Ghost of the Plantation

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“Ghost of the plantation” serves as a phrase that summarizes the lifestyle and mentality of the African American community. The “ghost” is a spiritual form of repression that still exist in the African American society that haunts recaptures minds of the society, while the “plantation” is the home to many slaves and cage from freedom. When integrated the “ghost of the plantation” symbolizes the condition of a traumatic pass that controls African Americans socially and mentally. It is mental enslavement that is resulted from the historical trauma of the past African ancestors that is transcended into to the current generations. According to author, the ghost is slavery that recaptures the mind, imprison motivation, perception, aspiration and identity. Many African Americans lifestyles are connected to the historical contents of slavery. Though this occurred over 300 years ago it still exhibits a great impact on the generations of the African today. The African American community is mentally scared by the past and this has impacted the work ethics, leadership, and personal identification of African Americans. With so many impact the only solution to this traumatic problem is to renew the motivation of this community of people through the retracing of their history and developing a new perspective and understanding of the past. This will allow “slavery... (to be )..A starting point…and not an ending point.” During slavery working was forced labor upon slaves that was driven by the slave masters.as a result of the disturbing past many African Americans today perceives work as being equated with slavery because 300years ago it was a forceful position that was used as a representation of power. The historical representation of work has ... ... middle of paper ... ...e that are incapable of progressing society because of racial identity and because of the past of being inferior. Breaking the mental slave chain that is cast around their minds seem to be an impossible task for the African Americans community. While remaining inferior is not the decision everyone chooses, others may seek to attain superiority through materialistic object like cars, clothes, and hair to attain the masters appearance. I agree with the author African Americans reflect the distress of the horrific treatment of their ancestors. They are still deeply affected by the ideas that were once instilled within their culture and ethnicity and because of the lack of recognition this is a continuous process. A possible solution to this problem is for African Americans to be reeducated of the past so that they can become motivated once a new perspective is created.

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