Where I grew up in Yemen, slavery was still practiced, unfortunately. Al Jazeera documented some of such existence in one of its documentaries.
Most people may take it for granted that we ended slavery as a species, but unfortunately we are still struggling with slavery in different parts of the world.
When I arrived in the United States in 2016, I did not know much about African American history, so I signed up to learn more. As an outsider to the American context, I see things that may escape the notice of insiders, who have blind spots to the internal operations of their own system.
Slavery and imposter syndrome are two sides of the same coin. Imposter syndrome might as well be the modern manifestation of mental slavery. Imposter syndrome is the feeling of phoniness and fraud. I will give a personal example to illustrate imposter syndrome.
Since I was initiated in Islamic cultures, I feel very competent navigating the Islamic landscape; therefore, I never feel phony whenever I am in an Islamic space. For example, when I am in a mosque or in an educational Islamic institution, I feel confident because I am the typical example of Muslims who populate such a space. My family has been in the Islamic function business for years.
Conversely, writing in the English language is a foreign activity for me. I only started learning English seven years ago, and I started publishing about a year ago. Therefore, I do occasionally experience feelings of phoniness, where I doubt my ability to navigate the English writing domain. None of my family has published anything English, nor could they read any of my work. I am basically navigating this domain on my own.
Imposter syndrome can lead to mental imprisonment, precluding people from taking massive actions and from participating in the collective effort of shaping the world. Again, I believe that imposter syndrome is the modern manifestation of mental slavery.
Slavery can be both physical and mental. Although physical slavery has been emancipated in the United States, thanks to the Civil Rights Movement, there are still many people struggling from mental slavery. I argue that mental slavery is just as insidious — if not even worse — than physical slavery.
Mental slavery can manifest itself as self-doubt. It is the lack of agency — the inability to act in the world. It makes people react to the world rather than act on it. It prevents them from taking massive actions. Mental slavery has its genesis in real slavery. Although physical slavery has ended, its effects still linger with us until this day.
So how could we end slavery, especially its mental variety? I argue that ending slavery is not an individual effort, but rather a collective and social endeavor. In America, the creed of individualism runs deep in the American psyche. Although individualism has produced super heroes, it also conscripted many people at the sideline.
The first community in which we initiate ourselves is our family, which we have no choice in selecting. Some of us are privileged to have families from whom they learn a rich mindset through which they navigate the precarity and uncertainty of the world. But some of us are disprivileged to have dysfunctional families from whom they learn disruptive patterns in existing in the world.
In other words, mental slavery could be inherited. Yet in order to break free from mental slavery, we need community efforts. Of course, there are some super hero individuals, who can unlock their own potential somewhat alone, but those are the exceptions to the rule; even them, they do have personal mentors who invested in their learning and growth.
Back to the personal anecdote I shared above: I overcame my imposter syndrome by taking massive actions in the writing domain. Right now, I have published over 75 articles in both academic and professional publications, even though I started publishing a year ago. The human brain needs evidence (not promises) to believe and trust its own agency, its ability to act in, and change, the world.
So as we celebrate Juneteenth, we should continue to end slavery in all of its forms, especially its modern yet insidious manifestation of imposter syndrome.
Abdulrahman Bindamnan is a University of Minnesota Ph.D. Student and a Psychology Today contributing author.
0 Commentaires