Deep C.U.T.
(Complex Unaddressed Trauma)


Once upon a time, the United States of America sent young men and women into a war-zone to protect its interests. In these war zones, these soldiers witnessed and experienced the worst of human atrocities imaginable - rapes, killings, mass murders, kidnappings, decapitations, amputations, burning, torture - a place and condition where merely living to see the next day was a personal goal fueled by memories and the desirous hope of one day returning home.

The soldiers lived, fought, and survived in this heinous environment for varying time periods: Some for 6 months, some for 1 year, and the longest for 2 years. Some were even sent back after serving an initial tour.

All of these soldiers served in different capacities; some served in the field as Infantry and/or Special-Ops, other as Cooks, Supply, etc., and for different time periods, thus garnering them different experiences. However, as a result of these experiences, which were all traumatic in their own right, the soldiers all developed varying degrees of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) – Normal, Acute, Uncomplicated, Comorbid, and Complex; the latter being the most severe.

Coincidentally, the soldier’s deployment tours all end at the same time to which they are released to go back to their families. However, the United States of America has just gone through an economic turmoil to which funds and resources have been severely depleted with none being reserved for the treatment of the soldiers’ debilitating conditions of PTSD. No debriefings; no therapy; no medicine; no assistance; nothing.

However, what the United States of America did have was land, and instead, offers the land to the soldiers as an alternative with the suggestion that the soldiers could either sale the land for profit and pay for their own treatment, or, they can use the land to build businesses to which they could use the business profits for same.

So, the soldiers accept the land and decide that it would be more feasible to build businesses on the land with the hope that this would provide them an immense return on their investments. So the soldiers along with their unaddressed PTSD move onto this land to build homes and business which proves to be a long, slow process, as rebuilding generally is.

In the meantime, many other soldiers returning from the war-zone with PTSD are met with the same fate and impenitence from the government of the United States of America, and resort to moving to this now-community of soldiers with unaddressed PTSD that varies just as much as the soldiers themselves: Young, old, male, female, light, dark, homosexual, heterosexual, etc. In fact, the main fundamental thing that they all have in common is that they all were sent by the same country to suffer the same traumatic experience.

So before reading further, ask yourself the following questions:

How do you think that this community of individuals with varying degrees of unaddressed PTSD would function? How would they interact with or treat one another? What would their community be like? Would their businesses and community be successful? Why or why not?

How would they interact with the larger community outside of their own? How would the larger community treat them? Would they be accepted and embraced with open arms? Would they be seen as equals?

Now, suppose that instead of enduring these traumatic conditions for 6 months, 1 year, or for 2 years, suppose that they had to endure it for 400 years.

Would their condition be more tenuous and complex?

Isn’t it safe and in fact reasonable to deduce that if someone can be exposed to a traumatic environment for 6 months to 2 years and acquire PTSD, that exposure to such conditions for 400 years – which, by the way, implies an egregious amount of repetitiveness, intention and institutionalization of the trauma (i.e. Jim Crow laws) - would result in the most tiered, fragmented, and complex form of PTSD?

Complex Post-Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (C-PTSD) is a psychological injury that results from protracted exposure to prolonged and repeated social and/or interpersonal trauma with lack or loss of control, disempowerment, and in the context of either captivity or entrapment, i.e. the lack of a viable escape route for the victim. – http://www.en.wikipedia.org/

So, by definition, C-PTSD would be the minimum of what such victims (i.e. exposure to 400 years of trauma) would/could acquire.

Many of the available definitions on C-PTSD site the circumstance of Prisoners Of War (POW’s) as an experience/trauma that could create it, and one could most certainly argue the minimal differences – if there are any - between a POW and a Slave.

For example, according to the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/complex-ptsd.asp), symptoms of C-PTSD include but are not limited to the following:

***Alterations in how the perpetrator is perceived. Examples include attributing total power to the perpetrator, becoming preoccupied with the relationship to the perpetrator, or preoccupied with revenge


***Changes in self-perception. May include helplessness, shame, guilt, stigma, and a sense of being completely different from other human beings.

- This possibly explains the coveted use of the “N-word” that is exercised by part of the black community; a stigma turned term of endearment, not unlike a rape victim embracing promiscuity.


***Alterations in relations with others. Examples include isolation, distrust, or a repeated search for a rescuer

- “A repeated search for a rescuer” – this could possibly explain the Black community’s endeavored search for Black leadership and/or representation; the same being the impetus resulting in the outcome of 97% of the African-American community voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Additionally, this could also explain the mainstay of religion in the Black community (i.e. awaiting rescue by the Savior Jesus Christ), and/or why the areas that comprise the “Bible Belt” are also the areas where Slavery was the most affluent and vociferous.

