via sites.duke.edu
Psychological Enslavement
Since the conception of the New World, European Americans have tried to control the minds of African people under their dominion. This phenomenon is explained in Frantz Fanon’s book entitled, The Wretched of the Earth. He outlines the relationship that exists between the “colonizer” and the “colonized.” When interacting with the colonized, the colonizer systematically convinces the colonized to believe that they are inferior, worthy of maltreatment, and in need of the colonizer. After a while, the colonized are accustomed to being deemed inferior and invisible. Fanon writes that “shame and fear warp their character and dislocate their personality.” The colonized fail to operate without being judged, ridiculed or demeaned by the colonizer and their subliminal thoughts and beliefs. “The personality dislocates and the patient is a case for dementia.” They, in essence, become “zombies,” products of mental enslavement. In essence, they are dehumanized and “reduced to the state of an animal.” They forget who they once were and the possibility of who they can be fails to come to mind— they lose their identity and this leads to a loss of purpose. This phenomenon of menticide and psychological enslavement was not at all a product of the Confederate flag. It, like the American flag, are products of Western philosophy and its reiteration of white supremacy.
The Suppression of Instances of Black Self-Determination
Enslaved Africans would organize revolts and rebellions that were meant to free themselves. Livestock would be killed and crops would be destroyed to cause the slave master to lose money and slow down production. A few enslaved Africans committed infanticide to prevent their children from being slaves. Many ran away. Some escaped and some were found and returned or killed. Some fought by way of intellectual warfare. They learned how to read and write, set up secret schools and educated enslaved children by spreading the word of Black consciousness and an African identity everywhere possible. Yet, the system of institutions of the United States of America and the flag that represents it, have consistently and for a longer period of time acted to oppose these efforts.
