"My Inner Thoughts.": #1 " SOME OF MY FAVORITES U CAN FOLLOW."

"My Inner Thoughts.": #1 " SOME OF MY FAVORITES U CAN FOLLOW."

"LICKS-LIKE-PEAS."

“LICKS-LIKE-PEAS.”

A slave mentality that has survived within the Caribbean society.

©-By L. E. FRANKLIN, B. F. A. Hon’s, January 14^th 2005.

Especially our mothers ‘ & least by our fathers’ used beating/spanking frequently at home as the rod of correction. Fathers’ were the “bread-winners” & seldom at home to discipline their children but when they did, it was hell. In some cases it was worst than what a mother would have given. So one wrong word or move was the result of “good-licks” from a mother. In other cases a mother would give the first beating and the father would give the rest whenever he comes home (that could have been one day to months, depending on how far away from home the father was employed). That also depended on the seriousness of the offence/offences and how mad or stressed he was. Beware if a mother is spurring the father on, saying “give her/him good”, for every lash you got; It meant mother approved & the “good licks” were increased.

Questions:

1. “What were they thinking?”
2. “How could violence to your own child be described as a “good beating” “Licks like peas” & “You gon get licks when you reach home”, was the phase used “growing-up”. If we did anything that our parents’ taught was wrong. If we did anything that our parents’ taught was wrong. The beatings came in the form of a wildcane, belt, slippers, (in our home any of those before mentioned) a skinny branch of a tree (tamarind whip/switch), rope (dry or wet), singer sewing machine belt, rubber (from a tire-car or bicycle), wood or a clothe beater, wooden spoon, etc. The "lower-class" parents used the last pieces described to give punishment. According to my mother there were instances where children ran away from their home before their parents returned. It was done in fear of a beating by a parent/parents for doing something wrong. Some never returned and were never found.

I remember my Grandmother was beating me and I decided to use a new word I heard in School-murder. I thought that it would either make my grandmother stop or reduce the ‘licks’ but it got worst. It was the worst thing I could have attempted. My grandmother got mad and I got ‘more licks’. Upon hearing the situation my mother got involved. She came into the room with a shoe in her hand and as I got a “good licking” from my grandmother with the wildcane, my mother repeatedly struck me in the mouth with her shoe. At the same time saying to me,

• “O! You want the police to come and arrest one of us (mother or grandmother)”.

There was another incident where my sister and I attended a birthday party. We enjoyed ourselves but as we returned home, my grandmother asked,

• “Did you dance the first tune with your sister?”

My reply was no and I got a ‘good licking’.

I was told that the first dance should have been with my small sister.

What I could never understand is,

• “How could I be beaten for not performing a courtesy that I should have been taught and was not?”

The most popular phases’ heard from adults were,

• “A child must be seen and not heard”,
• “A child should act as a child”,
• “A child speaks when spoken to”,
• “A child should talk less and listen more”,
• “A child should not look an adult in the eyes”,
• “A child should not follow the crowd”,
• “A child should not ‘suck/kiss its teeth at an adult”,
• “A child should not walk away or turn its back to an adult who is speaking to her/him”,
• “A child had to give/pay respect (morning Miss --- /Miss --- afternoon) to an adult first, when walking on the street.”
• “ A child do as It is asked to do but not what It sees”, etc. And the beat goes on. A violation of any of the above was “Licks like peas fo so”. Parent “Gone Real Mad fo so”.

QUESTIONS:

• “Was it really a rod of correction or was it a rod that made a child comply with parent’s orders in order to please the adult who was suffering and also did it work?” -

Children after a time developed tactics for not be violently beaten.

• “Why did they resort towards such violence”? Such violence towards their own children they made.
• “What was their rational of thinking during & after Colonialism with its suppressive system”?
• “Was Colonialism a factor in the hostility we encountered as children”?
• “Was it an act of transferred energies because of repeated frustration, if so by how or what”?
• “Were the beatings, a form of sanity relief from frustration, If so what caused it”?
• “Was the frustration cause by their husbands’ lack of attention, love or respect or was it due to the Colonialism system that did not permit women to work, due to the educational system”?

