“Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery” Na’im Akbar Essay Example
Na’im Akbar begins this book by giving us the background on the psychological legacy of slavery. He continuously dares us to search our legacy of despair and mind altering illusions that were designed to keep us from our true worth. In this paper, I will discuss my agreement towards the legacy of slavery and the mentality of my generation towards working hard at an occupation to earn money and ensure a fundamentally sound future, owning property, and how personal inferiority can deter you from becoming empowered.
I will then go on to give my opinion on being liberated from mental slavery and how the strategies to break the chains of slavery can allow me to break the cycle of my generational cursed family by raising self awareness and knowledge of one’s self. Lastly, I will attempt to wrap my mind around the concept of
...religious imagery and psychological confusion and touch on the solution.
The definition of work is to labor. That’s exactly what slavery is defined as, “forced labor”. They were forced to do manual labor from sun-up to sun-down without the prospect of being monetarily rewarded for it.This labor was solely to support and enhance the survival of the slave-owners and their families and helped build the European-American machine that continues to drive this land by cracking the “whip” today.
The abuse and brutal punishment towards the slave was a means to keep them at hand which in return was psychologically passed down to the descendants of slaves (my generation). I personally see the effects of this behavior. I have been around several people who would rather sell narcotics, gamble and try those get rich quick
schemes instead of working hard to care for their families and better their lives.Na’im Akbar describes this as “The ability to look successful without doing any identifiable work became the image of affluence of many street hustlers and pimps”. The question I often ask them and myself is, “is it worth it? ” Being active with illegal activities can cause you to end up bound and shackled in a prison system that is derived from the slavery system. You will once again end up laboring to benefit the well-being of someone else.
Is the risk worth it? Some kids my age see working at McDonalds as punishment instead of a stepping stone to begin achieving a better way of life.That McDonald’s dollar would be far more beneficial to your self-worth than doing things that hurt you, your family and your community. Community brings me to the point of discussion concerning the values of property. The concept of slaves not owning anything after laboring from dusk until dawn, being beaten and torn apart from their families only to still be in debt to the slave owners is very hard to accept. It’s even harder to be able to make parallels to my life now and see the views that Na’im is desparately trying to convey to all African-Americans.
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