The slave mentality is always a hot debate topic in the United States. Few countries in the world have a more complicated past when it comes to race relations.
A lot of the issues stem from a lack of understanding of the effects of slavery. The way white people see slavery here in this country is that it was something that happened so long ago. The problem is history can have lingering effects.
This is not an article about white people and all they have done and do wrong. This is an article about those lingering effects and how things.
All change starts within yourself. You can't change the world before you can change your country. You can't change your country without first changing your state. Nothing changes before you change yourself. Once you begin to embrace change and growth your whole world begins to change.
All change starts within yourself. You can't change the world before you can change your country. You can't change your country without first changing your state. Nothing changes before you change yourself.
Too Busy In My Struggle to Help You
One of the tough things about slavery is how it created an every man for himself mentality. Some of the punishments that slaves had to endure were so cruel its hard to even talk about it.
People would be covered in sweets and eaten alive by whatever came along. Blown up from the inside with dynamite and bitten alive by slave masters. The list of crazy punishments goes far beyond what you could even imagine.
When you endure this as a group of people for such a long time, it creates a certain mindset. Life is so hard that you feel you don't have time to help others. If you do, you risk punishment. You're better off trying to get through the day the best way you can and keep looking forward.
In our society today, this is a huge reason that the black community does not come together. Growing up in Toronto (not even in the USA), I saw this all the time.
I would see the Jewish community come together and build greatness. Same with the Chinese, and Italians, they would come along for the greater good of the city. I didn't see the same thing from us.
I have spent a lot of my adult life trying to come together with black men. It has been hard to pull off. I don't get mad about it though because I understand there are deep-rooted issues why this is the case.
Habit Change to Remove the Slave Mentality
Develop the habit of helping someone every single day, no matter the color of their skin.
John 15:12-13 Says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends."
There is no better way to love than to go and serve people and make it a habit. Forget about what you will get in return or if they would do the same for you. Go and help people and make it a habit to do it every day.
There is Not Enough for Everyone
The scarcity mindset is tied to slavery and poverty. There was not enough of resources during slavery. You have to fight for everything you had. Salves were always at risk of starving or killed. It's hard even to imagine the levels of stress.
The crab in the bucket mentality comes from a fear that someone else will get the resources. If there are ten mouths to feed but you only provide enough food for 4 or 5 what do you think is going to happen? Everyone is going to fight to get there share because there is not enough.
Now transform this into modern society, and you have crabs in a bucket fighting to get out. No one wants to see anyone get out because that means that they will get to live a better life. If there is a company that has to hire one black person so they can meet their diversity quota, that is scarcity.
Habit Change to Remove the Slave Mentality
Be happy for others when they succeed. Especially in the age of social media, its way to easy to hate on others when they succeed. This comes from a slavery mindset. You are getting mad because you don't think there is enough to go around, but there is. There is enough money, enough lovely homes, enough beautiful cars, and enough food.
There is no reason to be fearful that you won't have. Spend that energy focusing on how you can be as happy as possible for others when they succeed. At first, you may have to force it, but it will be worth it. Imagine the entire black community did this every day. When one person succeeded, we all were happy for them as if it was happening to us.
The Inferiority Complex
The inferiority complex is an easy one to relate to slavery. If owned by a white person, who is your slave master. You are told that you are 3/4th of a human because of your dark skin, it creates some issues. You live your life, believing that your skin is a curse and wishing that you were white.
Slavery ended with an unrealistic expectation that it would just go away. Slavery created problems within the black community when it comes to self-image. You don't have to go far to see messages reinforcing that white is good and dark is bad.
As a dark skin black man, I can't tell you how many people I know that didn't run track because they didn't want to get darker. The skin color should be loved and celebrated — no matter what tone it is.
Habit Change to Remove the Slave Mentality
Show love to all skin. Stop trying to separate and divide. There is nothing wrong with recognizing that someone is darker or lighter. The goal should be to build each other up not tear each other down.
