Rashard Zanders: The African-American community suffers from Stockholm Syndrome

"Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in

which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness. "de Fabrique, Nathalie; Romano, Stephen J.; Vecchi, Gregory M.; van Hasselt, Vincent B. (July 2007). FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (Law Enforcement Communication Unit) 76 (7): 10–15. ISSN 0014-5688."

Rashard Zanders --Twin Cities, MN -- Is capture bonding, or as it is better known, Stockholm Syndrome, is it a pandemic among African Americans?  Do Blacks in the United States give a damn about their own liberation or do they consider themselves already full stakeholders in the American Dream, which is less about home-ownership than empire? In light of the plethora of American police brutality and torture on our nation's behalf, why do so many of us damn everyone else (everyone else in this case being folks who still demand justice and equal rights, human rights and a strengthening of the bonds in the African Diaspora)?

Is it something worse?  Can a greedy, homicidal and racist enterprise make it's subjects fall in love with it?

Unfortunately, yes.  We are proof of that. I'd even say 40-80 percent of Black people hate Blacks who are about Black empowerment.  Those are people who suffer from  Stockholm Syndrome. Nicely played whitey (the condition, not the person!), nicely played.

"Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness. "de Fabrique, Nathalie; Romano, Stephen J.; Vecchi, Gregory M.; van Hasselt, Vincent B. (July 2007). FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (Law Enforcement Communication Unit) 76 (7): 10–15. ISSN 0014-5688."

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2784572?sid=21105725681303&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&uid=3739736

Urbanintellectuals.com:

http://urbanintellectuals.com/2013/04/01/does-the-african-american-community-suffer-from-stockholm-syndrome/

From thyblackman.com:

http://thyblackman.com/2014/05/23/most-black-folks-suffer-from-stockholm-syndrome-like-missing-california-woman%E2%80%8F/

From diaryofanegress:

http://diaryofanegress.com/2012/11/15/stockholm-syndrome-the-negro-madness-disease/#

The Final Call's reporting on the subject:

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/sisterspace/article_100779.shtml

Islandmix.com offers:

http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/stockholm-syndrome-slavery-244590/

There really is a lot of research on this subject, which kinda popped into my head last night, but had been percolating for a while.  I have had Black friends and family tell me that I am angry because of my own lack of material success,  personal failures in work and relationships, etc.  And indeed I can honestly say that yes, I have lost most of the great battles for love and wealth an happiness,career and fame.  But I have gained some modicum of WISDOM, or as the our ancient ancestors in Egypt referred to it, SBA, the divine wisdom that is the gift of M'AAT.

As social media continues to become more and more of a "necessary" evil in our lives I became aware of my friends' responses, or lack thereof, to my posts.  They range from deafening silence to out and out hostility from 4/5ths of my approximately 200 Facebook friends.

Sometimes they won't even comment or respond to my posts directly, but on their own page offer a rebuttal  without mentioning my name.  If I post something critical of the president, because presidents should be criticized for their mistakes, I get replies such as "I stand with the president!" or "unfriend me" if I don't think like they do.   But the worst is the silence, the abject numbness to current events.  If I were posting pictures of my current deep-friend meal, Chicago stuffed-crust pizzas, or posts of my favorite childhood tooth-rot candy, or anything else "ratchet", I would get dozens-maybe-hundreds of hits, likes, comments and laughs.  Post something about 340 plus inmates dying of unnatural causes in Florida's penal system in the span of one year...nothing...crickets.....5 minutes later some idiot or idiotess will post something akin to "I choose to be happy," essentially transmitting that denying the light of truth is a form of happiness.

As much as I hate the scourge of White supremacy, racism, favoritism, the myriad deceptions built into all of their institutions and their attendant obfuscations,  I fear those sickened with this form of Stockholm Syndrome even more. Election 2016 has born this out, not that anyone should ever vote for Donald Trump, but the Clintons and the modern Democratic Party should not have a monopoly on the Black vote.Neither the Republicans. We should be birthing new parties and/or joining forces with our Green and Independent allies.  At a time when we should be boycotting their parties and businesses,  our votes will put either one of their worst two choices for POTUS at the theoretical head of this nation.

How does one try to educate or otherwise communicate with a population where 53 percent of them think God has favorite football teams and players?

