American White Supremacy and Racial Domestic Abuse

By Robert Muhammad -Guest Columnist- | Last updated: Oct 2, 2014 - 8:08:48 PM

Video screenshots of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by New York City police in broad daylight.

Doesn’t it seem rather strange that during a time when Black people (especially Black males) are being shot down, choked to death, and abused in the streets of America by police forces, and those who want to be police; that suddenly, the media has switched focus to a witch hunt against the Black male as the poster child perpetrator of all kinds of domestic abuse?

Is this a coincidence? Or is it a racist ploy to divert our attention away from the racial domestic (American) abuse that has been historically directed against Black people by the system of White supremacy in the U.S.?

Where is the White media’s indignation at the racial domestic abuse in Ferguson, Mo.; where multiple eyewitness accounts, and audio recorded evidence shows that White officer Darren Wilson shot and killed an unarmed Mike Brown with his hands up? The authorities have yet to issue a criminal indictment against this officer.

What about the racial domestic abuse against Eric Garner who was choked to death by New York City police in broad daylight, in front of multiple witnesses? Why aren’t the White officers who murdered Mr. Garner being vilified and their faces splashed across our media screens? Why have they not been charged and indicted?

Why isn’t White California highway patrolman Daniel Andrew being vilified by the White media for racial domestic abuse in the form of a vicious beating that he inflicted on Marlene Pinnock, a 51-year-old Black grandmother? Where is the outrage? Where are the media panel discussions? Where are the editorials?

And what about the White Oklahoma City policeman Daniel Holtzclaw, who was recently arrested and charged with sexually assaulting numerous Black women in the Oklahoma City area, and has now been released on bond? Have you seen White media pundit indignation at this abuser of women?

Why is it only a national news story when Black men are accused of abusing women?

If we were to accept the current White media narrative on the issue of violence and domestic abuse, we would almost be forced to believe that Black men in America are somehow genetically disposed, to the exclusion of all other men, to abuse women and children.

Over the past two weeks, the names and faces that have been linked to the domestic abuse of women and children have been football players Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Jonathan Dwyer, Adrian Peterson, Brandon Marshall, and boxer Mike Tyson—all Black males.

But what about the White U.S. District Court Judge from Alabama, Mark Fuller, who was arrested and charged with beating his wife on Aug. 10 of this year?

Judge Fuller is presently still sitting on the bench passing judgment on other citizens. Have you heard any calls in the White media for him to step down or resign?

Have you heard anything about this judge at all?

If members of the White controlled media are really sincere about the subject of domestic abuse, they should be willing to expose the overarching racial domestic abuse that has been inflicted on Black people in America for the past 400 years.

Who were the first abusers of Black men and women in America? From where did Black parents learn to whip their children in the American South? Who whipped and abused Black adults and children on Southern plantations in this country for over 300 years? If Adrian Peterson whipped his male children with a switch, what is at the historical root of his behavior?

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has informed us that when Black people were stolen from their African homeland, and forced into chattel slavery, they or we were robbed of our names, our language and our culture.

As an oppressed and traumatized people we were forced and socialized into the cultural ways and practices of the dominant White supremacy culture. In many instances we were forced to adopt the same pathological abusive behavior of the slave master which was then directed inwards against ourselves.

The remnants of these behavior patterns are still strong in many Black communities in America to this day. So what are the historical roots of some of these patterns of behavior?

On page 174 of his classic work, “The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South,” author Kenneth M. Stampp explains how plantation owners in the South instilled fear of the White man into his slaves, he states; “But the whip was the most common instrument of punishment-indeed, it was the emblem of the master’s authority. Nearly every slaveholder used it, and few grown slaves escaped it entirely. Defenders of the institution conceded that corporal punishment was essential in certain situations; some were convinced that it was better than any other remedy.”

It must be noted that many slaves were forced, under the threat of being whipped themselves, to inflict “corporal punishment” on other slaves by order of the slave master for perceived rebellious attitudes or behavior.

It is also very important to note that the Black slaves was often used as secondary instruments to reinforce submission to White authority and fear of the slave master in their own children.

In the book titled, “Slavery: The African American Psychic Trauma,” by Sultan and Naimah Latif, the authors make the following observations about social engineering of behavior of Black people on Southern plantations: “The fear of Whites was deeply impressed in the minds of the Black slave. Disobedience might mean torture or death. It was the duty of the parents to protect their children by instilling fear and obedience of the White man. Unknowingly to this day some African-American parents teach their children fear of Whites.” The authors go on to state, “Many common disciplinary practices of African-American parents can be traced to the slavery time philosophy of instilling fear into the child.”

So if football player Adrian Peterson is demonized for taking a switch to his children, as many of our Black parents and grandparents did in the South, and even in the North, and if Black males and females are still following engineered behavior patterns of self-hatred and abuse, what about the system of slavery and White supremacy that has historically molded this behavior?

Why is there no ongoing demonization in the White mainstream media of the system of American White supremacy that created this behavior?

Maybe it’s because a serious discussion about the effects of the system of White supremacy on Black people in America, would also raise the question of repair or reparations for the psychic damage done to our people from over 300 years of chattel slavery, and over 150 years of de facto apartheid.

Robert Muhammad is a Chicago-based freelance writer/ researcher, and member of the Nation of Islam. He can be contacted at [email protected].

The Final Call