- And to take it a step further, what impact could the Bible have – which sanctioned the use of slavery in Leviticus 25:44 and Exodus 21:20-21 – on an enslaved people who sought its scriptures for rescue from the very conditions that it arguably justified? Could it possibly alter how they perceive their perpetrator by depicting Him as also the rescuer?

***Change in one’s system of meanings. May include a loss of sustaining faith or a sense of hopelessness and despair

- In addition to the previous symptom, this may explain the success of Obama’s campaign slogan, “Hope That We Can Believe In.”

All scathing similarities and/or parallels aside, the horrific and traumatic conditions of Slavery are undeniable, as are the conditions/results of war and concentration camps, the latter two being examples of long-term traumas offered by Dr. Judith Herman. Probably the most blatant difference between the 3 is that only one of them was made legal (slavery) and in fact was valued as an economic necessity.

When you consider that the victims and the descendants of the victims of the long-term trauma of Slavery still wrestle with an unaddressed and untreated trauma in a current environment where remnants of the pro-slavery line of thinking have disappeared in rhetoric only, then, the reason behind the social/racial challenges and upheavals still evident and persistent in society today become more clear and understandable, and consequently, more ominous and in need of sincere recovery.

However, as stated by Dr. Judith Lewis Herman in her second book Trauma and Recovery, recovery from C-PTSD is divided into 3 stages (and these are subsequently divided into more stages): Establishing Safety, Remembrance and Mourning for What was Lost, and Reconnecting to Society.

Accordingly, Dr. Herman also believe that before these stages can work, a healing relationship must be established, and that recovery can only come within a relationship where the survivor is empowered.

Regardless of the name that we attach to the disorder, whether it is PTSD, C-PTSD, Shell Shock or what-have-you, it is undeniable that society is in fact stumbling its way through a deep C.U.T. - a Complex Unaddressed/Untreated Trauma; and like any deep cut that goes untreated and/or unaddressed, the wound will bleed out and become infected, effectively weakening the immediate area of trauma before systemically affecting the entire body until death.

To simply conceal, deny, and/or ignore the C.U.T. merely invites greater injury and trauma. And to the extent that society continues to ignore and/or instigate the unaddressed and untreated trauma of its own brethren and sistren - be it for capitalistic gain or out of pure hatred and intolerance which are all symptoms of the trauma - is to this extent that it proves the perpetrators and ignorers to be just as psychologically sick, if not sicker, than the victims themselves.

The responsibility of healing belongs to us all.


Tungz

BP

I am the black essence that courses though the veins of BP

Stolen from the womb of the earth I bleed to lubricate the cogs of America’s machinations

Dark; my richness has succumbed to the pimps of economic auction blocks as my womb remains raped and pillaged by throbbing shafts offered by below-average sized cocks

Left to wade in the water my capturer laments his loss and denies his responsibility as blackness flees its metal confines

Left crude I stay afloat within an environment designed for my submersion

I wonder what is more unnatural, their treatment of me, or the environment that they’ve left me in?

Suffocated and suffocating, genuine hands reach out to BP and pull back excuses

A vain moratorium intentionally instigates my fate as it foretells of heavier chains to come through the flow of ink

The truth of me still unknown; presumed a disaster

Forgotten

Ignored; left to coagulate in the shallow recesses of obscurity unless refined to unnatural specs

Deemed useless until my blackness is removed, my strength is birthed from the death of my ancestors

Ignorance hides the fate of my removal as the world trembles in my absence

This place now rudely awakened to the realization that none of this would work without me

It never has

Therefore, they whisper their dependency while shouting their declarations of independence as they endeavor to steal me from another country

They even use me to use me; desiring and detesting my presence all in the same breath

Revolution lies dormant in my rebirth only to offer the fire that lies beneath the surface

For such is the case for the oil of British Petroleum

The slick of the Black President

And the souls of Black People

BP


Tungz

In A State of Ignorance


America: A nation of Immigrants whose very language comes with a Green card and adoption papers finds its child, Arizona, sinking in a rising sea of Intolerance as it grasps at the stone buoy of Ignorance

Still sinking…

Dragged down by the weight of primal stupidity its leadership are Guests who believe themselves to be Hosts

Rid Arizona of all its Immigrants and all that would remain are Native Americans; moved back from reservations to redemption.

What is an illegal citizen? Can a thief of land fault a trespasser?

The word “immigrant” indirectly redefined to only reference the Mexican people

If Ignorance were a mirror then Arizona would be its reflection; equally reflected between the silent lines of Obama’s Preventative Detention plan

You just look like a problem! I believe that you may create a problem in the future!!! Therefore, I sentence you to….

Disappear

Words soon to precede the new minority report

A new precedence set by the President, fanning the flames of Arizona’s blazing hatred.

