Dr. Bobby E. Wright on the Psychopathic Racial Personality and more

March 6, 2009June 12, 2023RBG Street Scholar 1 Comment

Dr. Bobby Wright was one of the greatest analytical thinkers of the 20th Century. He not only skillfully identified the problems that face Afrikan people today but also had a clear solution to help solve our problem. Dr. Bobby Wright developed a Black Social Theory that would combat white supremacy. Dr. Bobby Wright said, “The Black Social Theory determines the destiny of a people by establishing guidelines of life. It defines their relationship with other living things, It defines values and rituals, methods of education, and how enemies are dealt with, etc.” Also, Dr. Wright concept of Mentacide explains some of the self destructive behavior exhibited by African people worldwide. Unfortunately for us,

Recognized for his activism, he was a special guest on the Committee of Science and Technology at the Sixth Pan-African Congress held at Tanzania in 1974. As a social scientist, he sought an all-encompassing social theory for Black people and formulated the concept of mentacide. To paraphrase, he defined mentacide as “the planned and systematic destruction of a group’s mentality aimed at the destruction of the group.” Thus, Black folk alienated from their culture and history eventually lose their sense of purpose and direction, the symptoms of mentacide. Well aware of the implications of technical advances such as behavior modification and genetic engineering, he presented science as a tool serving greater ends (such as controlling the outcasts of white society), neither objective nor neutral. Being an uncompromising critic of Western society, he wrote the following on the relation of religion to prejudice from “The Psychopathic Racial Personality” in the Fall 1974 issue of Black Books Bulletin: Because of their lack of ethical or moral development, there is no conflict between the white’s religion and racial oppression. The white race had historically oppressed, exploited, and killed black people, all in the name of their god Jesus Christ and with the sanction of their churches. For example, it is generally overlooked that the Ku Klux Klan is primarily a religious organization. Also, blacks should never forget the Pope [Pius XI] blessing the Italian planes and pilots on their way to bombing Ethiopian men, women, and children who only had spears to defend themselves.

Haki Madhubuti describes esteemed ancestor Dr. Bobby Wright as “one of the few Black people who dared to ask the penetrating questions and demand answers and corrective actions to the racial situation in the United States and the world.” In these essays, psychologist Dr. Bobby Wright coins the term “mentacide” which he defines as the “deliberate and systematic destruction of a group’s minds with the ultimate objective being the extirpation of the group.” “Mentacide,” says Dr. Wright, is a worldwide phenomena being implemented against the entire Black race. “Therefore,” he says, “Blacks in Africa will begin to manifest the behavior of Blacks in the United States. Dr. Wright “was a thorn in the brain of Black men and women posing as leaders.” And his last words were a warning to his friends and associates, “Watch the leadership, especially those proclaiming their God-given answer to the problems of Black people.” “Dr. Bobby E. Wright was a “Black” psychologist, so labeled not just because he was both Black and a psychologist, but because he used his education, training, intellectual knowledge and skills always in the best interest of Black people all over the world.” Just as Brother Haki considered it an honor to publish Dr. Wright, it was an honor for me to study and draw lessons from this revolutionary and thought provoking work.

Dr. Wright poignantly begins the title essay, The Psychopathic Racial Personality, with the following narrative;

“In a bullfight, after being brutalized while making innumerable charges at the movement of a cape, there comes a time when the bull finally turns and faces his adversary with the only movement being his heaving bloody sides. It is believed that for the first time he really sees the matador. This final confrontation is known as “the moment of truth.” For the bull, this moment comes too late.” According to Dr. Wright, the experience of Black people all over the world presents an analogous situation. For hundreds of years, our European (white) matadors have been holding up the capes of democracy, capitalism, Marxism, religion and education and for hundreds of years we have been charging at the movement of these “capes.” Like the bull, we too are suffering from near fatal wounds and “indeed have arrived at our “moment of truth.”

