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 

Scott Walker Gets Drop-kicked -- Conscientious Band Confused about Hip Hop Though

Rashard Zanders, Twin Cities, MN – @The Dropkick Murphy's....kudos, props and huzzahs ad infinitum for smacking down Republican Gov. Scott Walker (WI) over his theft and appropriation of your song for his campaign stumps. Groups like you prove that it is okay to think and have a good time in song. For those of you who missed it, the DropKick Murphys are a Boston-based Celtic-Punk band. Upon learning that the anti -humanitarian Koch Brothers' drone had been using their song “I'm Shipping Up to Boston”. The band let the anti-union, anti-teacher, song-stealing man-brat know how they felt about him in this tweet:


“@Scott Walker @ Gov. Walker, please stop using our music in anyway...we literally hate you!!! Love, Dropkick Murphys.”


That's just dope. This is the second time, according to several sources, that republicans have stolen material from the DM's. As CrooksandLiars.com posted yesterday:

“Sadly, this is the second time a Wisconsin conservative stole their music. The first time this happened, DKM was direct about their feelings on this theft:

We just got word that Wisconsin State Rep and Speaker of the State Assembly Jeff Fitzgerald used "Shipping Up To Boston" as his walk-on song yesterday at the Wisconsin GOP Convention in Green Bay.

The stupidity and irony of this is laughable. A Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senate candidate - and crony of anti-Union Governor Scott Walker - using a Dropkick Murphys song as an intro is like a white supremacist coming out to gangsta rap!

Fitzgerald: if you and your staff can't even figure out your music you might wanna give up on the politics!!!!!”

Here is an observation though, and for the purpose of full disclosure I did post an abridged version of this opinion to the DM's Facebook page, and it is in no way a criticism of the band. Here is what I posted below in response to DM's assertion that republicans using their song was equivalent to the KKK opening their rallies with gangsta rap:


“Kudos for putting walker on blast...one observation though...in your statement you equated walker using your song to the kkk using gangsta rap. Actually, the kkk using gangsta rap would be very a propos as gangsta rap celebrates the destruction of Black people and families via misogyny, fratricide, hard drug dealing and basically reflects the values of cut-throat western capitalism.


“A more appropriate analogy would have been if the kkk walked out to songs by Krs-1 or Public Enemy, Dead Prez or Paris or someone like that, groups with a pro-community, un-apologetic Black unity philosophy. That was the hip hop the industry want(s, ed) to destroy...it had the potential to educate and entertain and it did. Thus we were given gangsta rap to stanch that crescendo of positivity, the "edutainment" rappers in Hip Hop. Gangsta rap doesn't represent the voice of the community nor most of the people in the inner cities from which it allegedly springs. Gangsta rap was created for the demographic that buys the most hip hop –white males – and is affirmed by the genre's infatuation with Black death.


“News of distraction, false flags: they happen whenever a movement threatens the wealthy and violent elite, i.e. 2014 ended with more people aware of police brutality and US torture. Those two events alone should have, if they weren't about to, led to a new crescendo of activism and awareness focusing on global inequality and how it is linked to inequality at home. And I believe we were about to see it, until the well-timed Paris shootings at Charlie Hebdo resurrected the current boogeymen of choice,  Islamophobia to distract us, and preserve the power of the elite just a little longer. As soon as the world or a community reaches the brink of awareness, we get a false flagged. Gangsta rap, for all the millionaires it did make, helped displace many more positive artists. Believe that.”




Rashard Zanders is a freelance writer “living” in the Twin Cities, MN. He can be reached via email at rashard.zanders@gmail.com or by phone at 872-228-4179.

The guy blaming everyone else was the guy doing the plagiarism, fyi -- I know because he got me in 2003.

Rashard Zanders, Twin Cities, MN -- Plagiarism is uncool.  I remember freelancing for this weekly Black "paper" once that wasn't Insight or the MSR. My article, which included my first time meeting North-side councilwoman Natalie Johnson Lee (Mpls), sat in limbo for about a month before it ran...and when it did, there was only one change on it, and that was in the byline. Someone posted their name next to mine for a story they didn't work on. I remember warning folks at the time but I never knew what happened to the paper or the editor until his face scrolled by in the "connections" of my LinkedIn page, fraudulent sneer leering at me from my screen, it brought back some bad memories, and reminds me that many people fail to look beneath the surface.  Present and slick, well-marketed lie and you're in business.

