Marvin X: Diary of a Mental Health Street Worker

 But if Hegel was correct in his notion that the oppressor cannot free the slave, that the slave must force the oppressor’s hand, then it is Type II White Supremacy Addiction which if not more resistant to cure, must occupy our primary focus. Type II White Supremacy may be seen as a kind of “niggeritis” or “Negrofication” growing out of an over-identification with the master, who is white. As in any disorder severity of symptoms may vary from mild to moderate or severe.  

--Dr. Nathan Hare

 

 

In my Parable Broken Systems, Broken Minds and Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape and other writings such as How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy and In the Crazy House Called America, I tried to describe the mental health condition of our people from a lay person's point of view, a person who himself suffers mental illness and thus understands some of the trauma and unresolved grief  of people addicted to white supremacy type II.

I have often reported on those persons who visit Academy of da Corner, especially when we set up at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, also at the Berkeley Flea Market, Ashby BART station.
I only know that God has sent me to do this work, so I do so at His request. It is exhausting and some of the stories I hear are crushing to my mind and spirit, to say nothing of the persons I'm speaking about, their trauma and unresolved grief.

Sometimes I question God about why He is having me do this work. Often I want to flea home to write which is the pleasure of my life, but God says, no, you cannot leave now. Your mission is not about money, fame or fortune, though that is what many people want of me. But I must stay focused and if nothing else, remain attentive and simply listen to the people and/or help them with knowledge or even a little money from time to time, if only a dollar or two to get a hamburger, coffer or bus fare.

We know when the people stop by to share their trauma, often because no one else has time listen, and when they get in my face eye ball to eyeball to make sure I am listening and looking at them eye to eye, we know it is not about selling books or some ego trip. No, I am simply a servant of the Great One, so I must humble myself, be patient, say a kind word, give a hug, but most of all, listen.

As our mental condition as a people deteriorates due to emergent American economic  apartheid, yes, as our mental and physical condition depreciates and withers away from mild, moderate to severe, we are seeking new methods of recovery from the addiction to white supremacy type II, a Dr. Nathan Hare term. Dr. Nathan Hare defines Type II addiction to white supremacy in the foreword to my book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy:

But here it may be important to say that the self-help peer group does not require a sociological or a mental health professional, any more than the primordial AA groups from which the mental health profession has profited and learned. Dr. M is a social “doctor” (which etymologically means “teacher”) grappling with a social problem, white supremacy and its punishing residue in the minds of oppressed black individuals and white oppressors who have chosen to reject and come to places where their fathers lied. Oppressors pure and simple, who accept white supremacy, must be dealt with in a later context, as you will not very well be able to keep them in a Black Reconstruction or White Supremacy Destruction Group (or White Supremacy Deconstruction, if you will).

Much in the manner of Hegel in his essay on “Master and Slave,” Marvin senses that the oppressor distorts his own mind as well as the mind of the oppressed. Hence Type I and Type II White Supremacy Addiction. White sociologists and the late black psychologist, Bobby Wright, converged in their findings of pathological personality traits (“the authoritarian personality” and “the racial psychopathic personality,” as Bobby put it). 

But if Hegel was correct in his notion that the oppressor cannot free the slave, that the slave must force the oppressor’s hand, then it is Type II White Supremacy Addiction which if not more resistant to cure, must occupy our primary focus. Type II White Supremacy may be seen as a kind of “niggeritis” or “Negrofication” growing out of an over-identification with the master, who is white. As in any disorder severity of symptoms may vary from mild to moderate or severe.  

--Dr. Nathan Hare

 

And so in seeking a program or prescription for our Addiction to White Supremacy Type II, we are experimenting with the peer group, one on one counseling, biblotherapy, videotherapy, and yes, any means necessary, of course food, clothing and shelter are primary for mental health. Of course homelessness can be eradicated overnight by simply assigning all needy persons living space with a life estate that cannot be sold or transferred.

More recently we have been making home visits to families from various economic classes, from the petit black bourgeoisie to the homeless. As per the homeless, we have opened our home to them as an experiment, especially by attempting to change their diet and allowing them to reside, if only temporarily, in an environment free of stress, including the departure of the doctor for a short time to give the patient a space to look within themselves as the primary problem. .

