Greg Thrasher
By Greg Thrasher
Of late in the terrain of social commentary there has been a resurgence of the topic of internal racial themes within Black America. One of the themes has been the discussion of class and Black personalities like the Uncle Tom, a/k/a the modern day Black Apologist.
Any candid discourse and examination of race within the Black community must be viewed from the platform of minority and majority themes. Black Americans are a distinct cultural minority collective that suffered through one of America’s domestic holocausts, in a white nation.
The legacy of white supremacy in America has been lethal it stings and wounds even in the post racial era of an Obama’s tenure in the white house. The pathology of racism not only is lethal for those who are victimized by it, but this evil also causes damages to those who authored white privilege and white supremacy.
For the Black folks who are stained and contaminated with white racism it produces a number of outcomes and side effects: hopelessness, anger, despair, militancy and the like. The drama of personalities like the Uncle Tom are not new in the Black community.
One of the incarnations of a community subject to the pathology of white racism in our nation is the character of an Uncle Tom, a person whose self esteem is only measured by his acceptance and validation from whites. Despite the conventional themes about the negative portrayal of Uncle Toms. In our history the Uncle Tom was not always a terrible figure. People ignore how talented they were in navigating and leveraging their race status during the plantation and post slavery eras in America.
These personalities in very oppressive situations produced effective outcomes from elevated employment opportunities on the plantation to creative tactics in avoiding and deflecting the wrath from racist whites. The Uncle Tom was a living exercise, a role model in how to manage the lethal system of slavery while creating effective strategies to excel in this inhumane and oppressive paradigm.
Some Uncle Toms were/are tragic personalities, but they would not exist unless there was white supremacy and the pathology of white privilege in America. The intra-cultural clash that exists in many Black communities, families, fraternities, organizations, churches and related groups is linked to the institution of slavery in America. This evil complex altered and influenced the very essence of family and social life in America for Black folks. All the words, studies, classes, novels, lectures will never be able to comprehend or give a full measure to the impact of this holocaust on Black Americans.
Black self worth and community values and mores still suffer from the disease of slavery. It is not an excuse or a plea of victimhood to understand and recognize this truth. Black victimhood, class envy, petty jealousy, twisted rage and even some degree of Black crime, parenting, goal shaping, psychosis, all of these relations and conditions have origins in the creation of an America that viewed Black folks as inferior beings not worthy of basic humanity.
The saga of the Black Uncle Tom shares a shelf life with White racism in our nation; it is a pathological scar, obstacle and part of the cultural DNA that still wounds and inflicts many even in the post racial era of America
