Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America (Atlanta, Alma: neighborhood, to live, shop)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't get how any of you can identify yourself with 'other human beings' just because they happen to have a similar skin pigmentation.
It's like grouping yourselves by the size of your pinky or the amounts in your bank account. Making yourself a part of 'a group' based on race is quite possibly the dumbest membership criteria that's ever been created.
Now I know what some of you are going to say. Mandela! Biko! MLK! Malcolm! Slaves! Hey MY people struggled and if I want to identify myself as an African-American that's MY business!
Sure it is... but it's beyond moronic. It's sub-moronic. You are more or less putting the overwhelming majority of the human race on a lower plateau of nobility and worthiness. Millions of Europeans, Arabs, Africans and Asians were either slaves in the most recent century. Hundreds of millions more were/are stuck in a system where poverty and the struggle for survival is a daily fact of life.
To turn one eye to 'your' people while closing the other one to 'all' people is the act of a closet racist. It's worse than an overt act of racism because at least a bigot is fully able to admit their stupid behavior.
Do the world of favor folks. Be open to it. Don't label a person as a 'them' or an 'it'. "It's" what has lead to the collective suffering of billions.
This is one of the most ignorant points of view I've ever read in the history of CD. The fact that you could so easily miss something that's very fundamental here--that race largely correlates and intersects with culture, particularly in the US--makes me even wonder if you have a basic grasp on the issue. Furthermore, it seems that you also fail to realize that race and culture correlates with shared histories and experiences. Thirdly, you also seem to be unaware of your own distinctly European/American framework for understanding this issue, which largely falls under the category of "rugged individualism," and how that is fundamentally at odds with the African/Eastern paradigm of communalism, which all Africans of the Diaspora hold to in some way, shape, or form. The last point, above all else, is why White folk, in many cases, just don't get us.
I suggest you really go get educated first or even just pick up a book before you try and school us on the issue because, in the most literal sense, you simply do not have a clue.
Location: Metro Atlanta (Sandy Springs), by way of Macon, GA
2,014 posts, read 5,096,386 times
Reputation: 2089
Quote:
Originally Posted by africanboy
I know that the majority of my family members hold no ill feelings towards any other groups of blacks with the exception of Nigerians (if you were African, you would understand why).
This is one of the most ignorant points of view I've ever read in the history of CD. The fact that you could so easily miss something that's very fundamental here--that race largely correlates and intersects with culture, particularly in the US--makes me even wonder if you have a basic grasp on the issue. Furthermore, it seems that you also fail to realize that race and culture correlates with shared histories and experiences. Thirdly, you also seem to be unaware of your own distinctly European/American framework for understanding this issue, which largely falls under the category of "rugged individualism," and how that is fundamentally at odds with the African/Eastern paradigm of communalism, which all Africans of the Diaspora hold to in some way, shape, or form. The last point, above all else, is why White folk, in many cases, just don't get us.
I suggest you really go get educated first or even just pick up a book before you try and school us on the issue because, in the most literal sense, you simply do not have a clue.
I believe the answer is because they don't have too Akhenaton (aka Amenhotep IV, aka the first man in recorded history to tell that the god is one). It's called white privilege; the privilege to not have to know.
I believe the answer is because they don't have too Akhenaton (aka Amenhotep IV, aka the first man in recorded history to tell that the god is one). It's called white privilege; the privilege to not have to know.
Precisely. But what I hate is when some of them try and school us when they simply don't have a clue about the other sphere we operate within.
Of course, I am not talking about all immigrant Africans, because it would be wrong of me to assume that they all think the same way. However, I've encountered enough who thought this way to feel that the attitudes I described are fairly widespread. I also know, and understand, more about this than you have assumed I do, and yes I know about the hatred a lot of West Africans have for Nigerians.
Quote:
Originally Posted by africanboy
I have never posted in this forum before, but your post caught my attention and is worthy of a good hearted response. I understand your frustrations, and believe it or not, I understand that if it wasn't for black Americans having gone through the civil rights movement, then my family would never have had the things we have today. In that sense I can look up to people like MLK and Malcom X the same way I look up to Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko. I agree that alot of Africans take the struggles which African Americans went through for granted, and probably will never show any appreciation for it. I choose to, and I know that the majority of my family members hold no ill feelings towards any other groups of blacks with the exception of Nigerians (if you were African, you would understand why).
I don't really care if you think that we are different, or if we come across as narcissists because at the end of the day we are all still part of the African diaspora. Have you ever read posts on South Africa and seen how whites who have no relation to that region are so quick to defend white South Africans? Surely it's not because they care about South Africa or Africa as a whole, but merely because they both descend from Europeans. That is the same way I feel about blacks in America and anytime an ignorant white person comes to me with the "you're much better than the black American" bs, I am always on the side of my black American brothers and sisters.
