Could this be???

I heard a radio pundit recently scold his listening audience about the condition of our minds. He was talking about what he called the “Tim Man Syndrome” that many are experiencing in our culture. I must admit, I was a bit confused as to the point of his commentary until I made the connection to the Wizard of Oz where the Tin Man need a heart and the Scarecrow who was lost, searching for a brain, and wanted the Wizard to give him one, respectively, when in fact each had a heart and brain all along. The pundit’s closing statement was profound and hit me like a brick. He said, “People we are locked up in our minds”.

This was all I was able to think about on this day. At some point, I remembered reading an interview featuring the amazing Sojourner Truth shortly before her death. She was asked by a newspaper reporter, “Do you know how many slaves you saved through your efforts conducting the Underground Railroad?” Her response was simple and to the point. She said, “I could have saved a lot more, if they had only known they were slaves.” Consumed by this profound thought I tried to conceptualize how this was possible. Who was responsible and how so many remain psychologically imprisoned?

To accomplish this I decided to start, not at the beginning, but where it’s widely believed the strategy to enslave us was devised. As the story goes, a British slave owner from the West Indies was invited to the colony of Virginia sometime during the year 1712, to teach his methods to slave owners there. Willie Lynch was the name of the man credited with a speech delivered on the banks of the James River. It is noteworthy to mention that the James River was named for the illustrious King of England, who was the same guy responsible for the twenty-eighth version of the cherished Holy Bible.

This man Lynch brought with him, as he put it, a foolproof method for controlling black slaves that will last for a thousand years. Consequently, it is believed the term “lynching” was derived from his last name as a way to pay homage to him for delivering this ingenious approach. The name Willie Lynch is interesting because it may be a simple play on words. For example, Will Lynch or Will he Lynch. Whatever the reason, it no doubt has significant psychological implications that played heavily on a naive race of people.

Lynch began his historic presentation with a warm greeting: “Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems. I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a foolproof method for controlling your black slaves. I guarantee every one of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least three hundred years. My method is simple…The black slave after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self re-fueling and self generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands…”

The seeds of devastation were planted and the process of destruction was underway for the making of a race into slaves. In the speech, Lynch outlined a number of differences among the slaves. He stressed to his audience that they should take these differences and make them bigger. These differences included such things as age, color, intelligence, fine hair vs. coarse hair, tall vs. short, male vs. female. However, these tactics were not new. They were more than likely put together collectively for this specific purpose for the first time as keys to control.

This short eight-paragraph speech was profound in that it was the embodiment of the cruelest demoralizing agenda ever imposed upon a people since the days when the Romans crucified our Lord. As Lynch closed his speech that day, he said, “They must love, respect, and trust only us.” This is the key to producing a successful strategy. Whether this story is true or not is cause for much speculation. However, as history demonstrates, a manufactured plan was developed by someone to achieve these results that continue to this very day.

Let’s suppose the Lynch story is a myth. How could the ruling authorities, or anyone for that matter, justify an evil system that sanctioned murder, among other atrocities, as a way of building and maintaining a government, and controlling the minds of a people. I know most of us were taught the same HIS-STORY as I was taught in high school and growing up. Knowing this, I recalled how our government through legislative sessions passed laws to ensure that our bondage was sustained. Further, this wicked system was also sanctioned by the church. Therefore, what is important to understand, when the church endorsed slavery and the vehicle that drove it, this meant, in the eyes of the system - God himself authorized this immoral travesty and affirmed what they believed was manifest destiny.

I painstakingly walked through history from the perspective of the oppressed people – from Lynch through slavery, the Civil War into Reconstruction, through the Jim Crow era and segregation to the present. It is extremely important for African Americans, especially young men, to understand our heritage and be proud of it. We must know our past, the true past, in order to participate intelligently in the productive affairs of our future or we are certain to remain psychologically imprisoned. This history, which others have tried so diligently to erase, causes our mental bondage to place us on the verge of being a nearly extinct species – particularly black men.

As I reexamined our past that day, I was forced to remember this very important message. Your thoughts are the precursor to your words. Together they will translate into actions and your actions become habits. These habits will in turn become the foundation of your character and the content of your character will decide your destiny. The task ahead of you is never as great as the strength of the power behind you. As soon as the enslaved minds understand this concept, they will realize this is the only way they will live what God has breathed into their souls and not just live a life manifested by the likes of a Willie Lynch or dare I say, continue the “Tim Man Syndrome”.

“Free your mind and you’re ass will follow”.

A brilliant and renowned scholar once shared with the world – “to compromise on principle is to betray yourself, which will cause you to lose the fabric of your soul”. Underscoring that theme – “if you don’t know where you’ve come from then you will never know where you’re going or how to get there.”

Source – Just a Season
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