If two wrongs don’t make a right then it is quite clear why American is getting left.

Such a State of Ignorance that breathes life back into the black lungs of Willie Lynch can hardly claim the birthright of Greatness, but instead, signs the death certificate of Dignity

If a great nation is judged by the way that it treats the least among them, then insult is added to injury in the mere fact that a “least” even exists.

A first class nation cannot have second class citizens.

Color subjugated

Even if Gold and/or Oil could speak America would call it a liar and a terrorist

But, by way of its silence it is exploited. By fear of loss it is captured and exiled

Oh the irony

The love of America is now gauged by the degree that one shares in its hate

The more you hate, the more you love

A new trail of tears now extends through Arizona’s heart


Tungz

Black Burdens / White Saviours

As Haitian survivors continue to be pulled from the debris of a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred on January 12, 2010, and as a violent aftershock of a 6.1 magnitude curiously and conveniently arrived this morning in hopes of finishing the job, major media sources flood the airwaves in a Hollywood-esque, “good-guys-wear/are-white” fashion depicting numbers of white families graciously opening their doors to black children at the expense and downplaying of black families who are responsibly doing the same.

Even more curious is the rate at which they are disseminating the Haitian children, in a fashion reminiscent of stray animals in pet shelters, with the quick and convenient classification of "orphans" ignoring the effort and concern to confirm whether or not the parents or next-of-kin are amongst the survivors.

And to further add insult to injury, President Obama has selected former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Jr. to be the two faces (pardon the pun) of the Haiti relief and rescue effort; two presidents who arguably not only created, contributed to, and exacerbated political mishandlings with Haiti that proved to be even more devastating than the earthquake itself, but who also have track records of being all but helpful in addressing atrocities that largely impacted Black people; namely, Clinton and the Rwanda genocide, and Bush and the Hurricane Katrina abandonment….for lack of a better term.

Such efforts of honor and humanness – regardless of race – are beyond admirable and would be invisible if it weren’t for a scathing and demoralizing history to warrant its suspicion and criticism; a history that has seen more of the face of displacement than it has of change.

And such a history, as it relates to Hollywood and politics, are played out on the same stage in a concerted effort to shape mass opinion and perception that alludes to a larger, more sinister, motive.

From movies about cowboys and Indians, to Tarzan, to war-related films (including the 9/11 films, Flight 93 and World Trade Center), to the more melodramatic films like Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Gran Torino, and The Blind Side, to even the Christian religion, the Caucasian man has always cast himself as the savior - the protagonist and the hero - of a world that would otherwise crumble in the hands of its melanin-enriched, swarthy, helpless, purportedly less civilized inhabitants.

The intent – although sometimes naively unconscious - is to bastardize blackness; to portray black people as being hopeless and/or incapable of contributing anything morally or intellectually substantial as it relates to the progression or well-being of mankind. In fact, in the film World Trade Center, a supposed “true story”, two of the real-life heroes, both African American men, Jason Thomas and Bruce Reynolds, came forth to reveal the omission of their likenesses from the film, which were conveniently replaced by Caucasian actors, and conveniently dismissed by the makers as accidental oversights.

Yeah, right.

But beyond popular culture, society takes an even more direct effort of indoctrination. The American education system – for example - has gone through great lengths to teach our children that the freedom of African slaves was secured predominantly through the sympathies of white abolitionists as well as by way of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, while downplaying and minimizing the effectiveness and successes of the many slave rebellions, revolts, and uprisings conveniently and aggressively classifying them as mostly “failures”.

As a result, an inferiority complex is offered to blacks and a superiority complex is offered to whites, merely proving that mis-education is a two-way street, and media shouldn’t be interpreted any differently.

However, the reason for such a paradigm is simple: Black independence is threatening, and black heroes are prohibited unless they are only saving, representing, or liberating black people in unsubstantial proportions. Even then, particularly when the proportions of those saved exceed the limits of the Caucasian comfort-zone, the hero is labeled and depicted more or less as an antagonist or a threat (i.e. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Tousaint L'Ouveture, etc.).

Moreover, a black hero liberating a white victim is viewed as blasphemous and belittling; a subliminal self-admittance of white inferiority, incompetence, and dependency.

Therefore, black/brown people killing white people is viewed as an unforgivable aberration; a terroristic, immoral, and irreverent act; while white people killing black/brown people (i.e. cowboys and Indians, Christopher Columbus, War on Iraq, etc.) is viewed as necessary; a heroic, valiant, pioneering, and patriotic act.