In regards to my family having it easy, I would beg to differ and take offense to your comments. Both of my parents were born under colonialism on the outskirts of an African city. No running water, no electricity, no unique schooling options. They went from that to having a standard of living higher than 90% of Americans, so if that is easy to you, then we are obviously living in two different worlds. My mother doesn't care if you're Caribbean, African, or African American, she feels a connection to other women who are black and raised me accordingly so I can hold no ill feelings towards you as you seem to hold onto me.
I have never pretended to fully understand black American culture, and could care less if you don't care much for African culture. It is do diverse and rich that you have no concept of what African culture is. I only ask that you keep an open mind when referring to a group of people who are split into over 50 different countries with an array of different customs, languages, and traditions. I hope that one day you will be able to overcome the preconceived notions you have of Africans, and that you will not let isolated incidents deter you away from connecting with some of them. I would suggest talking to females who were born in Africa, as they are usually the nicest of the bunch. Anyways, take care...
Since people are on this subject, I said this before on a thread a while ago. This is kind of deep but I want yall to think about this, tell me if I wrong
If a Asian family had Asian Art it’s seen as cultural
If a native American family have native American art it’s seen a cultural
If a white family had European Art it’s view as non cultural all together they so happen to like it.
But if a black family had African Art they’re view as weird and racist
Like wise Hollywood does those 300, Beowulf, King Arthur type films all the time
But notting African theme like this, can you imagine something like this by Americans with Hollywood effect added. Anything beats these tired black gangster movies.
There's this stigma with black Americans association with things related to Africa ancestry so deep anyone who associate or wants to learn about African history and culture would be painted as a black panther and look like erykah badu or some crap. You can not simply be someone black wanting to learn about Africa you have to be Afrocentric also. ) And no one black wants to be label Afrocentric so most black americans don't want to be associated with Africa.
---------------------------------------
This is another thing
2009 Georgia is
English 8%
Irish 9.5%
Obviously 8% of Georgia isn’t born in England or 9.5% isn’t born in Ireland! people are marking there deeper ancestry right? Due to the fact Subsaharan African is so incredible broad it will include all blacks by default right? and blacks make 30% of Georgia. NO ) Subsaharan African for Georgia is only 1.9%. That makes no dang sense. The only people marking Subsaharan African are immigrants but people who marking Irish and English are not.
----------------------------------
Last thing you if notice immigration is never a black issue when is the last time you heard the NAACP talk about immigration, mean while Africa is the second largest continent by population. Seriously is there a Asian immigrants vs. domestic Asian thing and etc? Blacks are not monolithic but black immigrants vs. domestic blacks? And no one see anything strange about that? Because it's blacks sub grouping by arriving to US rather than Specific African ethnic group. Yes I know black Americans don’t our know Specific African ethnic group but that what the broad Subsaharan African box was for. But what do I know.
This is a subject matter that deeply interests me, yet I am always weary of discussions of such. I find that all too often, a person discredits another for making sweeping generalizations, then in the next sentence dismisses an entire group of people based on what one person said.
I am white, but I am not European, I am American. My parents are American. Their parents and so forth were all Americans, for so many generations that I find it pointless to call myself anything but American. So what is my race? Just because I am white, do I identify with all White European/American culture? No, of course not. Just as I would not expect a black American to identify with all African culture. We have moved on past Pan-Africanism. In fact, I believe the idea of Pan Africanism belittles the very complex and vastly different multitude of African Cultures. Each of which should be embraced as unique - and perhaps to educate the rest of the world to the differences.
If you choose to identify with an African culture (or all of them) then good for you. But if you choose to identify with your American culture, that is great. And if black American culture is now seen as more complex (i.e. "splintered' into four groups - which I believe is an oversimplification) then that is progress. I bet I have more in common with my black neighbors, then I do with a wealthy octogenarian white guy from California (for example). With my neighbors I share common interests, class understandings, familiar place-based perceptions, etc. With my hypothetical guy, I share only the fact that we are white... and I don't believe that means much.
I am not foolish enough to believe that I can empathize with everything my neighbors go through (and have gone through), but I embrace those differences while also celebrating our similarities...
My brother that was the plan. To make descendants of African slaves ashamed of their culture so as they could be subjugated. And that carries on til today. As you can see today no one is holding black people back from learning their history, they are holding themselves back. Again slavery was more about garnering chains and a whip to hold slaves down, you had to make the slave "think" slave, so as he wouldn't get out of line; and alot of black people are in line today. You can only hold a human physically down for so long, but you can control the way a man and his descendants think for centuries and even millenniums.
it's just like the Judeo-Christian religion, which developed thousands of years ago, but even today I personally have met a significant amount of people who seriously believe that the earth is only 6000 years old, or that there were men on this earth who lived to be 900 years old. I'm not trying to disrespect anybody's religion or nothing, don't get me wrong. If u believe the earth is 6,000 years old then that's cool. I personally believe in science and carbon-dating, but I know that people have different beliefs. I'm just trying to make the point that you can control a man's thinking in 2010, even though you only lived in the 5th century BC.
