THE MIND: WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

The mind is a weapon.

The mind is a battle field.

The mind is a ticking time bomb for people who have lived under oppression and who are accustomed to volatile environments.

The mind is a garden.

The mind can become easily contaminated.

The mind is a muscle that will atrophy if it is not strengthened.

Those of us who are committed to liberation must prioritize the condition of our minds. The mind is our greatest weapon. Slave owners understood the potency of the black mind and that is why they took so much time to break the minds of the African slaves in order to control them.

As a minister, I often pray over people with mental conditions. I often notice mental brokenness throughout the congregation. It is not uncommon to encounter children who are showing symptoms of mental disassociation and mental deterioration.

The black community refuses to openly address mental and emotional illness. We do not readily seek therapy after experiencing homicide, rape, family devastation and unexpected life changes that produce major mental stress. I have encountered black women who have been raped - who never even thought to seek counseling. I have encountered black women who lived through domestic violence - who never even thought to seek counseling. There are many black men who were sexually molested as boys or adolescents who never told anyone.

I believe that about 50% of black girls have been sexually violated in their own neighborhoods by the time they leave high school. Most black girls will not report that they have been raped due to the culture of silence in sexual predator environments. How many of my sistas reading this blog right now have never told anyone they were raped? How many sistas reading this blog have never asked their daughters if anyone has sexually assaulted them? This is due to the culture of silence that has widespread acceptance.

I previously mentioned at this blog that the published rape statistics about black women are grossly understated because this data only encompasses the rapes being reported to police. Churches do not record data on raped women and girls in the congregation who never went to the police. Many rape counseling centers do not release client numbers to the media by race or by socioeconomic class.

The mind can not flourish when it is constantly under stress. Many black women have told me that they grew up feeling unprotected. They grew up feeling that no one would defend their honor. They grew up feeling that black women were not viewed by society as women of honor.

Classism has assaulted the minds of those who have been subjugated by class discrimination.

Sexism has assaulted the minds of those who have been subjugated by gender discrimination.

There are many assaults that have impacted the psyche of our people. We have to take back control of the mind of black America.

What can we do to strengthen our minds?

Whenever I mention that I do not own a television, I usually receive puzzled looks. It seems that many people think that television is a necessity. Usually, those who think that television is a necessity don't know many people who would use a spare room in the house as a private library.

When I read blogs of black women, I usually encounter discussions about the depictions of black women in society. While I believe that the consumer choices of black people have an impact on the depiction of blacks on television and in cinema, there are other critical factors that we have discussed at length.

My parents did not allow us to watch television much when we were children. My father assigned novels by black authors for his children to read and discuss. We discussed literature and current events at the dinner table almost every night. I learned from my father's example that the mind has to be nurtured. I will never forget the look on my white teacher's face when I left a folder on the table in her class and came to retrieve it. She had looked inside the folder in order to find out which student had left it. She noticed that a lengthy term paper was in progress with hand-written note cards. She said, "That paper looks impressive. Which class is it for?" I said, "Oh, that's just a position paper that I was assigned by my father." She stared at me in shock. My father did not leave the development of his children's intellectual capacities in the hands of the teachers.

My father did not allow the television and the news to shape his children's definition of themselves. My father took us to the slave dungeons in Africa when we were very young. He asked us to sit down in the place where our ancestors sat in chains on the cement floor after their capture. He talked about African slaves who came to America, stacked on top of each other on cramped ships that were kept filthy. He said that only those who were extremely strong - mentally and physically - were able to survive the horrific journey. I will never forget when he took our hands in the dungeon and whispered to us, "this means you are from the strongest of the strong." I learned from my father's example that the mind must be ignited.

My father taught each child to play chess while we were in elementary school. In my family, you did not have respect among your siblings unless you could run a Queen's Gambit in less than eight minutes! My father constantly looked for ways to develop different aspects of the mental capacities of his children. I learned from my father's example that the mind must be stretched.

I have mentioned at this blog that my father did not purchase magazines for the home that fostered white supremacy. There were no magazines on the cocktail table with images of white beauty being elevated. I learned from my father's example that the mind must be guided.

Every where I turned in our home, I saw images of Africa. There were African statues, and African masks. Each child owned an African drum. There was a tall congo drum in our recreation room. I had Barbie dolls but my father also purchased many dolls from different countries throughout the world for me to play with. Have you ever seen a Moroccan doll?

My father closely monitored what we saw, experienced and heard when we were children. Far too many parents allow their children to be exposed to all types of violence, debauchery, racist images, sexual content and vulgarity. Our home became a sanctuary that represented African culture in a society that cherished whiteness. I learned from my father's example that the mind must be protected.

