Griffin Speaks

CRAB BUCKET SYNDROME

One day I was walking along the Washington Beach, the black beach in Washington, North Carolina with my father. I was about eight years old. I noticed a man with a bucket of crabs. The crab bucket did not have a top on it. I asked my father why the crabs were not able to escape. My father’s explanation taught me a valuable lesson.

My father said, “If there was only one crab in the bucket it would certainly escape. However, when there is more than one crab in the bucket, if one tries to crawl out, the other crabs would grab hold and pull it back down so that it would share the same fate as the rest of them.”

This is true with people. If one person attempts to better himself, other people will attempt to drag him back down to share their fate. My father said, “ You must ignore the crabs if you want to be a success in life.

A few weekends ago a close friend called me early in the morning laughing. He told me that he had been at a local Montgomery, Alabama Barbershop when my name along with several other persons was dragged through the mud. “Griffin, There was a man in the Barber Shop and he said that, “The three biggest Uncle Toms in Montgomery are Larry Armstead (Mayor Bobby Bright’s right hand man), Sidney Williams (Chairman of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles) and Greg Griffin (Chief Counsel for the Parole Board).” The man had no basis for his accusations. He went on to say derogatory things about Judge Charles Price, Representative John Knight and several other prominent black Montgomerians .

I don’t want to sound like a self-aggrandizing jackass, but I was somewhat flattered to be thrown in with these successful men. My thoughts immediately returned to what my father had told me when I was a child. This man was nothing more than a crab.

This gentleman had obviously given up on his quest to climb life’s peaks. He found his comfort in tearing down other prominent black men that he presumed had made it. He simply had the mentality that “If he can’t have it, then neither can you.”

My friend told me the man’s name. We share a mutual friend. My friend assured me that if I met him I couldn’t be angry with him. I thought about telling the other people what the man said, but later decided to let it ride. He will eventually say something about the wrong person and they will slap him with a slander suit. According to my friend, he even accused one prominent person whose name I will not mention in this article of being arrested in the Oak Park restroom.

Do you know crab people? Have you attempted to better yourself only to have family and friends to discourage you? Watch out for the crab syndrome.

I would like to recommend a book entitled The Fountainhead, by the Russian/American novelist Ayn Rand. In her introduction to the book, she tells the reader that, “Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees & lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it…Yet a few hold on & move on, knowing that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose & reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man’s nature & life’s potential. There are very few guideposts to find.

Why this man thinks that I am one of the three biggest uncle toms in Montgomery, I do not know. But I can tell you, this man should read Mathew 20:13-15 and Acts 5:4. He should abandon the politics of envy, and kiss the son, lest he be angry, and perish.

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by logging on to www.greggriffin.com (griffin speaks)