African American "culture" (enemy, FBI, myth, compared)

[Vanessa_456]

Originally Posted by dman72

Most Americans of English or Scotch-Irish descent do not identify themselves as "English Americans" , etc. A lot of Germans and Scandanavians too. I mean there's a little of that stuff with Swedes and Norwegians in Wisconsin, but it's very minor.

A lot of African Americans have roots in this country that go back further even then those people. How could they possibly identify with African culture in any way other than the fact that those people are black also? It's reaching for something that is pointless. African American culture in this country, pre Hip-hop/gangbanger centric, is rich and admirable..the music alone is revered all over the world..blues, jazz, soul. The problem is that in the last 20-30 years younger blacks have started disowning that tradition for what amounts to basically a street fight set to a beat. Not ALL hip hop like that, but the majority of it is. I heard I think it was Winton Marcellis say that the real musical tradition of African Americans started to degrade when budget cuts in 80's took band instruments away from inner city schools. One theory at least.

Let's not forget that African Amerian musicians also created Rock music too.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by Vanessa_456

Let's not forget that African Amerian musicians also created Rock music too.

Absolutely.....don't really get why the need for sarcasm, but whatever, gotta be pissed off about something, right "Vanessa"?

Not to get to crazy with musicology, but "Rock" music as it is today is pretty far away from "Rock and Roll", which is more directly influenced by R&B and Blues. The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen are "Rock and Roll" and owe much more to the AA artists that influenced them, while Blink 182 is "rock" and has little if anything to do with that tradition other than the name "rock".

[Motion]

Originally Posted by Vanessa_456

I am African American and at times I feel abit sad that African Americans do not have our own unique customs, language and culture that is based on the African tradition...

As a black-American I'm all for us learning and adopting some African culture or cultures up to a point.

Not everything African should be adopted by black Americans. Several African cultural practices I think are outdated. We black Americans don't need to adopt things like FGM,Trokosi,child brides and "widow cleansing". These practices aren't even good for the Africans who practice them. So yeah lets learn some African history,drumming and languages but lets not go beyond that in trying to be African.

[Vector1]

Originally Posted by scratchie

What part of "It's polite to call people what they wish to be called" is confusing you?

I thought we were having a mature rational discussion, not playing games/dumb. You clearly know what I said, yet dodged the question/s.
There is no way for you to know who wants to be called an African-American and who doesn't. Yet that does not stop you and others to go along with the politically correct dogma of calling blacks "AA".

Yet your espoused philosophy does not seem to apply to others as I doubt you do what I asked, by determining what ethnic origin the person is, and then referring to them as that ethnic group in a hyphenated-American description. If you don't, then why not?

[Vanessa_456]

Originally Posted by Hadoken

Frankly, I find the assumption that black Americans have no "culture" to be obnoxious. First off, hip hop is not at all "degrading" (nor is rap music, per se - we're far from the era of Dr. Dre or DMX)..."

I almost stopped reading your statement based on the first two sentences above. The "hip-hop mainstream rap culture" promotes violence and misogyny. It is exteremely degrading to African Americans, because many African Americans internalize the negative messages. How else do you explain why its become fashionable for low income African American males to refer to each other as "nig***s," while sagging their pants. Something is clearly wrong when a person elects to adopt a racial slur as a "term of endearment." I believe many replicate what they see in rap videos, because they do not know any better.

I hate this negative view of blackness, or black American culture. There's also Howard and Spelman. Black American culture is giving dap, it's talk at the barbershop, it's jumping the broom. It's Black Israelites shouting on the corner - and it's also Dr. MLK Jr. marching for the right to vote. People claim we hate education, but in Philidelphia and Chicago, black kids are marching in the street to protest school closings. It's the elation at seeing Obama elected, and the disgust at the media for following Donald Trump's asinine demands. It's disgust at the guys who killed Christopher Lane, and his gust at the guy who killed Trayvon Martin, and the people who rallied to Zimmerman's defense. It's rap - and R&B, jazz, blues and rock. It's step shows. It's Tyler Perry, and also Dave Chapelle, or Bill Cosby, "12 Years a Slave" and "Django Unchained", among many other movies.

I do not look favorably upon most elements of American culture. I see it as largely based on consumerism and individualism, two things which I abhor.

Swahili? Man, we're beyond that.

