Breaking the Spell of Ghetto Hypnosis

by Nadra Enzi

Some master mind boggler wove a magic spell over Inner City America and took a culture that produced dignity against all odds and replaced it with what we see on a daily basis. If I could find him I’d give him an exorcism courtesy of my size 15 foot!

My parents generation is aghast and wonders what happened. My grandparent’s generation feels cheated, because today’s parade of thugs and hoes threatens to erase all they fought for so long and so well.

The “conservatives” of my generation, culturally not politically in most cases, are mostly men raised by either old fashioned parents or grandparents feel like we’re a lonely outpost promoting a value system that died decades ago.

Surrounded by “men” we can’t dare trust and “women” we can’t risk marrying, we wonder where such mistrust will ultimately lead our community?

This is what conservative Black men consider daily while navigating this landscape. Our lives often assume the dimension of spy novels where inner city people and stories told are subjected to thourough analysis before acceptance.

Ghetto hypnosis spell can only be broken by those in its midst who refuse to keep quiet or turn a blind eye. On a policy level, it means pushing for ending, in all its forms, the welfare state that rewards backward behavior and punishes the urge to be independent.

Changing party affiliation isn’t necessary but demanding policies that take food stamps; taxpayer-funded medical care for mothers and children and public housing off the plate helps break the ghetto hypnosis spell. While liberals will be quick to note there are more White people on public assistance than Blacks, can anyone honestly say we aren’t the worse affected of the two groups?

One thought experiment I share asks what would happen if one day every EBT card was deactivated and their owners told to hunt jobs; start businesses or seek private help to in order to eat- just like the rest of us. Some say it’s a cruel exercise but my response is those of us who don’t have EBT cards have the option to either go hungry or find some money. Is that too much to ask adults who aren’t mentally or physically challenged?

I’d gladly like to to see disabled combat veterans and their injured counterparts in law enforcement; the fire safety profession and other public service occupations get their equivalent of an EBT card as a small token of society’s esteem. Why so little is done for those who give so much always saddens me.

Back to breaking the spell of ghetto hypnosis!

It’s hollow to talk about how “free” Black folks are when so many of us per capita owe our daily bread and life support to the welfare state. When someone else holds the key to your existence in the palm of his hand, I’d hardly call that freedom.

Rush Limbaugh once noted on air that he suspected President Obama of intentionally making the economy bad so he could increase entitlement payouts as a stealth form of reparations to African-Americans. While not a Rush follower, his observation is still worth noting. Central to the Democratic stranglehold on the Black vote is the poisonous premise that they “give” Black folks more than Republicans.

Ghetto hypnosis is an integrated effort to make one group of Americans disproportionate producers of incivility, criminality and other negatives that Black culture simply didn’t mass produce in generations past. Whether this result is intentional or not has yet to be determined.

Every thug and hoe can blame himself for choosing to be less than what they could be. No matter how much the Civil Rights Lobby points at other people, each Black person is the master or mistress of his personal choices. Promoting a junior human being mindset is not the same as promoting equality of opportunity.

I write so much about the inner city and ghetto hypnosis because its salvation doesn’t rest with the nation’s vocal right wing, i.e figureheads like Rush Limbaugh nor the Republican Party per se. To their credit, the right wing has preached against welfare dependence for years but aren’t as well received as Black icons like Bill Cosby who make essentially the same observations.

It will be accomplished by Black people tired of being embarrassed and swamped by behavior you couldn’t bribe one of us to openly perform decades ago.

Black mayors are reeling along with our elected officals generally; Black clergy are ducking for cover and our silent majority who wants better had better open its mouth.

Ghetto hypnosis is the last gasp of an American pathology that always sought to make Black people appear less than what we really were.

Now, the hypnotized freely go out of their way to prove racists right by becoming as vile and violent as propaganda once alleged. Inner city America’s only hope is breaking the spell ourselves.

Quiet as it’s kept, the rest of the country is waiting to see if we can do it. Other groups have done the same in American history, now it’s our turn.

NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT. BLACK is a contributor to HHR Blog he promotes crime prevention and self-development alongside his STREET TEAM OF AMERICA (very) concerned citizens group. nadracaptblack@ymail.com