Last Updated on May 28, 2006 by Paulette Brown-Hinds
As a boy, much of my fascination with crab fishing was seeing crabs wandering around on the bottom of the large barrel. Despite their apparent confusion, some would extend a claw to pull back down any crab trying to escape. If a crab eluded the grabbing, a fisherman would push it back down.
Borrowed from this scenario is the term crabs-in-a-barrel and its application to people having a reputation for spoiling something belonging to ones fellows. To such people I will give the term Dudes (actually a generic reference to any male) to specify Black males possessing a street mentality (Bailey, Self-Esteem in Black Americans, p75). Incidentally, despite not agreeing with their methods and outcomes, I have high regard for the intelligence of many street Dudes. Nevertheless, Dudes may be present on any rung of the social ladder and may do their spoiling from the bottom up or from the top down. An example of the latter is the successful Black man who tells a striving youth: I got mine the hard way without help and so you do the same. Those enslaved minded successful men obviously paid no heed to the painful and miserable struggles of their slave ancestors–ancestors who paved the way for their climb and then willingly provided their weary shoulders on to which their off-spring could stand as a means to improve the conditions of all Black people.
But even worse are certain Dudes who have reached the middle of the social ladder status. Although they are tight with peers on their own (or even lower) social level, they become envious of Black males whom they deem to be more successful and efficient or effective than are they in something. This is bad for the envied Black person because to be successful in the USA necessarily means that person– apart from difficulties on the normal path to success– underwent tremendous obstacles from racism. Thus, honorable and successful Blacks deserve to be honored, not envied. To be entangled in the web of envy is bad for ambitious Blacks because they will be isolated; be forced to make needless mistakes; and perhaps get crushed in the process. It is bad for the Dude enviers because they will never reach their potential. One reason is that envy serves as a barrier to thinking bigger, greater, and more profound thoughts. Besides, a law of the universe shows that to withhold ones generosity stops the flow of abundance returning to the withholder. Whatever is bad for successful Blacks, for striving Black youth, and for Blacks who attack Black people is automatically bad for the Black community.
So how did the raw nerve mentality of Dudes develop? It originated during slavery when the slaves– as individuals and as subgroups– were taught to envy, distrust, blame, and criticize each other. This and other factors created mental conflicts in each slave. Here are some examples. First, by being burdened with an extremely limited vocabulary, they were unable to draw on the words needed to express their fears, rage, and frustration. To vent these mental conflicts, many resorted to violence on each other. Second, to avoid having to face or defend the bad stuff contributing to their mental conflictstheir weakness, flaws, limitations, and incompletenesssome would attack innocent people (i.e. scapegoats). Third, and of major importance, is that they all felt some degree of impotence regarding their concept of manhood. Apart from what they were taught by the captors, the slaves thinking abilities were blunted and circumstances prevented them from achieving their talent or skill potential. When this mindset of conflict and lacking a sense of power was culturally transmitted out of slavery, there was an expansion in how their behaviors were expressede.g. to appear strong, loud, tough, and ready to fight. These enslaved minded behaviors were (and are) based on emotional impulses without the rational thinking that embraces foresight and forethoughta mindset in keeping with their in-group level of common sense being at a level below full maturity. Correction comes from shifting their minds back into a rational thinking gear.
(Reference Bailey Freeing the Enslaved Mind)
website: jablifeskills.com
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.