Mississippi Is The Trap

One day I was daydreaming about various topics as I often do and I came across this idea of The Trap and how it relates to Mississippi. Now when thinking about The Trap, I can’t rely on regular sources for a definition. Thus, I have to go to unusual sources to really get an understanding of what I’m trying to explain. I came across a particular definition on the Urban Dictionary that states, The Trap is: 

“A ghetto place that if you stay there too long you get trapped there. The people and circumstances bring you down. You make friends with someone they ask you for a ride to work. You get profiled and pulled over. Dude has drugs on him and sticks it in your glove box. Cops arrest both of you. Now you got a felony and can't get financial aid to go to college. You end up working at the local McDonald's. Now you trapped. Dude asks you for a ride to work because it's the trap and doesn't want to walk. You say no. He gets fired for being late. Now you got beef and get mugged by his homies. Now you scared to go outside so you don't get mugged again. So you stay in the house and it feels like you are trapped there. That's the trap house. A lot of times people end up selling drugs in the trap house. They fortify it with armed people making little safe places in an otherwise dangerous area.”

For some reason, everything just clicked when I read that. If you take out all the particulars, The Trap is just a cycle of unfortunate circumstances that keep you in a state of mediocrity. Regardless of how much you try to change your circumstances or how much you tell yourself that this feeling of being restricted is a myth, it’s not hard to succumb to the trappings of your environment. It’s easy to equate The Trap to this cycle of drugs and violence because that’s what we have been taught. But it goes beyond that. You don’t need drugs and violence to feel trapped. All you need is a lack of hope. 

When you are surrounded by mediocrity and the only thing that you notice are the negative things that are around you, it’s not hard to fall into the trappings of life. You feel like you’re trapped, even if you’re just trying to survive. So, how does that relate to Mississippi? Well, it’s simple. In Mississippi, you either survive or thrive in spite of and not because of. This state is full of people who have overcome the impossible. Matter of fact, it is expected of you to overcome the impossible if you are from here. And it is that particular statement that I have a problem with. It is not normal to have to overcome impossible tasks at every turn. Eventually society evolves and improves upon the earlier issues that we have had. With every new day that arises, we are faced with new problems. That’s why it is important to solve the problems of yesterday so they won’t pile up on you. Advancements have been made in various fields of study to correct the past and past errors.

But it doesn’t feel like that when you have lived in Mississippi all your life. There is a tradition of mediocrity here that shields the state from whole sale changes. One time I was sitting in on a meeting while people were discussing the effects of a rule that makes it hard for the workers to effectively do their job. When asked why this rule was in place, the only answer anyone could muster up was that “we always have done it this way.” There was no explanation as to why the rule needed to be in place. It was just there because someone decided that it should be there and it wasn’t going to get changed. That pretty much sums up life in Mississippi for me. We only do things because that’s how we have always done it. So how does that mindset stay relevant for so many years? I honestly believe that it is due to not being exposed to better.

The greatest trick Mississippi can pull on you is making you believe that there is no better way and it shields you from knowing that better is even possible. So many people prevent themselves from achieving greatness because they don’t even know that better is possible for them. Motivational people always preach the narrative of dreaming big. They want you to envision yourself as being more than what you really are. But it’s hard seeing that far into your future when you don’t even know what’s possible. Successful people sometimes take the steps to success for granted by thinking that all it takes is hard work and dedication. While it’s true that hard work and dedication increase the probability of your goals coming to fruition, that doesn’t necessarily mean that what worked for you will work for the next person. You may be enjoying the fruits of your labor and trying to impart wisdom on the next person. But that wisdom that you have may not make an imprint on the next person because they are dealing with the hardships of their own life. That is what Mississippi does to your psyche, especially if you didn’t have a good foundation in life. It slowly drains all the energy out of you due to what you see on a daily basis and everyone is not built to handle that.

Now the basis of this piece is not to bash Mississippi, even though it’s impossible not to make this state look bad when the title is “Mississippi Is the Trap.” I’m writing this, more so, to ask a question. How do you help a person who has no hope? I say that because I find myself slowly falling into the trap that Mississippi has laid for me. I’m less optimistic about the future and what lies ahead than I was when I was in college. I’m more irritated with the power structure that is established for people to succeed. And most importantly, I’m losing hope by the day. The most humbling thing that I can say at this time is that I’m realizing that I believe less in myself than ever before.

I was talking with my mom one day and we were discussing to prospect of me buying a house. She was telling me how I need to step out on faith and believe that the house will be paid for. While she was talking, the only thing I could think about was everything I already have to pay for and the amount of debt buying a home would put me in. I couldn’t force myself to believe her good words about me or believe in myself that I can do what I’ve always done and that’s thrive in spite of. I had to catch myself and think about how I got this way. After sulking, I started to think about how people who really have no hope deal with feeling helpless all the time. Better yet, how do we speak to people who really feel that way?

I honestly don’t know how to help a person who doesn’t believe that they can’t help themselves. I’m currently at a point where I can question how I feel. There is still self-accountability at play and I still believe that things can turn out for the better. But a truly hopeless person is beyond your motivational speeches and self-help techniques because their reality makes it seem like your mouth is just spewing lies at them. Words have power, but just imagine if most of the negative thoughts that you think come true. What will you believe? Will you believe this random person telling you that everything is going to be alright? Or will you believe that every bad thing that is happening to you is your fault and there is no way that things can get better? I tend to think that you will believe the latter.

Now if a person truly believes the worst about themselves and everything that you tell them is falling on death ears, are they worth leaving behind? Society tells that you should leave them because you have done all that you can do. To that I simply ask, how did those people become so worthless that they are that easy to let go? I’ve already established that I don’t have the solution to helping truly hopeless people. But I do know that leaving them behind does not work. So what happens if I succumb to my fear and truly become hopeless? Will it be that easy to leave me behind? I guess I won’t find out until it happens.