To guard our minds, we have to examine everything that we allow in our immediate space. Does the television or stereo stay on from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep? Do you sleep with the television on? Are you comfortable in silence? If not, why not? Many people tell me that they wake up feeling tired. Their minds can not rest even while they sleep. Mental unrest is often caused by negativity deposited in the mind.

It is disturbing that the vile and the vulgar has become normative for so many of my sistas. Their ears do not feel assaulted when hearing men speaking disrespectfully in their presence. Their minds became so accustomed to vulgar sexual content in conversation and profane images of themselves that it is no longer an affront. I speak to younger sistas who think it is "entertaining" to watch degrading images of black women on television. They tell me, "I like the music!" When I ask them to repeat the lyrics out loud, they become ashamed. Without being aware of it, they are assaulting their own minds. Who will repair the mind that is perpetually assaulted?

I blow the trumpet today because we must guard and strengthen our minds if we intend to be effective in the battle for liberation.

A month or so ago, I mentioned the need for us to examine how to improve our mental discipline and emotional discipline as black women. Very few discussion participants responded to that call to action.

How can we assess the level of emotional discipline that we demonstrate?
How can we assess the level of mental discipline that we demonstrate?

Do we know? Shouldn't we?

When I minister to addicts in rehab, I usually notice that many of them tend to speak slowly. It seems that their minds process information much more slowly than those who have not damaged their mental faculties through substance abuse. Some men who have been sober for years are still slurring their words when they speak. I sit in the beauty shop and listen to women talking to each other. They are usually speaking in sentence fragments. If we do not take time to nurture our minds, then our minds will be frayed, and our thoughts will be incomplete.

I notice in the comments section that sometimes discussion participants "invent" positions that I never communicated and attribute them to me. Some participants go on tangents while they are expressing themselves. I hear some women justify their lack of emotional discipline by saying that they are highly emotional. I have never felt it was an asset for a woman to be highly emotional. It surprises many women to hear me mention that. Many people, I suppose, want to assume that all black women validate emotionalism.

I have learned that people who are not in control of the expression of their feelings and emotions are usually dysfunctional.

I pay close attention to the comments that are submitted in the discussions we have. We are discussing life and death issues that impact the black community and must be addressed by black people. Sound bites are insufficient for intense conversations. I am not particularly interested in hearing what people who are not part of the black community feel that black people should do to address the issues that directly impact black people. I want this blog to become a think tank where the deepest minds gather to strategize. I want to encourage us to more closely examine our mental fortitude.

Do you nourish your mind daily?

When I ask that question, most people look at me blankly. If we don't strengthen and nourish our bodies, they will be in poor condition. If we don't strengthen and nourish our minds, they too will be in poor condition. It is dangerous that far too many of us do not recognize when our minds, and the minds of those around us, are in poor condition.

A year or so ago, Michelle Obama mentioned in a television interview that she was well aware that "Barack could get shot going to the gas station". A woman at my former church told me that "the shooting on the block starts about 8:00 PM so I try to be in the house by then." Violence was such a norm for her that she spoke of it as though she was attempting to be home before it rained. Normalizing violence will negatively and significantly impact our psyche.

I do not condone the Nation of Islam's doctrine and I don't know any members of the Nation of Islam, but their indoctrination includes dismantling "slave thinking" in black men. I read many blogs each week and I encounter a lot of "slave thinking" in many conversations. Most people are not aware that their minds are enslaved because the mentality they exhibit tends to be common among those they engage with most often.

It is still our crucial challenge as black liberationists to address the vestiges of mental enslavement. We can't make empowered decisions with minds that are malnourished and broken. We can't strategize effectively or uplift our people if we are processing information with an enslaved mind.

I want to invite dialogue about the ways in which we must more thoroughly examine our psyche - as a community and as black women.

I encourage you to read the post titled, "The Psyche of the Black Woman-Pt. 1" and "The Psyche of the Black Woman-Pt. 2" and "The Reconciling Black Woman". In order to examine the ways to strengthen our mental capacity, we have to be willing to examine the mental and emotional woundedness that is pervasive within the black community.

Let us tackle this difficult conversation and begin to construct a pathway of mental healing. After the Obama victory, some black people began to feel a sense of renewed hope. The issues of brokenness and disenfranchisement remain. We can no longer delay the process of restoration.

We are in the land of the free but so many are still not freed.

Let us become true citizens in the land of the free - being free mentally and emotionally.