 

The family model has involved visiting selected families on a regular basis, even spending the night with such families who often "kidnap" the doctor, refusing him permission to leave their abode or even go to sleep for that matter. The family members insist the social doctor continue teaching late into the night.

 

After months of family visits, we have seen a qualitative change in the consciousness of family members. Of course, when persons engage the doctor in close quarters such as the home, the sickness of the doctor emerges so he is aware as he heals the people, he must heal himself in and by the process. In spending several days and nights with persons suffering Addiction to White Supremacy Type II, there is no hiding of contradictions by anyone, including the doctor. Thus such close encounters are beneficial for all, yes, the doctor must seize the opportunity to heal himself from the residue of ravages of addiction to white supremacy type II.

 

There are many casualties on the battlefield. Broken bodies are everywhere, but broken minds must be addressed. We know of no families who lack members with mental health issues, whether mild, moderate or severe. Most mental health workers, especially those with a black consciousness perspective, understand our myriad problems stem directly from the nature and consequences of our addiction to white supremacy, thus the only solution is to confront the enemy and his toxic propaganda 24/7, detoxing from the virus of white supremacy at every turn, for it is a constant, the hostile environment at work in wage slavery jobs, at worship with the patriarchal theology and mythology, in sexual relations based on such sick mythology of domination and ownership, i.e. chattel slavery, see my Mythology of Pussy and Dick.

 

The endgame is that North American men and women must jump out the box of addiction to white supremacy type II which requires them to don the persona of the superman and superwoman. Yes, this will call for a radical overhaul of the mental apparatus, an injection of a truth serum and a revamping of our biochemistry through diet and a physical wellness program. Doctor heal thyself: I am attempting to do so, but like most of us, our primary problem is laziness and penchant for bad habits that can and must be converted to good and positive ones. So let us all be lions of Africa, in honor of ancestor Nelson Mandela! He spent 27 years in prison, but many of us are spending decades upon decades in the prison of our minds! Baldwin said it's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad! He said this in my 1968 interview, most certainly we have now reached that point of stark raving madness.

--Marvin X

12/7/13

 

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Why not invite Marvin X to speak on your campus, conference, festival? 510-200-4164, jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Tentative schedule

December 26 Kwanza, African American Museum, Fresno CA
February 4, New York University, Amiri Baraka host
February 21 Fresno City College, Khendi Solwazi host
February 22, Fresno Chapter NAACP, Pamela Young, President, host
February 28, March 1-2, Black Arts Movement Conference, University of California, Merced,
produced by Kim Macmillan and Marvin X

BEYOND RELIGION, TOWARD SPIRITUALITY, ESSAYS ON CONSCIOUSNESS 

Paperback: 281 pages

Publisher: Black Bird Press (2007)

Language: English

 

Marvin X has done extraordinary mind and soul work in bringing our attention to the importance of spirituality, as opposed to religion, in our daily living. Someone'maybe Kierkegaard or maybe it was George Fox who'said that there was no such thing as "Christianity." There can only be Christians. It is not institutions but rather individuals who make the meaningful differences in our world. It is not Islam but Muslims. Not Buddhism but Buddhists. Marvin X has made a courageous difference. In this book he shares the wondrous vision of his spiritual explorations. His eloquent language and rhetoric are varied'sophisticated but also earthy, sometimes both at once.

 

Highly informed he speaks to many societal levels and to both genders'to the intellectual as well as to the man/woman on the street or the unfortunate in prison'to the mind as well as the heart. His topics range from global politics and economics to those between men and women in their household. Common sense dominates his thought. He shuns political correctness for the truth of life. He is a Master Teacher in many fields of thought'religion and psychology, sociology and anthropology, history and politics, literature and the humanities. He is a needed Counselor, for he knows himself, on the deepest of personal levels and he reveals that self to us, that we might be his beneficiaries.

 

All of which are represented in his Radical Spirituality'a balm for those who anguish in these troubling times of disinformation. As a shaman himself, he calls too for a Radical Mythology to override the traditional mythologies of racial supremacy that foster war and injustice. If you want to reshape (clean up, raise) your consciousness, this is a book to savor, to read again, and again'to pass onto a friend or lover.

—Rudolph Lewis, Editor, ChickenBones: A Journal