A listening-person
does not need to �dive� very deeply into our experience
here in this country to encounter bedrock oppressive �American�
values that are barriers to justice for all. I should
say �U.S.� values since America includes all of North
America, Central America, and South America; people from
countries outside the U.S. have fallen silent on their
criticism of our �occupation� of the definition of what
is American. That appropriation of other folks� identities
is itself oppressive and that folks have given up trying
to fight it is too typical of the historical, psychological
response to unrelenting oppression. This is very much
like what happens to individuals who are the target of
domestic abuse: folks give up, take it, and move on to
something else. The injustice continues and sinks below
the surface or in to the background. Those of us resident
in the US are not the only Americans and our dominant
culture does not � by far � represent the most important
positive human values that have sprung out of the inhabitants
of this continent.
The
mythological conceptualizations of the abuser, despite
the social psychological and physical harm that have been
caused, are assumed to be factual and are rarely critiqued.
The readers of Black Commentator know this phenomenon
from the prospective of racial identity and characterizations
against which we continue to successfully struggle. What
I call the Buffalo Soldier Syndrome is a persistent mythological
conceptualization which too many of us swallow without
thought. Too many enlist in the oppressors �army� to oppress
others or adopt the oppressor�s strategy and tactics in
a manner that strengthens the mythological conceptions
rather than expose them and tear them down. This is another
way of giving in. This allows the abused to believe that
he/she has achieved some relief and success for a moment
to some significant degree. These Buffalo Soldier Syndrome
situations are always transitory and end up petering out
or encountering additional or evolved oppressive barriers.
The
plight of Black veterans returning from war is the classic
example of this phenomenon. Obama�s accepting of the economic
analyses of Lawrence Summers and Tim Geitner is another.
However, there are other more subtle examples.
In
my humble opinion, there are two key aspects to the success
of this Buffalo Soldier phenomenon. One is the confusion
of camaraderie with community and the other is the absence,
suppression, cooptation, and erasure of the availability
of alternative ways and means to successfully oppose oppression.
These two key aspects are linked when the alternative
ways and means are undermined by that version of the Buffalo
Soldier who has succumbed to the drama and addiction to
adrenalin that characterizes the strategy and tactics
of the oppressor. The abused become the abusers; they
contract the disease. They become culpable in their own
blindness. They occupy, suppress, and disrespect the same
folks that the principle abuser targets � for little and
short-term gain for themselves. Like soldiers willing
to return to an unjust war, they would do it all again
for that fix of drama with adrenalin and that intense
dependence on those in the trenches with them.
Part
of the oppressor�s background mythology is that there
are �naturally� some humans who are better, more deserving,
and justifiably better-off than other humans. As it is
in almost all mythologies, there is a kernel of truth
here. People vary to some degree on almost every scale
and perspective you can conceive. Some are taller than
others. Some are smarter on certain mental tasks and less
astute on other mental tasks. Some are stronger or faster
or more flexible, etc., etc. Some are more musically talented
� like Obama singing Al Green versus Mitt Romney singing
anything. None of these measures of human difference have
any real relationship with the mythology of race. These
differences occur within all groups of humans and amongst
humans in total within a specific range and, almost always,
the differences are distributed in the statistical configuration
of a Bell Shaped Curve: most folks bunch in the middle
of the range with 99.6% falling within three standard
deviations on each side of the middle line.
The
untruth in the abusers mythological conceptualization
of this result is that the oppressor thinks that he/she
stands out more than three standard deviations on the
justified power, affluence, and righteousness end of the
scale and that everybody else is so fatally flawed that
they should not be measured on the same scale, thus defining
White supremacy, American exceptionalism, and other �isms�
to justify social and economic oppression, occupation,
and appropriation. The abusers self-assessment is an unnatural
outlier. When money and wealth is the standard, a billionaire
is way out beyond three standard deviations. The billionaire
is an unnatural human.
Buffalo
soldiers think they are standing on the same scale because
they become comrades or competitors playing the same �game�
as the oppressor. They confuse camaraderie as a �team�
member with inclusion in �the� community. But the game
is oppression and when a specific match is over, the team
members go to different communities and unjust and unequal
circumstances. When we pick up the occupation tactics
of the oppressor, we strengthen the background mythology:
that might is right, that assets are a measure of humanity,
that individualism should always triumph over community.
We reinforce the blindness that our oppressors desire
for us and cripple ourselves.
Camaraderie
is built on intense opposition to some �other;� if there
is no �other� � the Cold War ends, police are seen as
humans rather than fascist devils, the Irish change from
being people-of-color to being seen as White � an �other�
has to be invented to maintain the conditions for a field
of camaraderie. Community, the �beloved community,� can
exist without the necessity for a dehumanized �other.�
The tactics and strategies of the abuser and the oppressor
require this dehumanization of the �other.�
BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Wilson Riles, is a former Oakland, CA City Council Member. Click here to contact
Mr. Riles.