NOTE: women of the upper, middle or lower classes in the (West Indies) now the Caribbean were not allowed to be educated in the school system beyond a certain grade/class. They were trained to be housewives. The woman place was in the house to provide all her husband’s needs; the children came last.

• “If parents’ were so religious as they projected, believed in a God that was a good God and the teachings of Christianity, What made them become Satanist like in their disciplinary actions/measures towards their children”?
• “If Christianity was such a great part of the new culture, why would people (young & old) enjoy another human (child or adult) being abused’.
• “How can one show love towards a child and in seconds display hate, anger & violence towards that same child”? -

The adult will become self destructive, sooner or later & some of them traveled that voyage-alcoholism, murder, suicide, adult abuses, incest, rape, robbery, imprisonment, etc.

• “Did the West Indian/Caribbean families in those days make too many children and what was their plan if any”?
• “Was it just having sex (men) because it was ready and available (through their wives and other women they supported) and not for the love of a woman?”
• “What were these relationships really built on, only making children for abuse?”

At least, there was a plan within the East Indians society. The male child was important-more money into the family. A daughter meant that they had to pay money out for her marriage-dowry.

For example the husbands’ got the best to eat, mostly in the middle and lower families. The children eat the scraps and bones-the fathers’ had the real meat.

Other experiences with “good licks”:

I remember being told,

• “You cannot choose or request what you would like to eat. There is only one man in the house that brings the money in and its’ your father. He is the only one who can choose what he wants to eat so eat whatever you are given. Also remember that you are not the only child in the household, your Grandmother has spoiled you”.

My mother was the boss in our home although my father was the “bread-winner”. She was maintaining her wife’s duties to my father with a certain amount of respect. There was an invisible line that my father did not cross. There were times he had to “burn-his-fingers” because he came home late after the maid had left and my mother was taking care of the small children. She did what she had to do to a certain stage, he had to do the rest. There was another time he moved from one place to another because of his job and had to find proper accommodations for his family. So he was alone and had to do things for his self; no wife.

They both gave us “good-licks” but our mother was the one that gave the most. The “licks” were not like some I saw other children got from their parents. In most cases it was “licks” with reason for not staying in line with her upper middle class traditions. My mother and her Mother were the ones that made sure we were equipped with their upper cultural values; The does & don’ts. The last “good-licking” I (at 15 years old) got from my mother was after an incident where I stayed out late on a school day. She knew when I left and also saw me walking with the neighbour’s daughter.

I left the home about 4pm that evening and returned the next morning about 2am. As I entered the house, my mother was there. Her first question was,

• “Where are you coming from? My answer was a lie and she knew. I told her that I was at a friend doing home work and she asked,
• “Where is the home work?”

I had none to show. She further told me that what arose her suspicion was the girl’s father was looking for her all afternoon and my mother came to a conclusion that we were together. “Never trust a woman’s/mother’s intuition, they are always right”.

Also according to my mother what made her very sure was due to the fact that we (the girl & I) returned at the same time; My mother was on the watch. So the belt (4 inches wide & 42 inches long) was behind her back and as I tried to pass I was given a “good-licking”. There were bruises all over my back and face but later that morning I had to attend school.

After that incident, she told me,

• “I can no longer tell you what to do, I can only give you advice.”

I was not that lucky with my father at an older age. I was eighteen years old and he was on a visit to the city one weekend. I was about to leave the home about 6pm and he told to be back by 11pm. I returned with a friend of mine at 11:30pm and as I entered the house, my father was all dressed to “go-out”. In the company of my friend he asked,

• “What time did I tell you to return?”

My answer was,

• “11pm but I got a flat tire on my way home.”

Without another word, he took his belt from around his waste and started giving me a “good-licking.” As he gave me the “licks” he repeated,

• “11:00 is 11:00 and not 11:30.”

What caused me to get more “licks” was due to the fact that I did not try to run but stood my ground and took the “licks” in front of my friend. My dad was so up set at my reaction to his “good-licking” in front of my friend that he returned to the bedroom and went to sleep all “dressed-up.”

