The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors

The Isis Papers
mature adults outside of the family circle. If this burden is not removed,
there even may be emotional regression due to the overwhelming sense
of frustration brought on by the responsibility and stress for which the
child-parent is unprepared. The child-parent may begin to act more
immature than she did prior to the delivery. Any level of responsibility
towards the newborn then becomes too great for the child-parent to
handle. Some child-parents show a very short period of seeming responsibility
towards the newborn child, only to collapse after 6 to 12 months
of "imposed" responsibility. Many of these child-mothers begin to
develop resentment, anger and hatred towards their children. The
children are aware of these negative feelings, although they are unable to
articulate their experiences of emotional rejection and deprivation.
The impact of this rejection and deprivation soon is displayed in the
children's disturbed behavioral patterns, particularly in the school setting,
where attention and behavioral controls are required. Eating problems,
extreme temper tantrums, stubbornness, excessive activity and excessive
crying may manifest before these children reach the age of school attendance.
This vicious cycle begins when the mothers, due to their own lack
of emotional maturity, fail to meet the dependency and emotional
demands of their newborn children. In 10 to 14 years, the new emotionally
starved children begin to act out sexually, attempting to have these
long-standing dependency needs met via sexual intercourse. If it is a
female child, very shortly thereafter she becomes pregnant. She blindly
believes she needs and wants a baby to satisfy her needs. As a result,
another generation of emotional starvation is set in motion. Another
generation is prevented from achieving emotional growth and maturity.
Often, the emotionally starved male child turns to drugs, frequently
heroin. The penis in the vagina for the female child and the heroin needle
in the vein of the male child are both symbolic substitutes for the desired
breast or bottle in the mouth that failed to take place sufficiently in early
infancy and childhood. When these methods fail, often the young person
turns to alcohol. Sometimes alcohol is used from the beginning. All of
these symbolic substitutes for the mother's care are destructive.
Black Child-Parents
. Beyond these activities, the child who eventually is abandoned by the
child-mother becomes convinced that he/she is worthless and not worthy
of deep "mother-love." The child concludes that something must have
been wrong with him/her from birth for the mother to have abandoned
him/her. Either the mother released the baby to the care of relatives, the
welfare agency, the adoption agency or foster parents. The child is not
able to understand that the mother was too emotionally immature to
become a parent The child only recognizes that 1) he/she was given away
by the mother, 2) the mother could not provide him/her adequate care or
3) the ~other ph ys~cally abused him/her (or allowed a boyfriend to do so).
The child summanzes it all as "I must not be worth anything." All the
substitute care in the world by grandparents and others does not remove
this wound and deep-seated doubt about the self that remains with the
child for the length of his/her life, producing a severe distrust of and
alienation from others. This is one of the major reasons that many persons
enter psychotherapy as adults, primarily with symptoms of depression
Childre? m~st enter psychotherapy because of the same problem, but th~
depression Is masked by disturbed patterns of behavior.
The emotional and psychological underdevelopment of an entire
people can become chronic and permanent once this dynamic effects a
sufficient pe~entage of the population. As I have previously stated, 25%
of B~ck children being born in the U.S. are a part of this cycle of
emotional underdevelopment- the basis for functional inferiority. Blacks
would be horrified if anyone suggested the outright slaughtering of 25%
of Black children. Again, Blacks scream genocide when outspoken white
supremacists suggest sterilization of25% or more of the Black population.
: et, the aforementioned pattern of child-parenting, presently widespread
~~ the Bla~k popu~tion, achieves exactly the same results. The only
difference IS that wtth Black child-parents, the Black child's death is more
painful and ~awn out- a living death. It is a living death in this highly
complex SOCtety to be left unable to sit still in school and achieve
academically because of incorrect socialization. It is a living death for a
~~ld to be shifted repeatedly from one foster home to another. It is a
livmg death for a child to walk the streets addicted to drugs or alcohol. It
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