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Honestly, I think that your anger stems from not being around a diverse group of Black Americans because there is nothing "unusal" or "exotic" about your racial background to me. Granted, I was born and raised in Los Angeles amongst in a community of middle/upper class Black Creoles and Blacks.
So forgive me if I'm wrong but the picture that I'm getting is that your intellectual Black American father married your Italian (or Italian American) mother and raised you in a lower/working class Black neighborhood (ie the ghetto).
But you are an adult now. You have the power to live wherever you so desire so I am not understanding the anti-Black women rants. You control whether or not you want to live in an area that has "ghetto" Black people, "barrio" Latinos or "trailer park" White people...or if you want to live in a more upscale area. No one is stopping you. Move to an area where you don't have to encounter those whom you dislike. Its easy.
Perfect idea. Some people don't get that their environment may be a problem but their attitude IS the problem.
Honestly, I think that your anger stems from not being around a diverse group of Black Americans because there is nothing "unusal" or "exotic" about your racial background to me. Granted, I was born and raised in Los Angeles amongst in a community of middle/upper class Black Creoles and Blacks.
So forgive me if I'm wrong but the picture that I'm getting is that your intellectual Black American father married your Italian (or Italian American) mother and raised you in a lower/working class Black neighborhood (ie the ghetto).
But you are an adult now. You have the power to live wherever you so desire so I am not understanding the anti-Black women rants. You control whether or not you want to live in an area that has "ghetto" Black people, "barrio" Latinos or "trailer park" White people...or if you want to live in a more upscale area. No one is stopping you. Move to an area where you don't have to encounter those whom you dislike. Its easy.
I wasn't going to post in this thread, ne thing that irritates me more is the vitriol, unfounded hate mixed-race blacks have for other blacks. It's sickening. For the life of me I can't understand why people would want to hate people or ancestors who make up 3/4, one-half or one-quarter of what they are. The said part about it too is their hate is all based on ignorance, not actual facts. Embrace who you are. FAmiliar yourself with the rich cultural history you have from both sides of your family. Open your mind to people from all sorts of social classes, education and political backgrounds. Realize good and bad people can be found in every race and open your mind so you can learn why that's the case, or why it may seem more bad than good exists in one race versus the other.
Last edited by 313Weather; 04-28-2012 at 11:48 AM..
Honestly, I think that your anger stems from not being around a diverse group of Black Americans because there is nothing "unusal" or "exotic" about your racial background to me. Granted, I was born and raised in Los Angeles amongst in a community of middle/upper class Black Creoles and Blacks.
So forgive me if I'm wrong but the picture that I'm getting is that your intellectual Black American father married your Italian (or Italian American) mother and raised you in a lower/working class Black neighborhood (ie the ghetto).
But you are an adult now. You have the power to live wherever you so desire so I am not understanding the anti-Black women rants. You control whether or not you want to live in an area that has "ghetto" Black people, "barrio" Latinos or "trailer park" White people...or if you want to live in a more upscale area. No one is stopping you. Move to an area where you don't have to encounter those whom you dislike. Its easy.
Yea, seems i remember reading something like that from Thomas Sowell once. I'm not sure because it was years ago, but i remember being a little surprised by it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBCasino
I guess I'm not "in the know", but I am interested, can you expand on that?
I do recall reading that article.
Sure I can expand. There are several reasons for this:
1. Relatively few Africans were brought to North America- The estimates of the number of Africans transported from Africa to the New World is estimated between 10-40 million. However only about 500K were sent directly to what we call the Unite States.
2. African Americans have always been a pretty small minority- The percentage of African Americans in the USA has been relatively low when you compare the the percentage of African descended people in countries like Haiti, Jamaica and Brazil. The percentages range anywhere to about 2% in Colonial Virginia to about 20% during the onset of the Revolutionary War. Of course some areas had more or less of a percentage.
3. So you have diverse yet relatively few Africans living in farms that were some distance apart. It would have been pretty tough to maintain any connection to Africa even if slaves weren't sold away from parents and the other horrors of slavery didn't exist.