In my father’s home it wasn’t the same with my mother’s parents, who always had someone in the home to serve the household. Papa his father displayed all the habits of a domineering husband; he was the King of his castle. Ma did all the work in the home; she did not have the luxuries of a maid to serve the household. She was the first to rise in the mornings and the last to go to bed at nights. Ma was that type of woman/wife that served her husband whenever he called upon her for whatever he wanted. For example food, water or tea, he never moved from where he sat to get anything. It was always,

• “Ma get this” or “Ma get that”.

Anytime we visited Ma was always on her feet in the kitchen cooking. I cannot even remember seeing her sit at the dining table to eat with us. Ma was the first in my father’s family to die. Funny my father parents never raised their hands to give any of us a “good-licking.” Papa would report any wrong doings to our father and if Ma heard, she would say to my father,

“Leave the children alone.”

Within the Educational system:

Beatings were a great part of the discipline by both female and male teachers. The male teachers’ did most of the beatings. I was always in fear during my time in Public School because of the violent disciplinary action taken by teachers. I heated School but had to attend and somehow the hostile environment for learning was one of the reasons that hampered my progress greatly. I couldn’t say anything to an adult because I would have gotten a “good-licking.” The teacher’s wildcane did all the talking; “licks-like-peas.” Some male teachers would walk around the school and visited classes that were not theirs and check children class work for mistakes; God could not help if there were.

These male teachers drove fear into me and I am sure other students were affected. They love to give out “good licks”. They preformed these violent beatings in the class, in front of the whole school on a stage or in the schoolyard during breaks. Most male teachers loved to have two senior boys lift the student being punished in the air (face turned downwards towards the ground). One would be holding the feet and the other holding the hands, outstretched the person being punished will be whipped on his buttock. If on any account one of the boys holding the one being punished, failed to get a good hold; he was then whipped by the teacher. There were also male teachers that would give girls’ a whipping by turning her around, pulling her skirt tight and beat her on her buttock (early signs of woman abuse). I should note that the whippings had no set standard; across the back, buttock, arms, hands out-stretch, feet, head, chest, etc.

Anywhere the teacher saw it fit or free you got that whipping. I remember students after a beating left with marks on their hands and backs;

• Being left swollen bruises or bleeding,
• With open cuts the size of the cane,

So wounded that they couldn’t write and beaten for not doing work in class. A student couldn’t even report what had happened to their parent because they wouldn’t listen and in some cases were in agreement with the violent treatments given by teachers’. Another reason for not saying a word was for fear of getting another “good licking”.

The teachers gave the violent punishments for such crimes that the students committed against themselves-failing to follow the educational system towards upper mobility advancement in learning. Also some of these situations between the teachers’ and students developed with children of families with no social skills. They weren’t taught or their parents’ didn’t know better. To “grow-up” at the bottom of the economical class system and being both suppressed and neglected by the system in place “brings-out” the worst in anyone.

Note: The British had developed a class system (upper-middle-lower) in the Caribbean to divide and rule its subjects. This class system was so rigid that persons’ of each class respectively hated each another and never united-still present today. There were times that people of a certain class and race weren’t employed in the Banks. We also had a system employed in transportation, where it had a two class sitting accommodation-First and second class areas for the passengers.

Some of the student’s crimes were:

• Being late for school, poor or too black
• Not returning homework. In both of the first two cases the students could have had trues to finish for their parents and this wasn’t taken into account. These situations could end in a loosing situation: if you did not finish the trues “licks”. If you did not go to school “licks” & if you arrived late “licks”.

STUDENT’S ABILITY NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.

• Wrong spelling,
• Wrong punctuation
• Failing to read, "in-front" of the other students’-the only time most students read.
• Not being able to recognise new words. (“Is this the fault of the student?”)
• Didn’t follow teacher’s instructions in a new lesson.
• Asking the wrong questions, e.g. “Why when the rain is falling in one spot, sun in shining in another area?” I was placed on the bench for asking the question.
• Filing a test or examination, etc.

A LACK OF ABILITY TO HEAR THE TEACHER OR OTHER.

• Didn’t hear the teacher information but when asked to repeat, you are told that you weren’t listening. E.g. listening to a radio program in a school over 100ft long with seven filled classes of students. After the program is finished, the teacher would ask,
• “What was the last word spoken”? One radio for the school and it was placed at the front of the building. They expected all of the students to hear every word and failing to answer the question;“licks-like-peas”.

