Chapter Four

The Plantation Mentality: Our Journey From Victim to
Victorious!
“Not only do I pray for it, on the score of human dignity, but I can clearly foresee that
nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union, by
consolidating it in a common bond of principles.”
George Washington
One thing I learned about history is that no one will ever give up power
without encouragement from the powerless. I could never understand the
constant call for the plantation owner to give us some of his power. It
seemed as if we could not learn from history, that freedom is never given,
and it must be taken.
I studied the plantation system with great attention to the subtle
conditioning of the slaves. There was always an attempt to redirect the
slaves’ attention from freedom from the plantation to relief in the plantation.
Master was always the center of attention and always the source of power.
Today we are still looking for the master to solve our problems and accept
responsibility over us. Every problem our so-called leaders come up with
requires the master’s attention and his solution. I decided while in college
that if he was the source of my problems, he could not be the answer to my
problems. If I learned anything about the plantation system, it was how
little I needed it.
Let us Face It, the Plantation Was a Business
Its purpose was to provide profit and prosperity for the owner and his
family. It was not for the purpose of helping poor whites, slaves, or the
nation. It was for profit, power, and culture. Like any other business, the
plantation followed a set business principle: reduce cost and increase profit.
The biggest cost to the plantation was the slave; the slave was also its tool
for profit.
When the abolitionists began to stir the consciousness of America and the
civil war loomed upon the horizon, the plantation owners began to realize
that one day the slaves would leave the plantation. They began to devise
ways to keep the slaves dependent on the owners of the plantations and at
the same time have a belief that they were free and independent. The slave
master had to replace his system of “overseers, slave drivers and slave
breakers” with different names and responsibilities. Their purposes would
not change. They would keep the slaves working and producing a profit for
the master and his family.
The technique was to spread distrust and mis-education to the slaves in
order to make the plantation life seem more attractive than life outside the
plantation. Slaves were told to “watch out for them damned Yankees.”
Politically, the South had to change from its roots. The party of the slave
master began portraying itself as the party that cared about the slaves’ well
being. “We’ll take care of you, just trust us.” The slave, now free, again
gave his trust to the slave master and his friends, the overseers and slave
drivers. Again, the slave depended upon the master for every element of
life—including what to think and say.
Suddenly the Black Americans Lost Control of Their Schools,
Businesses and Families
The slave master had to change his image in order to control his slaves.
He had to declare compassion as he encouraged dependency by the welfare
system. Welfare did not mean just payments to a family for basic
subsistence; it also included a system to discourage marriage and
participation of the male in the raising of his family. Just like the plantation,
the slave male was reduced to a breeder with his female. He had no
responsibility for the caring or raising of his kids; “master” did that for you.
He did not have to educate, protect, feed, provide healthcare, or a home for
his children. Master did that for him, as long as he did not marry the mother
or move in with his children. This was called “Aid to Families with
Dependent Children,” because that is what they wanted: “dependency” of
our children and of us.
So, here we are sitting on the front stoop drinking wine and waiting for
the next game of basketball. We tell ourselves, “Don’t look for a job,
because the ‘white man’ has them all under control” or “Don’t go to school,
because there isn’t any way you can ever get ahead.” Nevertheless, we think
because they owe us something, we are justified in taking it by force and
crime.
Our women are hanging out of tenement windows waiting for “my
check” to arrive so they can “take care of business,” as if it was business to
be on welfare and stretch money to the end of the month.
Now the slave master has reorganized the plantation and the slaves’ way
of thinking and is back in control. We vote more for the party of the slave
master than the party of the abolitionists. We trust the kidnapper, rapist and
murderer because he has promised he has changed, but we do not trust those
who gave their life for our freedom because the master does not trust them.
We have rejected the party of Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, the
13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, and the party that paid the
price for our liberty, politically speaking. Of course, Master didn’t
appreciate our liberation, but why have we rejected those who helped? We
went from slavery, to sharecropping, to ghetto degradation, all led by Master
and his plantation mentality. The only way he can win this game is if he can
keep us thinking as slaves. As long as we think we need him and his slave
drivers, we will listen only to him. The education of the black population is
the greatest fear of the plantation owner. If we understood our power and
our threat, we would not only run him off the plantation, we would own it
ourselves.
I believe this is a well-articulated and executed plan, to have us
contribute to our own decline. I believe the slave master understood that a
united slave population was not a benefit to his life-style, and he worked
against it. I further believe that we are still living under a calculated plan
that keeps us distrusting one another and going to the master for leadership.
The following is a copy of a speech given to southern slave masters
hundreds of years ago. It was by a slave consultant who was brought in to
help the masters with their “problem” —slaves not wanting to cooperate.
His solution was simple: divide and conquer by spreading mistrust among
the slaves, and they will keep it going for hundreds of years. Was he
correct? Are we still being manipulated by this system? Read it and decide
for yourself.

The Slave Consultant’s Narrative

This speech was delivered by a white slave owner, William Lynch, on
the bank of the James River in 1712.

