Bullies – Victims
And the Game of Thrones
Perspective 5 of 13 | The Slavery Project
It is often said that life is a game.
A look at history reveals a very clear pattern present in most societies since… Forever.
And that is: As long as human beings have sought to oppress each other, they have done so.
We learn from history the goal is for the bully to come out on top at the expense of the victim. Then, there is a turn of events, where – even if it goes on for a while – the victim retaliates in some way – either by stealth or more openly – and the roles are reversed. Eventually the victim has summoned enough control to change things around.
To this day, the bully-victim dynamic is played out on various levels in social cultures around the world. At times, there is a direct bully-victim relationship between the government and the people, like the one that inspired the French Revolution in the late 1700s. Or at times governments engage the people to turn on each other like during China’s Cultural Revolution. Additionally, individual people in societies play out these Game of Thrones roles in an attempt to get what they want from others at work or in their families or social circles. Bosses apply pressure to workers, wives to husbands and adults to children. The pressure to conform to another person’s agenda is prevalent. In this way, we seek to rule over others by means of our governments and by means of our interpersonal relationships with others.
After some time though, the individuals being controlled grow tired of the control and seek freedom. This is why battered women eventually leave their spouses, this is why children rebel against parents, this is why employees go on strike. History, as well as our Present, shows us that nobody really wants to be controlled. It is not our nature. Our Nature is the freedom to be our own Guide because We are Sovereign Beings.
So when it came to american chattal slavery, likewise, the nature of owning another person or another culture for life was destined to fail. While there were certainly those who were kinder slave masters than others, there was disagreement as to how to go about preventing slaves from running away or from retaliation. Some felt it was necessary to be harsh and this harshness brought out the absolute worst in them, a savagery, a barbarism that over time became a part of the normal way of life – to their embarrassment. It’s not as if white slave owners regressed to this state and then were proud of it. Source documents reveal they tried to hide how bad it was when people [from the North] came down to investigate the rumors of how they were living. This is where the notion of the “happy slave” came from, an attempt to diffuse attention away from the casual violence that came to define southern culture.
This explains why there is an aversion to learning about or even revealing the true nature of American slavery. Quite frankly, white people are embarrassed by it, which is why they like to avoid the topic. The Conscience was also a big player in that the fear that blacks would retaliate was strong at that time and it is a belief that still comes up today.
[To Be Clear: All slave masters were not wicked or bad people with some simply availing themselves of the then-customary practice of holding slaves and hiring slaves. But this particular article discusses why american slavery could not last.]
The dominant cultural belief and practice of what prevailed in the south was that slaves were inferior people that warranted uncommon and hateful treatment. These were not isolated incidents but the common practice of the day. The practice of lifelong and generational enslavement, with no recognition of God given rights, removing children from parents, rape and other violent and heinous crimes against humanity is never sustainable.
It was a gradual decline but southern society arrived at the point where they were out of control. When slaves were first brought to America, they were not enslaved for life and they had rights. But new country, new rules. Over time, as slaves began to get free through various legal means, new laws were created, slowly, one by one, that gradually removed the rights of slaves and made it progressively more difficult to be freed or to have any rights at all. As greed set into the hearts of slave owners, the demands they put upon the slaves became more and more unreasonable. They created a toxic society.
And since the Africans were very far from home, who could they get to advocate for them? There was no one.
The Game of Thrones.
Just like a see-saw, the interpersonal dynamics that make up our humanity often reflect this bully-victim game of thrones so often played out in our societies. The bully is up, then the victim is up, then the bully is up, then the victim is up, with always one group trying to gain control. Indeed there is nothing new under the sun [Ecclesiates 1:9].
Yet despite this inevitable outcome, there is still an attempt to suppress the rights of others Today. Oppressors tend to approach this like the lottery: Hey ya never know…
American chattel slavery, for all its injustices and for all its Resolutions was another example of the Game of Thrones. That battle continued for many years after slavery ended, with new laws being enacted that effectively reenslaved blacks all over again because resistance to change is also a human thing.
Our Human History is a battle of Wills.
Black history is no different.
It is human history in all its glory, in all its tragedy.
I see it as such.
I respect it as such.
Do You?
Just bear in mind what was, was. What happened, happened.
And nothing anyone ever does will ever change that.
So what do we do to Recover Emotionally?
We come to terms with the reality of: I cannot change the past.
We learn from our mistakes as a society: Never allow separation of the People for any reason!
We move on: What can I do Now to Create the life I want?
And We do what we were created to do.
RISE.
We rise Above the abuse.
We rise Above the stereotypes.
We rise Above the injustice.
How?
We stop externalizing our power to others,
We stop externalizing out power to others,
And then
WE STOP.. EXTERNALIZING.. OUR POWER ..TO OTHERS..
We stop arguing for our limitations and embrace the Power we have within.
We stop the belief that some-one has to do some-thing in order for us to be happy with who we are as a Culture.
We can be happy anyway.
That recognition on the television set that awaits us, when we will finally hear the words that the wealth gap has closed between blacks and whites and that no black person anywhere in the world has ever done anything bad ever again – lest that reflect poorly on us all. That’s right, we are eagerly awaiting when black people across the world have UNILATERALLY solved the problem of poverty, crime and have created the perfect Black Utopia, because then – and only then – will be finally be accepted!!!!!
Once we’re perfect we will be accepted!!!
Then we’ll get the thank yous we never got, and the reparations that were never disbursed, the bullying will stop, and the belief that we need to be on the in-club – that is, liked and accepted by those outside of our culture in order to be happy – will finally be realized!
Accepted by others!!!
Wouldn’t it be nice? Sure!!
However…
The world we live in…
Kind of…
Nobody cares.
(I mean…if you are reading this and are black, how much do YOU care about the struggles of other cultures?)
Black people don’t need to be on the in-club.
Afro American Blacks ARE the in-club.
Its time we started seeing ourselves as such. Despite enormous setbacks, we floated to the surface anyway and influenced the entire world with our Afro American Culture.
So why not accept the Beauty that is us and to hell with anyone who doesn’t get it?
Our Sovereignty speaks for itself.
We Are Limitless and We Learn from the Tremendous Resilience, Love, Passion, Strength, Creativity, Ingenuity, Adaptability and Genius of our ancestors, slavery and all.
Because That is a very human thing.
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The Cultural Connection 