FAMILIES BACKGROUNDS A NEGITIVE.

• Coming from a poor family/from a rich family-this could work either way, depending on the teacher’s likes or dislikes for male or female. Some teacher’s had the powers to expel a student from school because the teacher didn’t like that student.

APPEARANCES in SCHOOL.

• Pants or dress not pressed or washed, dirty hands, hair, nails, etc.
• Torn clothes; Due to being poor & black (on the whole, clean appearances were very important in these two cases).

NOTE:

After a time the school system became like an oppressive state and not an institution for leaning in a comfortable setting to me. There were other crimes by students that needed to be redirected with disciplinary action but not to the extent of such violence beatings; it could have verbal:

• Talking in class
• Fighting in class
• Refusing to listen to the teacher’s orders
• Being disrespectful towards the staff
• Making no attempts to learn
• Abusive to fellow students, especially the females

High School:

I had a belief that attending High School the situation would be better and I would never have to deal with the violent teachers. I was wrong; once again I came into contact with arrogant male teachers who for some strange reason also ill-treated boys. It was the same and in some cases worst because we (students) were older and the male teachers wanted to show us who is in control. At high school we got “licks” for some of those listed and more:

• Not being in full uniform- shirt, tie, pants, skirt, socks, etc.
• Failing to know the class work that the teachers thought you should know
• Staying away from school without a note from your parents especially on Fridays
• Not understanding or questing British History, Latin or French-receiving detention and also “licks”-for not knowing the readings required & being inattentive.
• Not attending school events without a note from parents

“My instance replay/flash-backs”:

“Yo mind playing tricks with yo countrie.”

All the violent incidents I witnessed in school came “a-live” years later in North America when I saw a movie about slavery (the mind can suppress what it doesn’t want to remember but only for so long). There was a scene depicting the white slave-master beating his black slave in the same manner as the teacher did in the schoolyard. Having two slaves’ hold the other slave out stretched with his face towards the ground, taking vengeance on his buttock. The two students represented the two “house-niggers” and the “light skin”-black teacher, the white slave master. The only different is the time factor and who is doing the beating and on who. “Black on Black Violence” is still alive in our society, years after slavery was supposed to have been abolished. “The game is the same only the players have changed”.

QUESTIONS:

• “Who really needed disciplinary action taken against them”?
• “Did brute force make children learn”?
• “Did trying to beat learning into children, as some teachers’ repeatedly did worked?”
• “Why did the educational system allow it to happen”?
• “Did the teachers’ who represented higher learning and middle class status have the same mentality as their slave masters”?
• “Was not the changes within the political system that Guyanese were fighting for in the then British Guiana supposed to have changed out thinking towards self-rule and move towards a different structural system, than the Colonialist thought structure that had a position equipped with suppression & violence”?

NOTE:

In a speech to the Institute of Decolonisation, at Congress Place on 16^th July 1965 the late Prime Minister/ who later became President of Guyana stated “Independence is a means towards an end. The end which I see must be the changing of our society and the revolutionising of our economy.”

Violent (male) Teachers’-“Was it a-crab-in-a-barrel syndrome?”:

As I stated before I did not receive the best in education under the before stated conditions because of the violent beatings and fear during my school days. As I grew older I found that most of the male teachers’ were alcoholics-“red-rum” drinkers. Now if you spell the word “red-rum” backwards you will get “MURDER”. So I can say that,

• “The male teachers’ who drank “red rum” murdered us with “licks”.

These male teachers’ they had to be frustrated, stressed, and took sanctuary in consuming alcoholic drinks. In fact some of them drank the “brown-rum” every afternoon after school. They somewhat had it in for young males and some of then had to have women problems.

• “But if they had problems with their women why did they turn their relationship problems into an out rage against younger children”?

Boys especially. In one case it was said that one of my male teacher killed his wife and in another there was a male teacher that was killed by his wife. These people (teachers’) were respected by their peers and had plenty of power that they misused.

Note:

What is amazing, some of these teachers’ came from the same social background of the children they abused (the lower middle and lower classes).