Rashard Zanders' articles have appeared in the MN Spokesman-Recorder, The Madison-Times, The Capital Times, City Pages, DNAInfo and others spanning 25  years as a journalist. Rashard and his cat, Thrilla, may be reached via email at rashard.zanders@gmail.com 

Invitation to an International Conference African Philosophical and Intellectual Responses to the Development Crisis in Africa June 10-14, 2015 Abakaliki, Nigeria in cooperation with Ebonyi State University

http://www.crvp.org/conf/2015/nigeria.html

Invitation to an International Conference

 African Philosophical and Intellectual Responses to the Development Crisis in Africa

                                                             

June 10-14, 2015                                                                Abakaliki, Nigeria

in cooperation with

 Ebonyi State University

Theme

                        

This conference focuses on evaluating the responses of the African intelligentsia to the current development crisis in the continent as well as encouraging reflections on the recurrent issues in the development crises such as the need to evolve a viable indigenous development oriented ideology that would adequately address such issues as identity and its construction in the context of globalization and cultural pluralism, determinism, freedom and responsibility, the individual and the collective, justice in plural, multi-cultural and international contexts, faith and reason in the public sphere, etc.   

Subthemes

Classifcations of Responses such as: Afro-pessimism; Re-colonization thesis; Nationalism; Afro-constructivism

African theories of Development

Ideology and Development

Justice and Development

Freedom and Responsibility

Ideolgy, Determinism and the Mechanisms of Change

Globalization, Pluralism and the State

Faith and Reason in the Public Sphere and Development

Application

There is no registration fee. Participants will cover their own travel costs and hotel. 

The application should include:

1) a vita that specifies the applicants educational background, professional positions and affiliations, and publications;

2) a letter of intent; and

3) the abstract of the paper by April 1, 2015; full paper by June 1, 2015.

Please send all the information to Joseph C. A. Agbakoba (jcaagbakoba@gmail.com), Jerry C. Chukwuokolo (jerrychidozie@yahoo.com) and cua-rvp@cua.edu.

Contact

Joseph C. A. Agbakoba

jcaagbakoba@gmail.com

Jerry C. Chukwuokolo

jerrychidozie@yahoo.com

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ALIOUNE DIOP, THE MAN AND HIS WORK FACING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES May 3-5, 2010 Conference Center of the Hotel Méridien Présid

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
ALIOUNE DIOP, THE MAN AND HIS WORK FACING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
May 3-5, 2010
Conference Center of the Hotel Méridien Président, Dakar, Senegal

Argument

The celebration of the hundredth birthday of Alioune Diop fortuitously
coincides with that of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of
a large number of African countries. The African Community of Culture
is taking the initiative of inviting intellectuals, women and men of
culture to an international symposium on Alioune Diop, the man and his
work facing contemporary challenges.
By way of a very open discussion, the symposium will consider the
numerous dimensions of the work of an original and "universalist"
humanist; a man of dialogue, a pragmatic and committed man; a
freedom-loving African who refused any kind of racism. Alioune Diop it
is all that and a man of his time who summed up the sense of his
commitment to the editorial adventure of Présence Africaine: * As long
as the required standards are met, all articles will be published,
whenever they concern Africa, on condition that they betray neither
our antiracist, anticolonialist stand, nor our solidarity with the
colonized people *. As the first African to practice with rigour the
job of a publisher, he gave rise to talents that, without his
determination, would have undoubtedly been stifled by the implacable
ideological and repressive machine set up by the colonial system.

Thus, in Africa and in its diasporas, literary and scientific
productions of quality could be confirmed in changeable and various
contexts, marked by numerous challenges. That's why, after fifty years
of independence, it is important to review the work of Présence
Africaine in order to draw teachings for the future.

The hundredth birthday of the founder of the Présence Africaine
journal, this incomparable tool which in the service of the creation
of intellectuals in Africa and within the diasporas, forged by a man
who has lived as a model of efficiency and generosity in advancing his
ideal, gives us a lasting opportunity to ponder on the timeliness of
his struggle. By drawing inspiration from an exceptional trajectory,
we must read the past anew, think of the present time and imagine a
future.

The symposium will be held during three days with five thematic panels
including a panel dedicated to youth-centered issues.
- Panel I: Présence Africaine: decolonization and cultural future of
Africa and its diasporas
- Panel II: Is it fitting to talk about Pan-Africanism and about a
Black World today?
- Panel III: The role of the African intellectuals and of the
diasporas in updating Alioune Diop's project.
- Panel IV: The timeliness of the Présence Africaine project in the
production and dissemination of knowledge in the 21st century.
- Panel V: Dialogue with young people. The timeliness of the Présence
Africaine's project and the issue of transmitting memories.

Participation form:

Name Forenames
Title: Rank / Function
Address
Tél: Office Home
Fax: Office
Email:

I wish to make a presentation in Panel n*1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Kindly specify the title of your presentation(s):

Kindly forward a 10 to 20 lines abstract, if possible in French,
English, Spanish and Portuguese.
NB. Should you wish to make several presentations, you will have to
fill several forms.
Registration is free.

Kindly fill the form(s) and return to:
mariaida02@hotmail.com & gassamamakhily@yahoo.fr
Deadline: March 15, 2010