He defines a psychopath as “an individual who is constantly in conflict with other persons or groups. He is unable to experience guilt, he is completely selfish and callous, and he has a total disregard for the rights of others.” Dr. Wright says Black leaders are reluctant to measure psychopathic traits of the White race in their dealings with Blacks when there is a threat involved. “For example”, says Dr. Wright, “everywhere one finds Whites and Blacks in close proximity to each other, Whites are in control, whether it is Chicago or Zimbabwe.” And our leaders rarely question this “extraordinary universal phenomenon” which Dr. Wright says “defies every known statistical law of probability.” He also analyzes some of our so-called intellectual leaders and comments that, “Black intellectual enlightenment does not always lead to genuine insight and it can be very damaging to the intellect as reflected by the behavior and attitudes of many eminent Black scientists.” As a result of the confusion, Dr. Wright concludes that Blacks have become disoriented and the result is various inadequate and dangerous behavioral patterns. “Some have become catatonic and do not move at all but wait for divine intervention; others place their faith and energies in charismatic guides who are just as lost as they.” Dr. Wright tells us that the answer to Blacks’ problems can be found in the works and lives of people like Shaka Zulu, Martin Delany, Marcus Garvey, H. Rap Brown, Malcolm X, Chancellor Williams and others. For they all looked at the matador or psychopath for what he was and is and moved against him.” The “other essays”, deal with Black Suicide, Educating the Black Child and The Black Child: A Destiny in Jeopardy. These excellent essays reinforce the notions discussed in the title essay. Dr. Wright quotes the Afrikan proverb that warns the traveler of life, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” He says a social theory determines the destiny of a people by establishing guidelines of life and Blacks should therefore develop a “Black Social Theory.” He warns, however, the ultimate achievement of a Black social theory would be the recreation of Black culture and that is a very difficult task. Professor Jacob Carruthers (RIU), who reviewed the book said, “brainwashed Blacks who are awestruck by European theory and theorists cannot accomplish this task……and Bobby Wright’s concepts of the ‘psychopathic racial personality’ and ‘mentacide’ are major contributions to this culture recreation process.” Since its publication in 1984, The Psychopathic Racial Personality has proved to be a revolutionary, groundbreaking work on race relations. It is one of the works that should be read by serious minded Africans everywhere who are dedicated and committed to rebuilding the Afrikan world order

Dr. Chancellor Williams On, The Destruction of Black Civilization

February 20, 2009May 5, 2023RBG Street Scholar Leave a comment

(1898-1992)

A large part of Afrikan centered education questions why Black/Afrikan people throughout the world have experienced such a plight and why it has been so difficult for us to overcome it. Well The Destruction of Black Civilization is a book of answers, as it answers many of the major questions that people have about the Afrikan race. Such as: “How did such a highly advanced Black Civilization get so completely destroyed that its people have found themselves not only behind other people of the world, but as well, the color of their skin a sign of inferiority, bad luck, and the badge of the slave whether bond or fee?”

“How did all Black Egypt become all white Egypt?”

“What were some of the specific details in the process that so completely blotted out the achievements of the African race from the annals of history?”

“How and under what circumstances did Africans, among the very first people to invent writing, lose this art almost completely?”

“Is there a single African race, one African people?”

“If we are one race or one people, how do you explain the numerous languages, cultural varieties and tribal groupings?”

“Since, as it seems, that there is far more disunity, self-hatred and mutual antagonism among Blacks than any other people, is there a historical explanation for this?”

“How is the undying love of Blacks for their Europeans and Asian conquerors and enslavers explained?”

Chancellor Williams does not just answers these questions as an arm charm scholar either, no not at all. Williams created this book after 16 years of research which included a precise investigation of Africa’s own independently developed civilization by doing a continent-wide field study from the Mediterranean extending southward down the Nile into the “bush” far way from the westernized urban centers, through the tip of the country in South Africa. What is most, it offers a powerful Plan/solution in it’s appendix. A must read for all true RBG Street Scholars.

Of the recent towering figures in the struggle to completely eradicate the pervasive racial myths clinging to the origins of Nile Valley Civilization, few scholars have had the impact of Dr. Chancellor James Williams (1898-1992). Chancellor Williams, the youngest of five children, was born in Bennetsville, South Carolina December 22, 1898. His father had been a slave; his mother a cook, nurse, and evangelist. A stirring writer, Chancellor Williams achieved wide acclaim as the author of the 1971 publication, The Destruction of Black Civilization–Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.

Totally uncompromising, highly controversial, broadly sweeping in its range and immensely powerful in its scope, there have been few books published during the past half-century focusing on the African presence in antiquity that have so profoundly affected the consciousness of African people in search of their historical identity. Dr. John Henrik Clarke, now an ancestor and a contemporary of Dr. Williams and one of our most outstanding scholars, described The Destruction of Black Civilization as “a foundation and new approach to the history of our race.” In The Destruction of Black Civilization Chancellor Williams successfully “shifted the main focus from the history of Arabs and Europeans in Africa to the Africans themselves–a history of the Blacks that is a history of Blacks.”

The career of Chancellor Williams was spacious and varied; university professor, novelist, and author-historian. He was the father of fourteen children. Blind and in poor health, the last years of Dr. Williams’ life were spent in a nursing home in Washington, D.C. His contributions to the reconstruction of African civilization, however, stand as monuments and beacons reflecting the past, present and future of African people.

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