Swahili is the most widely spoken African language in the world. How are you beyond learning Swahili? Are you also beyond studying French, or Spanish?

[Volobjectitarian]

Well, first piece of advice would be to drop kwanzaa as something to celebrate, given that it's an amalgamation of Marxism and separatism created by a domestic terrorist and FBI stooge from the 60s. That particular bit of rot in the "black community" is most insidious.

But hey, don't take my word for it...ask Ron Karenga, inventor of the non-holiday:

"People think it's African, but it's not," Karenga said about his holiday in an interview quoted in the Washington Post. "I came up with Kwanzaa because black people in this country wouldn't celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that's when a lot of bloods would be partying."

Of note, Karenga's United Slaves killed two members of the Black Panthers in 1969, and he did time for his torture/assault of Deborah Jones and Gail Davis, records of which are increasingly hard to find, but he served three years for that little gem.

But let's take a closer look at ridiculous kwanzaa is (hardly surprising, since a crackpot marxist and wannabe terrorist made it up):

• Muhindi - ears of corn set aside for the children. Yeah...corn isn't native to Africa. Corn was introduced to Africa by white people.
• The name/days - all in Swahili, which is East African, and the black slaves that would be the African-American forebears were all from West Africa. Two wildly divergent regional cultures.
• Ujima - "collective work" celebration. Yeah, he borrowed that gem from the growing African socialism movement, championed most ardently by one Julius Nyrere, first president of Tanzania, who with his Arusha Declaration, gave "ujamaa" to Tanzania in 1967 (right around the time Karenga was inventing his non-African, anti-white, anti-Christmas), and Nyrere's ujamaa was responsible for oppression and economic devastation that led to Tanzania being one of the most foreign aid dependent countries in the world.
• feasts/days - have no counterpart in any state/culture in Africa.
• kinara - the menorah with the standard colors common to African flags, which once again descend from post-WW I Ethiopia...in Eastern Africa. So take a Jewish symbol and paint it with colors from the other side of the continent where they don't share the culture of our descendants...that'll make it official!

But, thanks to Orwellian tradition of repeating the same lie often enough to make it truth, Karenga is a professor in the UC system, his holiday is actually accepted as some legitimate part of Africa's past (which it clearly is not), the history/culture of the actual slaves of North America has been overwritten by white Americans who think Ethipoia is in West Africa, oh, and a holiday created for the purpose of promoting marxism and anti-white separatism is now a beloved time for families?

Only in America. And you wonder where L Ron Hubbard got his idea for scientology?

[Red_Devil]

Rap, Basketball, Fried Chicken

[Vanessa_456]

Originally Posted by dman72

Absolutely.....don't really get why the need for sarcasm, but whatever, gotta be pissed off about something, right "Vanessa"?

Not to get to crazy with musicology, but "Rock" music as it is today is pretty far away from "Rock and Roll", which is more directly influenced by R&B and Blues. The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen are "Rock and Roll" and owe much more to the AA artists that influenced them, while Blink 182 is "rock" and has little if anything to do with that tradition other than the name "rock".

Well, there's rock music, and then there's "heavy metal and punk rock."

FYI, "Rock" was heavily influenced by Hendrix, who is African American.

[Vector1]

Originally Posted by Vanessa_456

Actually, they wouldn't be "African" American. Africa is the second largest continent (after Asia), which consist of the following countries:


Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cote d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan (North)
South Sudan (Rep.)
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe


Many Nigerians for example, who became American citizens, label themselves as "Nigerian-American," while a Somalian who becomes an American citizen may elect to use the term "Somalian-American." Note that "African American" is a term that is used primarily by descendants of African slaves. Since our ancestry is vastly mixed with different African ethnic groups, many African Americans do not know exactly which nations throughout Africa our ancestors descended from (unless DNA testing is conducted).

First of all, I did not need a geographic listing of countries within Africa.

To a certain extent, you have made my point for me. Yet I bet you do not even see it based on your position and responses to me.
Answer this for me. How long does one need to continue to refer to their ethnic background once they decide to make a life for themselves and their future generations?

As to the TR comment, I will need some time to read what you have provided.

[RogersParkGuy]

Originally Posted by no1brownsfan

I'd prefer to just call my fellow Americans by their names. It's easier that way.

Plus, refusing to say "African-American" helps perpetuate the myth of color-blindness, which most white Americans want to believe in.