POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME

It is all too easy to impute to others what is inside of, what is unique to, you. In doing so, we necessarily thereby miss the mark, because everyone is unique, different, even though from the same womb, the same neighborhood, indeed, the same anything: church, lodge, country . These thoughts occur to me as I read POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME (2005) by Joy DeGruy, Ph.D. Her work is richly fascinating and peculiarly accurate for those among us, who have never overcome the demons of slavery that yet insinuate their souls. For these, it rings true. For others of African American descent her asseverations are not as true . Her many anecdotal experiences depict conduct that clearly reflects the residue of an enslaved mentality, that was clearly present in certain slaves. By no means were all slaves alike, though. Their differences are attested by the 400,000-plus, slaves who had acquired their own freedom by 1861, many of whom were self-employed, by the more than 50,000 other slaves who had also escaped to Canada, Florida, Mexico; including Liberia or Haiti! Lastly, many though yet enslaved had taught themselves to read and to write and to cipher, true freedom keys. Sadly "slave" has become an epithet, an insult, a curse to their descendants, whose own unwarranted ignorance of history has caused them to hate their forebears' legacies, which are the most powerful liberation corpus in recorded history, viewed from a context of loss. But, let me stop. There are those people whom her book flatly nails squarely. Regrettably most of them don't read classic nonfiction books, regularly ; preferring risqué fiction, if they read at all. Cable television and video they prefer. So, those many black persons who are still afflicted with the "Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome," need to read her book! Most will not do so in the ordinary course. But for those who do read and who read classic nonfiction, this great book by Dr. DeGruy may offer critical insight for healing methods for those who are the principal victims of the black massive incarceration phenomenon that Michelle Alexander, Esq., has written about in her book THE NEW JIM CROW, a runaway bestseller.