Drug Decriminalization in Maryland Through an African Centered Research Paradigm- Analysis and Recommendations

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Scholars of the history of African culture have analyzed this dynamic for decades. One of the most insightful theorists of why historical violence towards people of African descent relates to their current vulnerability to violent death is former City University of New York professor Amos Wilson. In his seminal work titled “Black-on-Black Violence: The Psychodynamics of Black Self- Annihilation in Service of White Domination”, Wilson makes the argument that individuals in the Black community that commit homicide should be viewed as the externalization of a suicidal impulse, writing: “The rites of passage through racist White American-dominated society is extremely stressful for Black youth. This is more so the case for the Black male since he receives the bnint of the White supremacist attack against Black America. Stripped of appropriate male support, guidance, protection, education, and other important coping skills by a White racist system which fears his Afrocentric competence, he is lefi vulnerable to the thousands of little nicks and burns, physical and psychological insults, which cumulatively push him toward self-annihilation. Not allowed the privileges and status of full and unfettered manhood by White racist male domination, a significant number of African American males are miniaturized or are often led to express their “manhood” in self-destructive ways: in ways harmful to other Black males and the Black community in general. Immaturized by White racist oppression, void of overarching and long-term Afrocentric goals which provide them with maximum and healthy control over their impulses (including impulses to kill themselves) they may commit suicide. Without Afrocentric self-definition, possessed by an introjected alien identity, and racked by neurotic and psychotic conflict, the Black male readily becomes subject to White racist psychopolitical, psychopathological promptings and persecutions. Consequently, he may come to think that the only efi‘ecfive solution to his problems lie in physical or mental self-abnegation. To be an African American male in White America is to live with anger and hostility, to feel the need to attack, to violently retaliate, to even the score. These murderous feelings without appropriate catharsis, sublimation, channeling, or targets yet in need of outward expression are often turned inward resulting in self-annihilation. White racist American society, harboring a poorly concealed death-wish against its Black captives, generally leaves but a few outlets for the release of societally provoked Black male rage: all inappropriate! They include the abject submission to oppression, narcosis by drugs or religion, deliberate ignorance, unending, unrewarding protests, futile sub rosa grumbling, over- compensatory status striving, criminality, and homicidal attacks on other Black males or on himself suicide). Having internalized white racist values and attitudes, having been possessed by his introjected white racist demon, the suicidal African American blames his victimized self. Identified with his implanted alien spirit, he harbors a death-wish 4151 Park Heights Avenue, Suite 207, Baltimore, MD 21215 • www.lbsbaltimore.com • (410) 374-7683
against the victims ofWhite racist oppression amongst whom he himself is numbered. Looking at the world through jaundiced white racist eyes, he sees the enemy: And the enemy is himself.” (Wilson,1990). Analysis of Black suicide rates have revealed that the Black suicide rate, far lower than the rate of suicide in the white community, is nearly made up by a high number of Black homiciderelated deaths. Though correlation is not causation, the relationship between these two rates fits perfectly into Wilson’s theory (NPR, 2013). This insight not only places homicide rates in the Black community within the proper historical context, it presents a path towards solutions to the issue, one that, coincidentally, mirrors Kambon’s research on drug use. Creating institutions which can address internalized self-hatred through the establishment of psycho-social integration within the Black community and African identity. Schiele presents ideas on how policy could address these dynamics, specifically among Black young people. Arguing that human social service interventions which center on spiritual work can address violence, writing: “The fundamental recommendation that ensues from the latter discus-sion is to alleviate and eliminate spiritual alienation from the sociocultural fabric of the United States. Most of these activities would have to occur in the macroarenas of human service work, but there is an important role for microlevel human service interventions as well. First, major knowledge validation and information dissemination institutions in the United States should reexamine concepts of the inherent nature of human beings. Institutions such as religious organizations, schools, and the media need to reexplore the value in promoting the pessimistic, inherently mischievous image of humans and the implications it has for fostering unfavorable and antagonistic human relationships. This, of course, requires these institutions to reevaluate some of the core values of Eurocentric culture and their contribution to an extraordinarily violent society. In regard to young people, these institutions must be particularly sensitive to youths because they are impressionistic and because they represent the hope of improving society. One strategy that might be used to alleviate spiritual alienation in these institutions is to encourage a more holistic, spiritual, and optimistic concept of human beings and for adults to serve as greater behavioral models of this notion. This can be achieved by promoting and teaching holistic reasoning among youths to offset the focus on fragmented or analytic reasoning, which some say lays the foundation for the objectification and, ultimately, the exploitation of human beings (see Ani, 1994; Burgest, 1981; Schiele, 1994). 4151 Park Heights Avenue, Suite 207, Baltimore, MD 21215 • www.lbsbaltimore.com • (410) 374-7683
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Drug Decriminalization in Maryland
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Drug Decriminalization in Maryland Through an African Centered Research Paradigm- Analysis and Recommendations

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