Struggle Is The Only Identity
When you look at struggling and growing up in the hood, it's a reality that many black Americans face. The problem is that it's not and should never be the only identity. I remember growing up and feeling guilty because I did not have to live in a rough neighborhood anymore. The same guilty feeling came when I thought about how my dad was present in my life.
I should not feel wrong about either of those things. As a kid, I can't control what my parents have or don't have. I can't control where they decide to move. There is more to the black experience than living in the hood. If the hood is your experience, celebrate that. But don't throw shade at others because that was not their upbringing.
It's no secret that the black community needs more role models. These examples can and should come from all walks of life. We need some good examples from the hood. We also need some excellent cases of black people that grew up filthy rich.
Habit Change to Remove the Slave Mentality
Detach your identity from poverty. The way you do this is with an I AM statement that you read each day. This feature is built right into the Habit Stacker App. The I AM statement is declaring what you want to be instead of what you are. Done are the days of saying, "I am broke." Here are the days of saying, "I am living a life filled with abundance."
Rap, Ball or Slang
The consequences of slavery limit career options for many black people. Kids become what they see. The typical path to black wealth is from being an entertainer, athlete, or drug dealer. Let's unwrap this.
Slavery was a constant process of killing off the weakest of black genes. If you were soft and could not handle physical labor, you were killed on the spot. After the boat ride and years of killing off the weak. You were left with the strong who could handle the grueling work. Blacks were seen as only partially human, so entertainment was often an avenue that could get the attention of whites. Blacks could sing and dance their way to admiration.
If neither of those things worked out, the neighborhood drug dealer was next in line. Drug dealing provides a way to make money. The common theme with all these routes is that you don't need the education system to excel in these areas.
Habit Change to Remove the Slave Mentality
Educate yourself daily on your own time. You can't control the education system or what a teacher does. You can always control what you learn. Today you have free podcasts, Youtube videos, libraries, and apps all ready to teach you. All you have to do is be willing to get the education.
You don't have to make any crazy leaps and bounds overnight. Habits add up. Devote 15 minutes a day to learning on a topic you have struggled in. Keep building your knowledge, and new doors and avenues will be open up to you as a reward for embracing change and growth.
Broken Families
The broken families is another issue that comes straight influence of slavery. It first started by slave masters splitting families up. They would buy whoever they wanted and shop the others off to other places. Blacks were treated like how cattle are treated today.
Things get tricky after slavery. The 13th Amendment states that you can't have a slave unless they are incarcerated. Slavery began to transform form working the cotton field to mass incarceration in US prisons. To many on the outside looking in, it made sense. Blacks are more violent, and they make more trouble, so of course, they get arrested more.
There has always been more to this story. America was built on slavery. Slavery laid the groundwork for blacks being arrested more. When you pile this on top of the fact that blacks are already perceived to be worse, and you have a massive problem.
You begin the break up of the family with prison by removing fathers from their children. That starts a cycle of kids being raised without a dad, and then it creates a vicious cycle that is hard to break.
Habit Change to Remove the Slave Mentality
I can't say this though if we come together and bear another's burdens, we can help this a bit. There are too many kids growing up without father figures and if we can help we have to.
How to Grow in New Habits
Habit Stacker provides resources to help you improve your habits. The first way we do this is through our online course Habit Mastery. The second way is with the Habit Stacker mobile app.
Olympian and founder of Habit Stacker Ian Warner, teaches the Habit Mastery course. He walks you through practical techniques that you can use to improve your life through your habits.
No fluff or non-sense! You get instant access to over 45 different videos breaking down how to build good habits and break bad ones.
The Habit Stacker app is what you use to live out your habits from day today. It's a habit tracker that lets you know what you need to do each day. The app sets your daily routine board for you each day, so you all you have to do is get the task done at the top of the list. You can look back and see your streaks for each habit. The app allows you to embrace change and growth and see the results.