City Pages ran this piece in 2009. Smdh.http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/07/one_nation_news_1.php

Disingenuous “allies” plague Blacks' attempts to better their communities

Disingenuous “allies” plague Blacks' attempts to better their communities By Rashard Zanders Twin Cities, MN – April 23, 2014 – On April 18th, last Friday, a “Safety Summit” was held on Minneapolis' northside, attended by Minneapolis' Mayor Betsy Hodges, Police Chief Jan Harteau and Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek among others. It is with some cynicism that I read Minneapolis Star-Tribune writer Matt McKinney's article “Northside safety summit examines ways to fight crime in Minneapolis neighborhoods,” given the sheriff's position opposing many social justice initiatives that would significantly reduce crime. At the summit, held at the former Minneapolis Public Education building on W. Broadway Avenue on the city's northeast side. Stanek, a former republican state legislator, said, “So often you get behind the curve and you don’t get folks like us together until there’s a polarizing incident and it’s, ‘Oh my God. Now what are we going to do?...The idea was to say ‘OK, who’s got what resources and how can we leverage them?’ ” Given the sheriff's past love of the hated “N” word I suppose he should be applauded now for using the pronoun “us” in his quote. But what I find truly insidious, besides the fact that he was elected sheriff with large support from the city's African American leaders. Yet, away from lights, camera's and the feel good communal hug of a summit, words and deeds betray the veracity of sheriff Stanek's allegiances According to McKinney's article, the northside of Minneapolis has seen one-third of the city's violent crime and half of it's shootings over the last 14 years. Unfortunately for the people who have to live in higher crime areas, the sheriff's actions do not match his words of allegiance in the fight against crime. Consider his September 18, 2013 editorial, “Lax marijuana legislation is bad,” (Star-Tribune, Sept. 18, 2013)(federal anti-drug enforcement funds –good!) in the Star-Tribune on legal marijuana in the aftermath of Colorado's and Washington's legalization of the herb this year. Speaking as the sheriff and as the president of the Major Counties Sheriff's Association, Stanek bemoans that the two states' legalizing of marijuana are in opposition to federal laws which still make it illegal. When the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a statement late last summer pledging not to challenge Washington's and Colorado's new legalization laws, Stanek felt compelled to recite what are now known to be lies and half truths about the dangers of marijuana. “As law enforcement officials with decades of experience, we know that keeping neighborhoods safe will become more difficult for our men and women on the front lines because of the DOJ’s decision.This will encourage other states to legalize marijuana,” he gloomily warned.”. One would think that as a law enforcement official with decades of experience, he would be well informed, intuitively, that prior and current “war on drugs” offensives have not been successful, and have worked only to further entrench a cutthroat mentality and a fratricidal gangster culture among our opportunity-challenged youths. He goes on to resurrect the oft-repeated myth that “Marijuana is an addictive gateway drug that harms Minnesota’s children and public safety in every community in our state.,” and for added measure, “”I have seen firsthand in Hennepin County that there is a direct connection between marijuana and violent crime. “ It is here that the eyes roll to the back of the head and my knees buckled. The relationship between violent crime and marijuana is nil to negligible at best. And it is a fallacy that most visibly betrays his posture as an ally in the fight against crime. The fact is, Stanek, like so many other sheriff's departments nationwide, are addicts themselves: addicted to federal drug enforcement monies which enables the police and courts to stuff prisons and jails with non-violent marijuana offenders. He sites that “drug task forces” have made the connection between marijuana and violent crime, and that 54 percent o f violent inmates booked in Hennepin County jail tested positive for marijuana. What we are not given is what other drugs or alcohol could have shown up in test results. Stanek also offers this unsubstantiated claim: “The DOJ announcement sends the wrong message about the dangers of marijuana, especially to youths. Scientists have concluded that it harms adolescent brains and is linked to both lower IQ scores and learning problems. More teenagers are treated for marijuana abuse than for alcohol plus all other drugs combined. I know, it's a proverbial doozey. He goes on to state that “Those in favor of legalizing marijuana argue that it would eliminate the criminal gangs and violence that result from illegal sales. These are false promises. There is no silver bullet that will eliminate the crime associated with marijuana sales. Governments will put restrictions on legal marijuana such as age limits and, potentially, limits on the potency of the drug. The criminal gangs will conduct illegal sales to those who want to avoid the restrictions. Of couse, having never tried legalization, Stanek is uniquely qualified to declare it as no silver bullet against criminal activity. And simply stating that these are “false promises” doesn't make them false. Significant reduction or maybe even the elimination, naively,of violent crime should be the goal of law enforcement, and eliminating the causes should be a part of that. Legalization might also free courageous law enforcement agencies to go out and fight actual violent offenders, those who should be in prison: murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc. It would also free individuals in society to draft legislation going after the white collar criminals who have so destructively ravaged our economy and betrayed the working classes who make it hum. With comments and stances against wise societal policies, and a peon's slavish devotion to a failed and tragic war on drugs, Stanek stands in direct opposition to what crime plagued communities need: Real allies capable of progressive thinking, wisdom, leadership, and a willingness to admit when a philosophy is no longer operational. The Black “leaders” who have embraced this former N word loving beat cop deserve some of the criticism as well, for again trading the needs of the communities they allege to serve for empty political access and social status. The next time we have a crime summit in the Twin Cities, maybe members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) could be invited to provide the needed counterpoint residents and voters may need come next election cycle. Imagine how nice it would be to hear a Hennepin County Sheriff paraphrase something in the “Who We Are” link on the LEAP website: “By continuing to fight the so-called “War on Drugs,” the US government has worsened these problems of society instead of alleviating them. A system of regulation and control of these substances (by the government, replacing the current system of control by the black market) would be a less harmful, less costly, more ethical, and more effective public policy. “ As recently as a few weeks ago Stanek opposed legislation that would save the lives of heroin overdose victims because he feels the priority should be on arresting the dealers over saving the life of the addict. The legislation protecting lives passed over Stanek's objections. We should really hold our allies to a higher standard of social justice. For further reading: http://www.leap.cc/about/who-we-are/ http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/04/the-war-on-pot-is-both-insanely-racist-a http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000230 http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/10-facts-about-marijuana http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/health/marijuana-versus-alcohol/ http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/ http://www.questdiagnostics.com/dms/Documents/health-trends/2013_health_trends_prescription_drug_misuse.pdf http://www.livescience.com/24554-medical-marijuana.html Rashard Zanders is a freelance writer currently loitering in TC cafe's. Wishes you were here. He can be reached via email at rashard.zanders @gmx.com or at 872-228-4179.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier goes where Hollywood normally fears to tread

