Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Los Angeles — 2020
Image by rawpixel.com

Victim mentality has gripped this generation, this country really. It has caused so many people to blame their lack of success, their emotions, their hardships, on something intangible that has long-since been left in the past: systemic racism. Too many times have I seen people focus so much on the past that it negatively affects their future. Victim mentality has become their Achilles heel, it is a debilitating ideology.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stephen Davis (@stephendavis1776)

Steve Harvey popularized the saying, “you can’t drive your car looking in the rearview mirror,” using this as an analogy for life. It is meant to explain that you can’t ever move forward and make progress if you’re stuck dwelling on the past.

“If you got someone that you feels has wronged you, and you’re carrying that — that’s like a cancer, and all its doing is eating away at you. Do you know how many people Ive had to forgive that have never asked me for forgiveness?”
Steve Harvey

Instead of understanding that our generation does not face the same hardships as those before us did, so many still blame racism as the reason they cannot succeed. In reality, it isn’t racism holding these people back — it’s their own mentality. They are so focused either on the past, as in, over 150 years ago, or their own past, that they can’t see the opportunities right in front of them, or see through their blinding anger.

The beauty of America is the fact that anyone has the ability to work their way up, out of any situation and make something of themselves — there is no systemic racism that will prevent them from doing so. That narrative is used as an excuse, to keep people from working hard, to keep them from being successful.

We as human beings need to stop dwelling so much on the past, and learn to let go. We cannot change what was, but we should focusing on it, and keep our eyes set upon the future ahead.