Gentlemen, I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank
you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am
here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves.
Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies
where I have experimented with some of the newest and still the oldest
methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is
implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our
illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish, I saw enough to
know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as
crosses for standing human bodies along its old highways in great numbers
you are here using the tree and the rope on occasion.
I caught a whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple of miles
back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having
uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the
fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, and your
animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not
need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to
introduce you to a method of solving them.
In my bag here, I have a foolproof method for controlling your black
slaves. I guarantee every one of you that if installed correctly it will control
the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. Any member of your
family or your overseer can use it.
I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves; and I take
these differences and make them bigger. I use fear, distrust, and envy for
control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in
the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little
list of differences, and think about them. On top of my list is “Age,” the
second is “Color” or shade, then there is intelligence, size, sex, size of
plantations, status on plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live
in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair or coarse
hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give
you an outline of action—but before that I shall assure you that distrust is
stronger than adulation; respect or admiration.
The black slave after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and
will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe
thousands.
Don’t forget you must pitch the old black vs. the young black male, and
the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin
slave vs. the light skin slaves and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin
slaves. You must use the female vs. the male, and the male vs. the female.
You must also have your white servants and overseers distrust all blacks, but
it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love,
respect, and trust only us.
Gentlemen, these Kits are your Keys to control. Use them. Have your
wives and children use them, never miss the opportunity. If used intensely
for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful.
Thank you, gentlemen.
University of Missouri-St. Louis Thomas Jefferson Library Reference
Department

It is important to the master and his new slave drivers that you stay
uneducated and dependent. Do not “act smart” or show any ambition.
Moreover, whatever you do, do not show how you can think for yourself.
It is not our nature to feel so insecure; it is not our nature to kill ourselves
with drugs, to prostitute our women or to abuse our kids with low self-
esteem and poverty.
It is time we stop depending on the man and start competing against the
man. It is time we stop believing we need government to take care of us and
stand up to take care of ourselves. It is time we determine our own future
and our own direction. It is time we join mainstream America because it is
our country.
It is OK to believe in yourself. It is OK to have confidence in your own
ability. It is OK to love your woman enough to marry her and live with her.
It is OK to challenge yourself to fail or succeed on your own. It is OK to
leave the plantation!
Stop Whining and Get To Work
The new inner-city plantation is not only physical but also mental. It has
a culture all its own and acts like a disease upon the community. We came
out of slavery with pride and self-determination and exploded upon
America. The first ten years after the Civil War we had Black Congressmen,
Lt. Governors, many business owners, and at least 20 U.S. patents awarded
to black people. One hundred and twenty years later it seems all we can do is
wait on “the man” to give us what we need and want.
I was teaching a class on self-esteem in a private Christian school in San
Diego, California. The first thing I asked the students was why they need a
class in self-esteem? Why is it that black kids need someone from the
community to instruct them on liking themselves?
What I hoped to teach that class was how unimportant it was to try and
find someone in history they could be proud of. This may come as a shock
to you, but I think it is much more important to be proud of something YOU
did rather than finding someone in history you can take pride in.
I taught about “self-pride,” pride in something you have done with
something you had control over. It is not pride in what your ancestors did
2,000 years ago or how many inventions black people developed. It will not
motivate you one bit if you still think you could not have done it yourself. It
starts with self-pride. I asked my students to come up with one thing they
were proud of, something they did themselves that they were determined to
do well. They soon understood that you could not take pride in something
someone else has done. You can only take pride in what you have done.
Taking pride in yourself is the start of self-pride and self-motivation.
Once a child has pride in himself or herself, he or she will then become part
of the community and a part of its preservation. It becomes harder to use
graffiti and violence if you own part of the community.
If a child doesn’t feel he or she is part of the community, then there isn’t
any need to speak to him or her about pride in the community. After the Los
Angeles riots, following the Rodney King beating trial of the L.A. police
officers, I asked some San Diego youths their thoughts about the violence.
They immediately began to express pleasure in the violence and especially
the Koreans targeted in some of the violence. They had begun to believe the
stereotypes about Korean grocers and felt it was justified to burn down their
businesses. They felt the high price they charged for merchandise was just
an example of racist pricing against black people. In general they felt like
victims, and the Koreans were the new victimizers.
However, their attitudes changed after further discussions based upon
real-life logic and contemplation. I used the example of a foreign-owned
store a few blocks from the school that all of the students knew about. It
was open from 7 a.m. until midnight most nights and was the only store
open that late in the neighborhood. Across the street was another foreign-
owned gas station also open late at night, operated by a family of recent
immigrants.
The questions I asked them were very simple. If you burned down those
family businesses: (1) Where would your mother go when she needed baby
milk at 10 p.m. and (2) How far will you walk to get candy, drinks or
anything else you may want on the way to school and (3) How far would
your father have to drive to get gas before going to work? After the riots,
these businesses are lost and their convenience will be missed.
My young friends thought we (black people) should own the stores
instead of the foreigners. I agreed it would be nice to do that, but I had
another question for them. Would they be willing to reside 8 to 10 in a
family, in a two-bedroom house, just to make a down payment on the store?
Would they be willing to stop hanging out with their friends at the mall and
help run the business and keep it open all night? You see, they didn’t
understand “sacrifice.” You cannot get ahead without sacrifice.
If You Are Not Willing To Sacrifice You Are Not Willing To Succeed
Every successful person known has had to sacrifice much to attain his or
her goals. We ridicule the bookworm who sacrificed sports, popularity and
acceptance in order to study and achieve the goals of going to college. A
sports hero will tell you about the sacrifice in practice and discipline in order
to achieve the goals. Goals and dreams are different. A dream is something
you think would be nice to do, but a goal is something you think you can do.
We should turn more of our dreams into goals and then our goals into plans.
A plan is something you are doing. Every plan must include a list of
sacrifices. What are you willing to pay for your dreams, goals and plans? If
you do not know what you will sacrifice, then you do not really know what
you want. When a young person talks to me about his/her plans I ask about
the sacrifices.