In response to all these numberless horrors, afflicted Black People—then and now—have reacted in every manner conceivable. Some are: (a) “I’ll Show You” types who go to extremes to prove or disprove a point to themselves and others within a revenge setting; (b) Helplessness exaggerators, originated from the reality of having their “Spirits beaten out of them” by Humankind’s most evil and sadistic savage captors/oppressors; (c) Oreos—i.e. Ideal Slaves who represent the oppressors, and, as puppets, direct desperately struggling Black People even deeper into the status quo; (d) the Crowd Addicts who are in an External World frenzy, ever engaging in self-destructive things like Social Media, Flashing Light Gadgets, cell phone usage, and European Trinkets and Trivia. But the focus here is on pregnant Black mothers who, starting in slavery, underwent the sudden conversion from Ancient Africans’ Human Ideals of Right Life Living into states of Extreme Despair, Depression, and Desperation. All were brought about by the “Fishnet Moment” enslavement; hard marches to and horrendous happenings inside Barracoons (jails) where the Enslaved Africans waited up to months to be sent to the Americas; the unspeakably horrible Middle Passages to, and “Seasoning” in, the Americas; and ‘hellish’ Plantation living. These compounded each other with such devastating effects–especially pregnant Enslaved women’s minds, as to result in a special condition called the “Fragile Black Baby Syndrome.” My research suggests these personal Selfhood associations of problems as well as in ongoing ‘machine-gunning’ of hostility/inhumanity in the External World, join to give rise to what I call Black People’s Amygdala Burn-out Syndrome (Bailey, Post-Traumatic Distress Syndrome).
Chronic Fears + emotional distress generate suppressed mental turmoil and hormonal imbalance, regardless of social status. In daily living “juggling” of problems, the continuing showers of new stressors weaken amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex interconnections. The result is adverse affectations of ones retrieval of long-term memory, decision making, goal determinations, will to live and other aspects of thinking—all leading to chronic frustration. These contribute to, or are responsible for, certain of the “Negro Diseases” of unknown cause; Poor Academia (being Omnibus Brain oriented, as initiated in slavery); Mindsets accepting “Make-Do”; feeling powerless to handle their various poverties and to leave the status quo; a sense of worthlessness, conveyed as “I’m not good enough”; and suicides, especially in Black youth. jabaileymd.com; JABLifeSkills; Theievoice.com
Joseph A. Bailey II, MD, FACS