Question:

• “Why would you physically abuse the children of your social class”?
• “Was it a repeated reminder of their past, that they hated when it was in their faces”?
• “If they wanted the children, to rise up as a mighty race it could have been done in a better system”.
• “Was it a factor of the teacher’s thinking of not wanting their class of people to move ahead educationally and continuing with same the British system projected”?
• “It could have being due to hate of one self and using their seat of power to abuse their own-keeping them down”?
• “What did they really learn from the educational system in training school”? Hate self, suppress your people, do onto them what we did to you.
• “How could so many of them (both women & men), so-called educators not see what a danger they were causing and stop it?”
• “Where were they hearts when their religion beliefs were so strong (attending Church every Sunday, sitting at the head pew) told them, SUFFER THE LITTLE TO GOME UNTO ME and they did the opposite"?

On the other hand there were the teacher from the “upper-middle & lower-middle” who really hated the people of the lower classes (as stated before). The class system that was “set-up’ during the Colonialist era created a problem of division between the people. Also deterred African’s away from becoming finical independent people but to depend on others’ e.g., it did not encourage Africans to be in business and today we still don’t understand how to manage our dollars.

For an African to venture into business, they were told,

• “That kind of business in not for you, it is hard work to be in the store all day & you cannot party”.

Even it you got into it, you were “kept-down” by your own people due to lack of support. E.g. of the buying habits is, taking merchandise on credit during the week from an African store and on weekends buy cash from the competitor. It would have been important for the economical stability of the African race and today we still have that fear “built-in” of not trusting each other especially when it comes to business.

“How can we achieve finical independence if we don’t join & work together for a common goal?”

Remember:

• All we were told during our time in School by parents’ & teachers’ was, “Go to School & get an Education.” I really don’t know how some of us made it without proper direction.
• We had no guiding counselors to assist us in the educational direction as what to do and where to go. For that matter the only areas that Africans’ were not guided was in proper education especially in the lower classes.
• Most of the upper lower & middle lower classes became teachers’, postmen, police officers’, and as employee’s in other areas of the Government. The positions that they now held were of Government workers who were their role models-the people they saw working in the villages who had better jobs than what they parents had and they wanted to do the same.
• Some children of the upper classes (upper, upper middle) left the country on the advice of their parents. They directed their children and some took the advice of their parents and returned as Doctors’, Lawyers, Priests’, etc. Some followed their own dream in North America and were in conflict with their parents.
• Most of us did not venture into business while attending foreign Universities. “When are we going to learn that there is strength in unity?”

Documented Information:

Look us look at two documented sources:

THE UNTOLD STORY 1712, in the book “The Willie Lynch Letter and The Making of a Slave”. A white slave owner, WILLIAM LYNCH on the bank of the James River delivered this story in 1712. The book was published by LUSHENA BOOKS-1804 West Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60613-Email: Lushena @ aol.com According to LYNCH, the method for controlling Black slaves would last for 300 years. (There are clues and answers to my questions asked above).

Now, lets look at book by African American writers;

Dr. Na’im Akbar in his book “FROM MISEDUCATION TO EDUCATION”. On pages #3,5 & 6 has successfully developed some concepts explaining what education should be, as it is projected towards students. This is unlike what some of us experienced and strange some of our children are experiencing it today in North America.

Education involves according to Dr. Na’im Akbar:

• Being able to bring out of us a greater expression of that which is already in us.
• Moving in accord with our pre-determined nature is the nature of education.
• A process by which you are more actively capable of manifesting what you are. When you increasingly manifest what somebody else wants you to be---which may or may not be critical to your survival as a life form---you are actually trained.
• The way by which we can more effectively be ourselves.
• The human being able to find out what she/he has to do, Is by learning,
• By the development of consciousness,
• By beginning to study her/himself, study all the rest of creation, study her/his history as a human being and in the process, discover the patterns which dignify and make her/him what s/he is.

Views on what Education should have been were stated above & ideas on what is Mis-education must be made before continuing with the theory on the training of minds. (By the institutions whose educational concepts are based on Western thoughts). To explain what is mis-education I will use examples again from the book “FROM MISEDUCATION TO EDUCATION” by Dr. N. AKBAR ‘who has examines the root of the problems that is also the problem for the masses of people. (Pages #1-3).