From DISNEY no less?!? Captain America: The Winter Soldier goes where no comic/action film has gone before. Be glad for it. By Rashard Zanders – Twin Cities, MN Like most comic book nerds today I am among those ecstatic with the frequency and quality of the Marvel superhero movies that have dominated the box office since the release of Iron Man I. The success of the films, including films depicting Marvel heroes Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and the Avengers, validates these nerds' tacit contention that the stories and characters in Marvel's lexicon a rich, layered and textured stories; character driven and action packed escapism. Which is why I found myself even more pleasantly surprised after viewing CA: TWS. What was so surprising about the Winter Soldier is not so much how rousing an action vehicle is is, and it is surely that. What surprised was a central element of its plot and how unDisney, non-escapist, adding this plot twist is. Spoiler here: As any fan of Marvel knows, the superhero cliques are basically managed by a shadowy government agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D, or Shield, a quasi-NSA/CIA type organization vested with defending the United States from threats galactic and terrestrial, and employing the same secrecy as it's real time counterparts. Where the movie goes off the usual formula for a summer blockbuster (lots of action, dumbed down plots, etc) is when it dives into a very little known fact that during the end of WWII, the US, Britain, France, and Russia covertly saved the surviving nazi brain trust. “In her new book “Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program to Bring Nazi Scientists to America” (Little, Brown and Company), author Annie Jacobsen uses newly released documents, court transcripts, and family-held archives to give the fullest accounting yet of this endeavor — one shared by the British, the French, and the Russians, all of whom enlisted and embraced top Nazis. “ from http://nypost.com/2014/02/01/behind-the-secret-plan-to-smuggle-nazi-scientists-to-america/ This is a part of American history that will never make it into US students' history books: it doesn't mesh well with the mythology of American heroism. But there was meshing going on..particularly the meshing of the nazi braintrust with high level secret American space and military projects, such as the inception of NASA and the transition of the US intelligence apparatus from the OSS to the CIA. In the Winter Soldier the highest ranking Shield operative is Director Alexander Pierce, played with understated creep by Robert Redford. By the end we discover that he, along with most of Shield, has been infiltrated and coopted by the movies nazi stand-ins, HYDRA, a fictional, scientific wing of the nazi party. In fact, by the end of the film, it is apparent that HYDRA has been inside of Shield since the end of WWII. Hence, most of the military and security operations executed by Shield have in reality, been at the behest of HYDRA for the last 70 plus years. And doesn't it make sense? The majority of US military involvement since WWII has been against nations of color; most of whom began fighting independence struggles against US and Western colonizers shortly after WWII ended. It seems democracy was an ideal to rally around for some, not all. An objective view of US foreign policy mis-adventures, civil rights climate past and present, and an understanding of US covert actions against Third World nations struggling for self-determination, working poor struggling to make a life in the land of the free, it becomes evident that Captain America: The Winter Soldier's plot twist was really taking a page from our own history. A history that continues to forget it's past. By illuminating this cooperative relationship between Shield (CIA) and HYDRA (nazis), the movie educates its viewers in a way most Hollywood productions are afraid to: Ironic, given Walt Disney's own documented history as a nazi sympathizer. See also: