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My
Letter To Incarcerated Youth, No. 2
What is the relationship between prisoner and guard? Is it slave versus master?
Foremost, the interactions between captor and captive can vary from person to person. All guards do not behave the same way; neither does every prisoner exhibit an identical pattern of behavior. But a relationship of any kind that is based on distrust, caution or fear will eventually give rise to open hostility.
In prison, the basis of the so-called relationship between guards and prisoners is that guards issue institutional orders and prisoners must comply – or the prisoners suffer the consequences. These consequences include prisoners being placed in solitary confinement in "The Hole," which is known as receiving "hole time," or prisoners are forced to comply through violence inflicted on prisoners.
In the matter of the master-slave concept, there are commonalities between a guard as master and a prisoner as slave.
Similarity between the guard’s role and the master’s role can be found in the guard’s absolute power to control the prisoner. This control is carried out by enforcing rules on the prisoner; closely watching the prisoner to ensure compliance with those rules; punishing, abusing and, if need be, eliminating the prisoner through banishment to solitary confinement or through violence.
On the other hand, the resemblance of the prisoner to the slave is that both are subjected to strict rules, confined like animals, controlled, often brutalized physically as well as psychologically, and deprived of basic human rights.
Dare I take the master-slave connection a step further to point out that many people – of all races and ethnicities – have allowed themselves to be modern-day slaves. Indeed, a person does not have to be Black to exhibit a slave mentality. Unwittingly, too many of us – and it does not matter whether we are Black, Asian, Chicano or White – perpetuate "the Master’s will" through our own self-hatred and destructive behavior. For those individuals who are in denial, here are some recognizable signs of self-perpetuation of slave behavior, be it in prison or in society.
Modern-Day Slave Traits
- A modern-day slave will neglect to educate himself, which in turn creates mental slavery. (During slavery, Blacks were prohibited from learning to read or write. So, these days, everyone should take advantage of the opportunity to get an education.)
- A modern-day slave will swindle and commit other crimes against his own people and others instead of helping to break the chains of poverty by earning an honest living.
- A modern-day slave will perpetuate self-hate through committing violence on people of his same ethnicity, such as black-on-black violence, including murder, which is a form of genocide.
- A modern-day slave will deal, buy and/or use drugs that will make him and others function as slaves (addicts) to drugs, slaves to misery and slaves to defeat.
- A modern-day slave will adopt the wicked ways of the slave master, who disrespected and abused women.
- A modern-day slave will abandon his children – leaving them for someone else to raise – just as the old masters abandoned Black children by selling them off to other slave owners, not caring about their fate.
- A modern-day slave will foolishly commit crimes that cause him to end up behind bars, incarcerated, in mental and physical bondage.
Take a look at this list and then read it again. Look within yourself for any similarities and eliminate your modern-day slave traits. If you cannot admit to any of the seven signs, you are in denial. But all is not lost. The first step toward defeating a slave mentality begins with your acknowledgment that it exists.