This is a subject matter that deeply interests me, yet I am always weary of discussions of such. I find that all too often, a person discredits another for making sweeping generalizations, then in the next sentence dismisses an entire group of people based on what one person said.
I am white, but I am not European, I am American. My parents are American. Their parents and so forth were all Americans, for so many generations that I find it pointless to call myself anything but American. So what is my race? Just because I am white, do I identify with all White European/American culture? No, of course not. Just as I would not expect a black American to identify with all African culture. We have moved on past Pan-Africanism. In fact, I believe the idea of Pan Africanism belittles the very complex and vastly different multitude of African Cultures. Each of which should be embraced as unique - and perhaps to educate the rest of the world to the differences.
If you choose to identify with an African culture (or all of them) then good for you. But if you choose to identify with your American culture, that is great. And if black American culture is now seen as more complex (i.e. "splintered' into four groups - which I believe is an oversimplification) then that is progress. I bet I have more in common with my black neighbors, then I do with a wealthy octogenarian white guy from California (for example). With my neighbors I share common interests, class understandings, familiar place-based perceptions, etc. With my hypothetical guy, I share only the fact that we are white... and I don't believe that means much.
I am not foolish enough to believe that I can empathize with everything my neighbors go through (and have gone through), but I embrace those differences while also celebrating our similarities...
But here's the thing can you speak cheorkee? all those generation and No! So your here in north America but you know only for the most part is "western culture" Which is base on things rooted from Europe and you think that has nothing to do background? People from non western cultures have to assailant more then people from other western cultures to another. Serious how many million of whites first language is a non European language and there religion is not Christianity or Judaism?
These came from Europe how come we don't call them European dances? But let some one be cought dead learning a African dance they would be Immediately be call un American. This what I'm to trying point out at the top of my post. Whites are most commonly unaware of the manner in which their culture has always been dominant in the US, as they do not identify as members of a specific racial group but rather incorrectly perceive their views and culture as "raceless," when in fact it is ethno-national specific with a racial base component. Because western culture constitutes the general cultural mainstream, it cause non-western culture to be seen as deviant.
I disagree with what you said earlier, ethnocentrism is compare everything to one’s own culture, by ignoring other people culture and pretending you don’t have one, what do you think your doing? That basically taking a Don’t ask don’t tell approach to ethnicity and Race.
I think your missing the point posters are not saying blacks should have every little freaking thing in common or blacks should have nothing in common with whites. What I'm trying point out blacks can't even speak of there ancestry with out someone calling them there un-American. No disrespect to Nigerian, Ghanaian and etc but I don’t want to be Nigerian, Ghanaian and etc I'm American. And with in saying that your not more or less American than any black that do want learn about there Ancestry. It's a shame that most blacks Americans can't name the 10 most taken ethnic groups from west Africa at the same it's a shame that black Americans encourage not to learn.
P.S another thing your not European because the common term used is caucasian the caucasus Region is in Europe.
American culture is European Culture. It's all called Western culture.
A big part of American culture is the ideals of freedom and democracy, and to not let any one person or a small group of people have overarching power over the majority of the people of a nation. You ever heard of a document called the Magna Carta? It was a document out of England written in 1215, and it was the major influence on the US Constitution. The document basically restricted the powers a monarch could have over his population, and if you remember from history class a big reason the Americans rebelled was because of the overarching power King George III had over the American colonists.
And even before the Magna Carta there was this ancient city-state called Athens in Ancient Greece, of which Athens was known for its democratic ideals. These people called the Romans conquered the Greeks and took on their culture, then the Romans conquered all of Western Europe (including what is today the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal) and they spread Greek culture that way. Then the Roman Empire fell and Western Europeans splintered into their own spheres of influence. Out of this splintering came this monarch state called England (of which the Magna Carta developed out of Greek influence). Then later on these Western Europeans would migrate to the Americas and take it over, and further spread Greek culture. Then a group of American colonists would turn back to the influence of the Greeks, rebel against the king, and build a nation modeled upon ancient Greece. That's why everywhere you go in America, when you are looking at government buildings you see that the architecture is Greco-Roman.
All Americans (regardless of race) are Westerners (aka western Europeans) by culture. Even black people. A big part of the culture at black colleges is the Fraternities and sororities (Greek culture). I've experienced a good number of black debutante balls (France), almost all of us celebrate Christmas (a Roman pagan holiday), my favorite foods are pizza, sphagetti, lasagna, Macaroni and cheese (all italy), hamburgers (Germany), French Fries (need I say more), stewed Broccoli (indigenously from Europe). Heck I'm black but I'm not going to deny the influence that Europe has had upon me.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) And no one black wants to be label Afrocentric so most black americans don't want to be associated with Africa.
) Subsaharan African for Georgia is only 1.9%. That makes no dang sense. The only people marking Subsaharan African are immigrants but people who marking Irish and English are not. 
