By Fred L. Jones, Jr.
fjones@theoklahomaeagle.net
According to the Urban Dictionary, “Crab Barrel/Hater” mentality is a syndrome where a group of like situated people hurt those in their community attempting to get ahead.
Urban communities all over America are trying to adjust to a real climate change as our direction in the United States continues to rock and roll with a heated, turbulent level of leadership coming from Washington D.C.
Within this broad adjustment our local communities must come together and bond with unified advancement of all in mind instead of the “me, myself and I” mentality.
Often this is applied to people in a community where one person is starting to get ahead. The collective community becomes jealous or filled with a spirit we often call “hating,” so they find a way to pull that person back down under the collective level.
When harvesting crabs, the crabs as a group will pull down any crab that starts to climb out of the barrel in an attempt to be the first out of the barrel; that holds them in, hence crabs-in-a-barrel.
There are those in the urban districts that are accused of this behavior. Is this an example of Willie Lynch? Think about it Tulsa north, is the “Willie Lynch” syndrome operating in our people today?
How can we defeat the challenges that are in front of us, when we can’t get our stuff together from within?
Willie Lynch stated in his famous address “Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a foolproof method for controlling your black slaves. I guarantee every one of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves and make the differences bigger. I use fear, distrust and envy for control.”
We need to become unified and supportive of everyone that is trying to make our City and community a better place. The spirit of activism shall become alive, well and operative if we remove and rebuke the “Willie Lynch/Crabs in a Barrel mentality. We have to allow more millennial group advancement in order to see success. Haters, please stand back. “As a man thinketh so is he” the mentality of this community and its people must return to overcoming and conquering those things that matter the most. Our young children’s future rest in our hands. Will it be 2030 and a writer will be penning these same thoughts, or will we have done the things that are necessary for the advancement of our lives as a community together?
