Manipulation as Power
(Read this section slowly. If you don’t understand any words, get a
dictionary and look them up. We
cannot break the chains of white supremacy/racism without learning about those
chains. So read this
section, then read it again until you understand it. If you do understand it you
will want to know more.
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Manipulation involves the attempt by the manipulator to elicit certain desired
responses from his
subject while concealing his efforts to do so. In this way the manipulator seeks
to constrain,
restrict, or prevent certain undesirable actions on the part of his subject
and/or to subtly direct his
subject to behave in certain desired ways outside his subject's knowledge and
awareness.
Manipulation involves a more "efficient" exercise of power than force, coercion
and influence
because it is less likely to evoke resistance since the subject is unaware of
the effort to influence
him or may think that the manipulator is exercising his influence to achieve an
end desired by
both the manipulator and the subject himself, when in actuality the subject is
being influenced
toward an end which may be detrimental to himself and beneficial only to his
manipulator. Thus,
the manipulated subject may be led to perceive his own responses and behavior as
expressions of
his own free will and choice. Commonly, manipulation is achieved by skillfully
presenting
information, rewards and deprivations in ways which shape the consciousness and
behavior of
the subject and motivates him to freely “choose” to act in ways compatible with
the concealed
intentions of his manipulator.
Professor Wrong notes two important general forms where manipulation may occur:
First, the power holder may exercise concealed control over the power subject
through symbolic
communications designed to make veiled suggestions, to limit or determine
selectively the power
subjects' information supply, or to inculcate without appearing to do so certain
positive or
negative attitudes....
But an equally widespread kind of manipulation occurs where A alters B's
environment in such a
way as to evoke a desired response from B without interacting directly with B at
all.
Professor Wrong further notes that manipulation may involve the most
dehumanized, and as far
as we are concerned, perhaps the most dehumanizing exercise of power of all
because, unlike the
exercise of obstructive physical force, visible coercive and authoritarian power
where the intent
of his adversaries and the sources of assault and frustration are known to the
subject,
manipulation "is a form of power that cannot be openly resisted by the power
subject since he is
unaware of the powerholder's intent or even sometimes of his existence. There is
no visible
command for him to disobey, no identifiable adversary against whom to assert his
freedom."
The manipulation of Afrikan American political and economic attitudes by the
White ruling elite
is designed to effectively secure, enhance and exercise power while not
appearing to do so; while
appearing to provide Blacks with power or options equal to that or those of
Whites. The point of
this type of manipulation is to win the acceptance by Blacks of the legitimacy
of White power, its
moral integrity, its legitimating ideology, and the acceptance by Blacks of
their obligation to
obey the directive of White power while believing their obedience to be
expressive of their own
free and moral will. Only by basing their behavioral orientation on their own
Afrikan history,
culture, values, interests, consciousness and identity can Blacks prevent their
behavioral
manipulation by self-serving Whites and act under the influence of their own
self-generated
enhanced power. (emphasis added) [read the last sentence again!!]
from Blueprint for Black Power by Amos N. Wilson, page 22
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