Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Amos Wilson
March 21, 2014 | Posted by A Moore
The shackles of chattel slavery were removed over a century ago, and legislation has been passed to relinquish the legal
chains that bound Blacks in the Americas to a slave masters balance sheets along with oxen, farm equipment and
other tangible assets. However, no outside actions can remove the mental slavery that occurred, was passed down, and
remains with modern-day Blacks today.
Yet many African descendants are in denial of the long-lasting affects of the traumatically brutal institution. They
often assert that slavery happened long ago, it has nothing to do with them, and Black people should get over it and
take advantage of the freedoms now available to them. However, the emotional and psychological damage caused by
the Transatlantic slave trade was so severe, many people today still struggle to get over it.
Dr. Amos Wilson (February 23,1941 January 14, 1995), a former Professor of Psychology at the City University of
New York, would argue that only a systematic correction in consciousness can help Black people, who were taught to
think as slaves, to truly escape bondage. In one of his lectures, the renowned author who penned books such as The
Developmental Psychology of the Black Child, posed five simple questions to those who believe otherwise. If Wilsons
questions are answered truthfully, they reveal the slave mindset still within most of us.
When Black people were forced to adopt the languages of the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, in essence
they were forced to abandon their own worldview and accept a foreign one that regarded them as servants who
supported the interest of whites. Does the mentality that allowed this relationship to happen still exist among us
today?
Africans have their own religions and concepts of God. Today many of the fears and negative feelings we have towards
the spiritual systems of our ancestors are a direct result of the anti-African ideology that was taught and harshly
enforced on the plantations.
One of the most egregious acts committed by the white supremacist system of religious thought was the formation of
the image of a white man as the son of God. This white male image, which is referred to as Christ and worshipped by
many Black people around the world today, helps to foster a belief that implies that the white man is perfect, good,
supreme and the only source of blessings.