What is the box from within which so many of us seek to escape: to become something else; to become something more; to become anything other than what we are?
To the old thoughts of Heraclitus, “No man steps in the same river twice,” there is a natural state of change as a universal constant as we grow older and hopefully self-actualize, but there is also an unnatural: to run from the shadow of what you are and will always be from the realm of which we cannot change.
The writings of Kant and Marcus Aurelius have helped me to master my emotions when it comes to stabilizing my identity and completing the process of integration with western civilization.
Through understanding that I am not my thoughts, I began looking inward, and started willfully exposing myself to what hurt me before, in incremental doses that I could handle.
The way to become a káifourin is not to run from what you are, but to embrace it.
That’s one of the core, fundamental misunderstandings that many people have when they first learn of what it is that we’ve done. Typically, any previous attempts at declaring cultural independence from African-Americans have failed not so much because people (like mulattoes) haven’t thought about doing so, or tried; it is in the fact that they were doing it for the wrong reasons: to run away from the concept of being black or black-dominant.
They were not integrating with their Jungian shadows; they were running from them, trying to hide the weaknesses of their psychologies through an attempt of rebranding what they are.
However, this never works because the world never forgets what you are.
However, you can always tell whether or not they are the real thing by their reaction to being called a “negro,” “Negroid,” or whatever else would pertain to their respective phenotype if not black-dominant, derogatory or not.
Many of our age would have cracked, in a sense. They would have had a negative emotional response before an analytical one. When a self-identifying white male called me these names, the reason why I was able to laugh was because I was and am legitimately grounded.
You don’t become grounded by running from your shadow; you can only become grounded by facing it.
This is why we didn’t declare “racial” independence, only “cultural” independence. Though culture and genetic haplogroups overlap, they are not one and the same.
Even if he had called me a “nigger,” as a deliberate insult, he would not have moved me. Why? Because it is not that you should try to limit people’s freedom of speech simply because they can say words that you allow to hurt you. It is in understanding why those words hurt you, in the first place. That requires one to first look inward.
If I had called him a “cracker,” for instance, would that have hurt him equally or more? Doubtful.
Why wouldn’t it have hurt him more? There are many psychoanalytical reasons why that we can dissect. But I present the thought experiment like this: If Africa had, instead, won every direct and political confrontation with European people throughout history, leading to a black-majority America and European-American slavery (rather than African-American slavery)…
…if the roles had been reversed and he called me a nigger then, would it bother me? Probably not. Not as much as calling him a cracker would, in that alternate universe scenario.
Why?
And answering that question holds one of the greatest keys to cultural individuation.
Yes, it’s simply insecurity, but the reason why the insecurity tends to have such emotional power over many African-Americans is because the weight of the historical truth of our black ancestors’ failures becomes too much to bear in the heat of the moment.
Many of them feel that they are the history, which is part of the mental weight that holds them down, always thinking that they are behind any whites in the country, even if that white person is on welfare in contrast with a black millionaire basketball player.
Our declaration of independence, therein, was not to run from the history but to simply lay it to rest within ourselves. It is to say, “Okay, we acknowledge that we are neither our emotions (in reference to the perspective of Greco-Roman stoicism), nor are we the history. We are not our ancestors, and we can start a new platform as a new page in history on which we analyze the decisions of the past, where our ancestors were lacking in language and other cultural elements…and simply build.
Through the process of doing this, to build our own language, technology, etc. it is not an act of running from our shadows, but the very real and actionable solution to addressing them.
It is to respond to a genuine racist (rather than a wrongfully alleged one), not through words, but through genuine demonstration of character that…
“Yes, my African ancestors had an underdeveloped language, but that has nothing to do with me now. In fact, I have a more advanced language than you do, now, one that gives me a great advantage in the international market that you lack.”
It is to say, “You can criticize my African ancestors all you want. In fact, thank you for doing so, because in your criticism, whether filled with vitriol or not, all your words do is serve the purpose of revealing to me the areas in which cultural innovation is, indeed, needed. This gives me purpose, a reason to live and get up in the morning, leading to contentment and well-lived life. I bear the burden of the international reputation of my African ancestors, as well with the awareness of how their genetic memory may be affecting me that I can free myself from with self-awareness, forthrightly into the world, through addressing the origins of character at the source of their lack of honor…and thus build to counter it.”
When you can genuinely look someone in the eyes and say that…there’s not a single name they could call you in all the world that could hurt your feelings, because you know that none of it actually applies to you. Therein, any names from the past just mean that the person calling you them is genuinely outdated, and you can demonstrate how outdated they actually are, without ever having to argue.
…and thus laugh, because you have genuine inner power.
…which dissipates any insecurity you may feel because you faced that aspect of your shadow.
So, even if you’re not black or black-dominant, what you can learn from this post is not to run from what you are, but to pause any time there’s a spike of negative emotion upon being called something that hurts your feelings pertaining to your cultural heritage.
Introspectively analyze why it hurts you, then address what you can do to make it untrue with the power of your own actions, thereby making you superior to your ancestors…higher evolved.
Don’t forget what you are; don’t try to run from it. Embrace it, and build upon it.