“The theory of human culture and its aims has worked itself through warp and woof of our daily thought with a thoroughness that few realize. Everything great, good, efficient, fair, and honorable is “white”; everything mean, bad, blundering, cheating, and dishonorable is “yellow”; a bad taste is Brown; and the devil is “black”. The changes of this theme are continually rung in picture and story, in newspaper heading and moving-picture, in sermon and school book, until, of course, the King can do no wrong, - a White Man is always right and a Black Man has no rights which a white man is bound to respect.” – W.E.B. Du Bois – “The Souls of White Folk”


But the true history of blackness reveals something different despite what has been made “official” for the history books, documentaries, and CNN specials. There is something to be said about a people who continue to exist and persist in a world that has become numb and apathetic to its demise, portrayed as black burdens and attacked continuously with silent weapons that strut with the crooked gait of Jim Crow.

Such a strength is seen in the people of Haiti; a people who unapologetically and successfully rebelled against the heels of oppression to become the first post-colonial, independent black-led nation. And it is this that they fear; a moral and determined hardiness that finds the Powers-That-Be asking themselves, “Why won’t they just die?”, and being the ignorant people that these Powers believe them to be, the most befitting answer would likely be, “Because they just don’t know how.”

So, as it was this morning, when you see a little 5-yr old black boy and girl being pulled out alive from three levels of debris and devastation 8 days after the earthquake, don’t only celebrate their survival, but celebrate their resilience, for it demarks a heart and a history that has suffered through many attempted burials and cover-ups only to resurrect and expose the lie of the White Saviors.

Peaces,


Tungz

Haiti: The New Orleans of the Western Hemisphere

As information and images of the devastation in Haiti continue to filter in, one may find it particularly difficult to separate them from another devastating event in our not-so-distance past: Hurricane Katrina.

Body-lined streets amid rubble, debris, and makeshift tents expose poor, grief-stricken brown faces – young and old - long condemned and dismissed as the world’s derelicts, refugees, looters, and insurgents, now soon to become pawns in a capitalistic and opportunistic mélange that will be conveniently packaged and sold as a compassionate humanitarian effort.

That is not to say – by any means - that the heartfelt outpouring of benevolence and support are in vain; quite the contrary. However, it does recognize and acknowledge that there are organizations – particularly those that have large access to media - that will opportunistically take advantage of such a heart-tugging moment.

It also raises the question that if an organization were really concerned and dedicated to the welfare and well-being of a people, particularly an organization that can easily obtain and/or access hundreds of millions of dollars, then why would such an organization wait until a country or a community reached utter devastation before extending such a lucrative helping hand, particularly, when the victims happen to have been amongst the poorest of the poor for many years.

Of course – and conveniently – the reason of bureaucratic red-tape will serve to be this organizations justification for remaining hands-off. But it seems that at this juncture, this red-tape has also succumbed to the throws of the devastation; or, and more likely, the red-tape merely has transformed into a red scale that has now tipped in favor of the organization, finding the organization “investing” – in the guise of contributions - millions of dollars in a community that it historically has shown little concern or regard.

So the question now becomes ‘what does this organization stand to gain now that it couldn’t have before?’ Gentrification on a larger scale is not beyond reason or reality, leaving Haiti to be the new future hotspot for Spring Breaks, weddings, and vacation getaways in posh resorts, while the natives will serve as its employees and ambient decorative reminders of what Haiti used to be.

If there is one thing – of the many – that Hurricane Katrina has taught us, it is that the powers-that-be do not care about its poor and under-privileged; particularly, its Brown poor and under-privileged.

Two poor, predominantly Black lands of French and African heritage now wracked and ravaged by presumed natural disasters, only to await the approach of the even more sinister quake of intolerance and abandonment, who, as it relates to Haiti, was the first nation who gained its independence by way of a successful slave rebellion; and who, as it relates to New Orleans, is the home of the largest slave rebellion on U.S. territory (1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion), altogether finds very little in the way of coincidence……if such a thing exists.

However, such a history merely establishes the fact that this situation is far from hopeless, particularly when you have true humanitarians like Wyclef Jean - an American musical artist and Haitian immigrant with an extensive history of providing aid to the impoverished country even before his non-governmental organization, Yele Haiti, was established – taking the initiative and doing the groundwork of actually working and communicating directly with those most effected (http://www.yele.org/)

There are those who walk the walk, then, there are those who appoint questionable government figureheads and agencies that request cash only in lieu of bottled-water, blankets, and clothing. However, if it walks like a politician and talks like a politician, then it probably is a politician.

Therefore, in acting out of the benevolence of ones heart, it becomes even more imperative to not let it cloud the capacity of reason of ones mind. Maya Angelou said it best: “If someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Therefore, if you see an organization that has a history of exploiting people for profit; that fails to live up to the ideals that it boasts in its mantras and anthems; that can’t address the issues within its own borders much less the issues in others; you can surmise within reason that it’s agencies don’t fall far from the tree.

Remember Katrina. Bless Haiti.


Tungz