in their veins makes them worse?
What would drive a State to create a law, not once,
but several times throughout Georgia’s changing history,
to define a person of color? In 1927, the law stated:“All
negroes, mulattoes, mustizos, and their descendants, having any
ascertainable trace of either Negro or African, West Indian, or
Asiatic Indian blood in their veins, and all descendants of any
person having either Negro or African, West Indian, or Asiatic
Indian Blood in his or her veins, shall be known in this State
as persons of color.”
As a junior in a majority White high school, nearly
two decades ago, I suffered a life-altering incident. I hung around
with the small group of African-American girls in my school, but
there was one girl who would never acknowledge us. I never questioned
it until the day we decided to start a Black Student Union. We
went around passing out our flyers to all the Black students in
the school. When I handed the young lady, who we thought was an
outcast, a flyer, her immediate reaction was to say “I’m
not Black!” She had a light skin complexion, African-American
features and her hair was course, so we assumed by appearance
that she was one of us. Looking back now, I can see where I was
trained to label by appearance. But what never left me was her
negative reaction to our assumption that she was Black. She began
to cry as we tried to convince her of her African American heritage,
professing to us, and anyone within earshot, that she was of Irish
descent. We were insulted by her denial and she was insulted by
our assumption. Why was the mere accusation enough to reduce someone
to tears? Is being Black considered to be a bad thing by people
of other races? We never spoke to each other again. I found out
later that summer that she was adopted and her parents had never
told her.
One of the laws I came across while doing the research
for Black Codes in Georgia stated that “any words
falsely and maliciously uttered, which impute to any free White
woman of this State, carnal knowledge and connection with a slave,
Negro, or free person of color, shall be held, deemed and adjudged
actionable,” making the mere accusation that a mixing could
have occurred cause for legal action. Could this law be the reason
why that young lady reacted so negatively?
Like a jilted lover from a defunct relationship,
are we carrying around the baggage of Black Codes?
One of the ladies in the sitcom previously mentioned
is mixed race, but considers herself, and is considered by others
to be, African-American. Is this a result of the law to define
persons of color, first written in the early 1800’s? If
so, is it a syndrome from which we suffer, that causes us to live
by a code no longer legally enforced?
Why would a prominent Georgia Physician, Dr. Samuel
W. Cartwright, invent a syndrome to explain slave resistance (Drapetomania
– the disease causing Negroes to run away), that the entire
psychological profession would enforce. Could they have been on
to something? Or was it necessary for Whites to invent a mental
disorder for Blacks so that they could maintain their own sanity?
Did the invention of a disease for those fighting for their basic
human rights, lead to the creation of another law? Is this why
Georgia felt the need “to protect the citizens of this State
from danger, by the running at large of lunatic and insane slaves
or free persons of color?” Were Blacks forced to believe
themselves insane for wanting to be free?
Was it deliberate? Did White men actually sit around
a table and contemplate what laws they could create to dehumanize,
degrade and oppress Black people? And did they think about the
affects these laws would have on their and our future generations?
To a logical thinking being, the thought of this happening may
seem utterly ridiculous. But were their actions rooted in logic,
or fear and desperation, because the laws did, and do exist.
The more laws I uncover, the more I tend to fall
on the side of deliberateness. Some laws were created to govern
the marriages and families of people of color, while others governed
our employment and businesses. One of these brilliant laws stated
that “it shall not be lawful for any person to give credit
to any free person of colour.” Today, over 100 years after
the law was written, Blacks still have difficulty obtaining credit
from institutions for the purchase of homes, cars, and businesses.
And according to the U.S. Census, only 14% of Blacks in Georgia
are homeowners. Other laws said that Blacks could not own and
operate restaurants or clubs, nor could they become pharmacists
or masons. Could the unemployment rate of Blacks in Georgia today,
(32.2% in 2004 according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor Bureau &
Statistics) be directly correlated with laws such as these?
What about the education of Blacks in Georgia?
Our history shows us that Whites worked diligently to keep it
from us in the past, but what about now, in 2007? Why is it that
the test scores of Black students are considerably lower than
those of Whites in this state? Could the answer be as simple as
saying that Whites are smarter than Blacks, or could this difference
also be rooted in Georgia’s Black Codes? In 1866, Georgia
decided “Who May Be the Scholars” by stating in the
code that “any free white inhabitant, being a citizen of
the United States and of this state, between the ages of six and
twenty-one years, shall be entitled to instruction in the Georgia
schools without charge for tuition.” Was the intention of
this law to make Blacks feel as though they could not be scholars,
and make Whites feel as though the privilege was meant solely
for them? Is this law the reason why the census bureau reported
that only 8.8% of Blacks in Georgia have a Bachelor’s degree
or higher?
A few years ago, I was entangled in a battle with
the Georgia Public School System, because a book that was used
statewide, subjugated the existence of Blacks in Georgia to people,
“Brought from Africa and other continents to help pick cotton
and other crops.” Do we allow our children to be taught
the inferiority of Blacks in our public school systems because
we suffer from this unnamed syndrome?
What of our churches today? The Black church has
always been the cornerstone of our society. Could the worship
codes created in Georgia have a direct correlation to the phenomenon
known as “Pimps in the Pulpit?” Are we now pimping
out our men, women and children, in exchange for the dollar, as
Whites in this state once did? I walked out of a mega church in
Lithonia two years ago, because the pastor was taking up credit
cards in the collection plate! Are we so psychologically damaged
that we continue the deliberate destruction of our own people
without knowing it?
Are Georgia’s Black Codes responsible for
the outrageous number of Black men and women dying at the hands
of police officers, who go unpunished by the justice system? Is
this the result of an 1816 Georgia Code stating that “killing
a slave in the act of revolt, or when the said slave resists a
legal arrest, shall be justifiable homicide.”
This country does recognize that extreme circumstances
can cause psychological damage. Take for instance the Stockholm
Syndrome. Psychologists and physicians around the world agree
that kidnapping victims can suffer tremendous emotional duress
that can lead them to identify with their captors, as a defense
mechanism to the threat of violence. Were Africans in America
the first to suffer from what we refer to today as Stockholm Syndrome?
Were the laws wielded like weapons, in an attempt to take our
minds hostage?
My only son was born on January 24, 2007, and I
want to make sure that the cycle of emotional trauma ends with
me. If I identify the problem, and seek to alleviate the symptoms,
will I be able to cure myself, so my children will not have to
suffer the same syndrome?
Is it possible that all we need to do is recognize
that a problem exists, so that we will be open to undoing the
damage that was caused by these Codes? How do we make those who
don’t want to see the truth open their eyes, hearts and
minds?
Will an open discussion about Black Codes in Georgia,
and their affect on Society today, be a step toward healing?
For the sake of my son, I hope that to be true.
Michele Mitchell is a freelance writer, mother
of three and the Gallery/Tour Coordinator at The APEX
Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Click
here to contact Ms. Mitchell. |