Blog 290 – 05.09.2016

I use a negative phrase for the second part of my title today though I am told we should try to avoid negative phrasing because the subconscious does not think in negative terms so when words like, “I am not a victim” are presented to the subconscious all it hears is, “I am xxx a victim.” I believe our thoughts, words, and actions create our reality and in that order. Words are pictorial representations of our thoughts and we despite all the anecdotal evidence to the contrary are inclined to “do as we say”, to act upon our thoughts and according to our words.

I apologizing for the big words but some thoughts are trickier to express in little words even as some thoughts do not fit in the sound bites we have become so accustomed to hearing. Advertising and Political campaigns love to lay slogans on us and try to make us think brevity is profound. As an example “Make America Great Again” is code for a lot of disgruntled white people who in the words of my Southern and very racially biased upbringing “Did not cotton much to the idea of a black man as President of the United States of America.” The party out of office always has to paint their return to office as an improvement whether that is true or not.

Many of us colored people (And white is a color too so we are all people of color, colored folks) think electing a black man showed the world and ourselves that the United States of America truly is a great nation. Maybe we can show the world and ourselves that again by electing the first woman President. Or we can allow our fears to prevail again and pick a candidate who plays to those fears.

But I wander a field from my topic. We live by our thoughts and our words which determine our actions. Do you think yourself a victim? We hear a victim mentality expressed in words all the time. Usually in phrases that begin with “It’s not fair” or “I can’t” The famous line from Malcolm X is an example: “The black people did not land 0n Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.” We have all been tempted to think, fate, God, or “the Man” has dealt is a bad hand. There is a great line uttered by the Jack Nicolson character, a Boston Irish mobster, in the movie, “The Departed” where he say, “If I’ve got one thing against the Black Chappies it is thinking somebody is going to give it to you. You have to take it.” You have to take life by the horns and bend it to your will. Seize every opportunity, meager as they may sometimes be, and build on them. Do not consider yourself a victim but a victor. For so you are unless you give up. He or she is never defeated who always gets up one more time than they are knocked down.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White