MISEDUCATION:

Dr. N. AKBAR uses information written by Dr. Carter. G. WOODSON book from 1930s called “THE MISEDUCATION of the NEGRO.” On page #1 & 2, Dr. N. AKBAR states that Dr. Carter. G. WOODSON was a founder of the Society for The Study of Negro Life & History and also the one who established what was originally referred to as “NEGRO HISTORY WEEK”/ “BLACK HISTORY WEEK.” Observed annually during February. Dr. C. G. WOODSON stated his book that the main problem facing people of African descent was the fact that we were victims of miseducation. (NOTE: This does not only affect Africans but also all non-white people.)

Dr. C. G. WOODSON went on to observe that when:

• People are educated to respect the knowledge, the scholarship, the history and the background of everybody expect themselves, and then they are miseducated.
• People went to schools and become scholars in Greek, Latin and European civilization, but with total ignorance of their own civilization, those people were miseducated.
• Businesspersons become experts in being able to run the business of the broader community, but cannot provide resources for their own community, those people are miseducated.

People are incapable of using their money to correct their own lives; they are clearly and certainly miseducated.

Miseducation results from being trained rather than educated.

Let’s take another Look at the SCHOOL SYSTEM:

First,

Some student encounters fear when they enter this strange environment for the first time. The environment does not seem friendly as the comfortable and protected home that child matures in. It appears filled with people young & old that are not known to the incoming student.

• “Does it have something to do with the way the child is ‘dropped off’ (without being fully prepared for the new encounter) by the parent and left with a (strange and stone face) adult”?

Some children become so fearful that they hold on to their parent/s crying their little hearts without parental support. In most cases the teacher is not sympathetic and employs force or harsh words towards the child (waving a whip).

The teacher’s commands the resisting child in the company of the parent/s; it is not said but can be seen and felt (you have a right to be here & you must stay or I will make you-no rights).

Questions:

• “Is it not usual, for adults’ to look at a new environment first before getting involved and be comfortable in the space?”
• “Why not allow the child to do the same?”

Second,

Not only is the environment controlled with “licks”, does and don’t from the teacher but the education system was & is also controlled by the foreign ‘think tank’ of the ‘dominant systems’ and not from within the Caribbean intelligentsia.

This trained & foreign intelligentsia group compiles, print and distributes all structure of their thoughts (reading material) for the school system of other cultural groups (more during my time at school).

They can be very bias and judgmental in their research of any outside culture and attempted to keep the masses within the lower end of the employment system.

The intelligentsia group also establishes changeable guidelines that keep intelligentsia of other cultures out and them in total control.

Guideline tactics they employ to keep in power:

A person from another cultural group, who has achieved higher learning/training in their University, must have a recorded & recognized track record. Ones research/s or what you have done in the academic arena also had to be approved by them and even if they approve it, you are not the right type or not fully experienced.

One research must only incorporate ideas/information that was laid out by their ‘think tank’ (ruling intelligentsia sources).

NOTE: If it does not exist within their established structural system, it cannot be accepted. It is collaboration within the members of the ruling intelligentsia to keep ideas of other cultural groups out of the didactic system so that their thoughts are maintained.

This is how I view the educational system that trained me and leaving the Caribbean to live in North America didn’t really give me much relief. After being employed in a “blue-collar” job for years, I returned to University. Great, but after graduating I repeatedly found it hard to get gainful employment in the system-“over qualified/under qualified”.

I find that most of us were not prepared for the “out-side” world. There are many “road-blocks” in our path and the “so-called” liberal society is not true to its views. The struggle that continues in this depressed and suppressed state has most of us under total controlled.

NOTE:

• “Slavery is over but the slave mentality is alive in the structure of the peoples’ thinking.”
• “Colonialism is over but the mentality is alive & well within the Caribbean’s Governmental system.”
• “The only different between a White Capitalist & a Black Capitalist is the colour of their skin.” The struggle continues.

“TELL ME & I MIGHT FORGET-SHOW ME & I MIGHT REMEMBER-INVOLVE ME & I WILL UNDERSTAND".

Leyton E FRANKLIN B. F. A Hon's