The aforementioned examples of Black Excellence had to be displayed in order to reiterate that a counterproductive spirit is nowhere to be found in the DNA of African/Melanoid people. The semblances of “laziness” and lack of motivation which has infiltrated Black Society in recent generations has been attributed to external factors–namely the system of racism/white supremacy. When a person’s ability to provide for themselves and their families is stripped away from them systematically, you can be sure to witness a person who’s in danger of falling prey to a broken spirit, which gives way to the previously mentioned “laziness”.

Because we have often acknowledged this to be a problem in Black Society, many of us feel a sense of obligation to the dominant society to prove that we’re not “failures” by overcompensating in all areas of human activity. At the workplace for example, we may want to prove that we are just as worthy as our non-Black colleagues by putting in more hours and labor than anyone else at our jobs. We also might go out of our way to be the most polite in our social circle(s) of non-Blacks, just to show that “we come in peace”, and that we mean no harm.

Maybe the best term to capture such an overambitious spirit in Melanoid people would be none other than “John Henryism”, which was a term coined by a Black educator named Sherman James. In a nutshell, “John Henryism” describes Black people’s tendency to overwork ourselves in order to “fit in”, only to remain in a second-class state in comparison to the members of the dominant society. “John Henryism” is such a debilitating approach to navigating through society that it spawns various physical ailments such as hypertension and high blood pressure.

As you may or may not know, the coined phrase “John Henryism” is an ode to the American folk hero by the name of John Henry, a Black man whose relentless work ethic led to his eventual demise at the hands of a steam powered machine, which is a great analogy for our situation in a white supremacist society.

Check out the video below to hear Gus T. Renegade’s profound take on the dangers of “John Henryism”.

The condition recognized in academia as “John Henryism” is such a serious phenomenon that it is killing us–literally. While much honor lies in our strong work ethic, perhaps a more healthy alternative to falling prey to “John Henryism” would be to re-direct the same energy/work ethics into creating our own alternatives (i.e., economic base, neighborhoods, education) to a society which has been designed to exclude us in the first place.

B. Clark