We were asked in class how we would feel if we were enslaved to other people. As the teacher moved around the classroom asking people’s opinion, I sat there thinking and wondering if she really understood what she was asking because the way she asked the question might seem embarrassing to some people who could not comprehend it.

As everyone gave their answer, I listened carefully to them, wondering if they really had any idea or knowledge about what they were saying. I wondered if they knew that their minds were being enslaved in some way. This question kept popping up in my head, “Could social media be enslaving our mind?” Well, everyone is a hunter until they become the hunted, I imagined. I then told a couple of friends that we would discuss this topic over lunch. Unlike others who were perplexed at being asked, I had an idea of what to say on the issue of being enslaved. Most people were scared of expressing what they had in their minds because they feared they might be seen as racists.

On my way to the food court for lunch, I kept thinking about the answers some people had given and how their minds were enslaved since they were drawing conclusion without looking at the big picture or considering the facts. On my way, I saw a crowd of protesters to whom I paid attention, and I ended up enjoying their protest. Although many other people around barely understood them or their reasons for protest, I started questioning people to find out what they were protesting about and what was stopping them from making their own decision. Even before I could finish my questioning, the protesters started yelling at me, saying they were protesting because of people like me. I was perplexed; I had absolutely no idea what they were saying or even protesting about.

They continued their protest, even getting louder and calling me all sorts of names and accusing me of whatever they thought of me. I managed to ask the question my professor had asked earlier, “What is really enslaving your mind?” I got yelled at even more, and they continued saying it was people like me. I had absolutely no idea what they meant by “people like me.”

I attempted asking again, “What is enslaving your mind? Why are you just being a follower instead of fighting for your own course? What exactly is it that you are protesting?” They continued yelling; then I said, “This is the reason why people hate people.” I decided to be the bigger person, and I walked off without uttering anything else. I simply continued walking to meet up with my friends on their way to the food court. As I approached them, I started laughing; then they asked what was so funny and why I was late.

I was so excited to tell them about the encounter I just had with the protesters; it was so wild and crazy that it took my breath away. I had never had such an encounter in my life before because down south, we usually didn’t have that much protest. The encounter really did blow my mind that I continued laughing; my friends started laughing also and were even more eager to know what I had gone through.

I started narrating to them that I was walking past when I saw a crowd of people protesting; I then decided to stop by and ask what the big fuss was all about. I could not hear from way behind what the men and the women were yelling about, so I decided to ask people around what the big fuss was all about. Initially, when I stopped to ask, the people were quiet, calm, and collected in telling me what the argument was all about. I then proceeded to ask them what stopped them from starting their own protest; I asked, “Why don’t you start your own protest instead of just being a follower?” A lady then took a deep breath and started yelling at me, to the extent that we could not even have a civilized conversation as adults. I tried asking her again what the people were protesting about and why they were protesting, but she kept yelling at me. I then asked her what was enslaving her mind. It was at this point she started ranting that it was people like me that were destroying the world.

“That was what kept me this late,” I said to my friends. We all had a great laugh. While laughing, though, I kept pondering over the question on my mind from when I was in class. “Could social media be so blinding that it enslaves our minds, or could it be as a result of the blind spots we don’t see?” This question kept lingering on my mind as we laughed.

We then started talking about what enslaved the mind, as we laughed. The first person to comment was Trisha.

Trisha said, “Let’s start with how friends enslave your mind.”

I had often wondered, How can a friend enslave your mind or even alter your ideas? So I started watching and listening intently as my friends conversed with one another. I noticed how one would just say something and the others listening would just believe what they were told without doing research or investigating how factual or truthful the statement or idea was. Some of them even started hating the people they were being told about without knowing them.

It all seemed crazy to me. How easy it is to enslave someone, I thought. I mean, it’s 2019. Over two centuries, two hundred years, have passed, and we are still living in the past? I thought to myself. Every single thing we were going through and fighting over was the same as it was in the 1800s. I asked myself, What have we done different? All I saw was us repeating the past and its mistakes. As long as we kept on repeating the past, we would keep suffering and dying because we do not realize that the world around us had a way of infusing negative thoughts and ideas in our minds.

Let’s take ancient forms of slavery as an example. God created us all equal, so if we were all equal, why did some have to be slaves to others? Kings had servants and peasants. Both the Roman Empire and the Irish had slaves in cells; likewise, we enslaved our minds, so did we have to repeat these ugly spots in history?

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Enslaved Mind. Donald Lodrigue
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