THE LAW KEEPERS

People of color have been worshipping the wrong God for several centuries, and you need to know why. I've asked myself, many times, how could the black people be stuck on the Christian belief, knowing that our forefathers had nothing to do with that religion.

History has it that Christianity never was a culture of ours but that of the Europeans. As for my question why people of color belief is very strong in Christianity, it was answered. The answer was indirectly answered, but it was answered, through a registered nursing program.

One day when I was in class, Fundamentals of Nursing, we were learning the Teaching/Learning process. In this process, we were learning to identify and describe the three domains of learning. Within the three domains, one domain answered my question. This particular domain is used and taught by a great deal of nursing schools. This domain is the affective learning domain, which is the most difficult according to my instructor, at the St Francis School of Nursing. What is affective learning? In addition, why is it the most difficult?

Affective learning is associated with attitudes, beliefs, and values. The reason it is the most difficult is because when you start messing or tampering with ones beliefs and values, the things that families are built on and around, you are tampering with ones attitude (behavior).

According to the Fundamentals of Nursing by Potter and Perry, cultural background influences individual beliefs, values, and customs."Before I go into the body of affective learning, I am going to go into culture, ethnicity, religion, and values which will give a deeper understanding of why it is the most difficult."

Culture represents such things as values, beliefs, attitudes, and customs shared by a group of people and passed from one generation to the next. Culture is also the sum of beliefs, practices, habits, likes, dislikes, norms, customs, and rituals learned from the family during the years of socialization.Many people's beliefs, thoughts, and actions both conscious and unconscious, are determined by cultural background," according to Potter and Perry.

"Ethnicity is a sense of identification associated with a cultural group's common social and cultural heritage," according to Potter and Perry.

"Religion is a belief in a divine or superhuman power to be obeyed and worshipped as the creator and ruler of the universe. Ethical values and religious beliefs and practices further clarify ethnicity," according to Potter and Perry. "Values are formed in social settings where the educational, socioeconomic, spiritual, and cultural backgrounds of people vary," according to Potter and Perry.

As I have just given the definitions of the above mentioned words, Culture, Ethnicity, Religion, and value, according to Potter and Perry, which are links, important links in a chain, I'm sure you can see why affective learning is the most difficult because you are dealing with ones life background, ones foundation. If any of these links are broken in the chain, can it effect the family structure? Yes! How?

Look at the family structure of the black family today. The black family structure was broken down during slavery, and it is holding an everlasting effect, one that is hard to repair. Remember, we had all of the above before the black man was brought here, to the New World.

The first and most effective way the family was broken down, which forced the links in the chain to separate, was by separating the family, the knowledge, and the educators in the family.

Example: When the family arrives to the port, they will send the father to the Jones plantation and give him a new name; send the mother to the Johnson plantation and give her a new name; and send the children all over and give them a new name, the links have just been broken.

Next, when they, the split up family, arrive to their new locations, they are given a new set of family ideals, a new structure. If any of the new family members refuse to participate in this new family structure, they are either whipped or killed, and actually, they did not have a choice, however the older family members were usually killed, they are hardest to transform.

At this point, affective learning is coming into play and it is not simple. "The body of affective learning has five levels receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization," say, Potter and Perry.

Level one: "Receiving - which means the individual is being open to receive information," says Potter and Perry. The slaves did not have much of a choice. It was either do or die, a great deal died, and as the older family members died out, this level became easier. There was nothing else to hold on to. The slaves were eager to learn.

Level two: "Responding - this is where the individuals start asking questions," says Potter and Perry. After a period of time, the slaves not knowing any better, and separated from family, started asking questions to their new families, and the slaves that worked the house would ask either the head slave or the master of the house.

Level three: "valuing - the individual begins to accept what is being taught," says Potter and Perry.

Level four: "organization - the individual begins to put values into practice," says Potter and Perry. In otherworlds, they start living according to the ways of their new environment, the new family structure, the European way. They have accepted the values taught to them.

Level Five: "Characterization - The individual will not depart from what was put before them, and lives whole heatedly by that new value," say Potter and Perry.

Each level must be achieved before the next level could be reached. This was not a rapid process, this occurred over time. This process is very effective, it happens every day. What I have just explained is being taught and practiced today, in the 90's.The slave masters have drilled and drilled their way of life into the slave's mind, and now today we are drilling their European culture, ethnicity, religion, and set of values into the minds of our black children.

I can now see and understand why my people of color are stuck on Christianity and will not let go, I hope you can also. Our chain has been broken, the links pulled apart, lets fix the links and make it strong again. We have a way of life and culture of our own, lets learn it!

By Chawviv ben Yisrael