4. Poor whites (indentured servants) often worked along Black slaves. As with any groups that work together for long periods of times relationships form, bonds of brotherhood forms as well. This alliance was viewed cautiously by the gentry elite which held both groups in contempt. In fact it was a response of a rebellion (Bacon's Rebellion) of poor whites and blacks which led to a hardening of the color lines, this wasn't always the case.
So basically in absence of a strong African identity African Americans had to socialize themselves in accordance with the dominant cultures around them or that they were exposed to on a regular basis, this would be poor white culture more specifically poor English and Scot-Irish culture.
There is still some debate on just how much if any African influence is in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) but most agree that the American South English influence is dominant.
After reading this, all I can really recommend the OP to do is move somewhere where the black culture isn't "ghetto minded" and where the whites don't equate blacks with ghettoness. Even though the OP comes off as emotional, many of the black respondents (who are probably from militant black communities and have been the beneficiaries of the current pitiful state of the black culture) are giving equally narrow-minded replies, using the "it's how the black culture be" rationalization hamster to justify the hatred victorianpunk has received. This is the dangers of a mob mentality in that no matters who's right in the world of reason, the mob has the final say. Not to say that the OP is completely right in thinking all blacks are like the ones he/she interacts with daily.
Only thing I can recommend is that if the OP is in school, get a degree that is marketable to ANYWHERE in this country (Pre-Med, accounting, and especially STEM degrees), and then make your plans to get the Hell out of Dodge.
After reading this, all I can really recommend the OP to do is move somewhere where the black culture isn't "ghetto minded" and where the whites don't equate blacks with ghettoness. Even though the OP comes off as emotional, many of the black respondents (who are probably from militant black communities and have been the beneficiaries of the current pitiful state of the black culture) are giving equally narrow-minded replies, using the "it's how the black culture be" rationalization hamster to justify the hatred victorianpunk has received. This is the dangers of a mob mentality in that no matters who's right in the world of reason, the mob has the final say. Not to say that the OP is completely right in thinking all blacks are like the ones he/she interacts with daily.
Only thing I can recommend is that if the OP is in school, get a degree that is marketable to ANYWHERE in this country (Pre-Med, accounting, and especially STEM degrees), and then make your plans to get the Hell out of Dodge.
Yes I posted a similar thing up thread some posters are taking this a little too personally. I'm not sure why many Blacks are so invested in keeping up appearances of group think.
Even though the OP comes off as emotional, many of the black respondents (who are probably from militant black communities and have been the beneficiaries of the current pitiful state of the black culture) are giving equally narrow-minded replies, using the "it's how the black culture be" rationalization hamster to justify the hatred victorianpunk has received. This is the dangers of a mob mentality in that no matters who's right in the world of reason, the mob has the final say.
That's another thing which irritates me as well.
It's very common in discussions regarding Detroit. It's well known that many folks equate "Detroiters" with "Blacks", so the blacks here do militantly chant that same "it's how we be" line here to justify the problems Detroit face and Detroit's half-ass backwards culture. The problem is that does nothing to resolves the issues the city faces, nor does it do anything to nullify the stereotypes people have of Detroit and its citizens. You come across as uneducated sheeple instead and the city is still seen as a hellhole no one wants a part of. If anything, it breeds MORE insularity and causes the above situation to worsen.
Last edited by 313Weather; 04-28-2012 at 01:46 PM..
Sure I can expand. There are several reasons for this:
1. Relatively few Africans were brought to North America- The estimates of the number of Africans transported from Africa to the New World is estimated between 10-40 million. However only about 500K were sent directly to what we call the Unite States.
2. African Americans have always been a pretty small minority- The percentage of African Americans in the USA has been relatively low when you compare the the percentage of African descended people in countries like Haiti, Jamaica and Brazil. The percentages range anywhere to about 2% in Colonial Virginia to about 20% during the onset of the Revolutionary War. Of course some areas had more or less of a percentage.
3. So you have diverse yet relatively few Africans living in farms that were some distance apart. It would have been pretty tough to maintain any connection to Africa even if slaves weren't sold away from parents and the other horrors of slavery didn't exist.
4. Poor whites (indentured servants) often worked along Black slaves. As with any groups that work together for long periods of times relationships form, bonds of brotherhood forms as well. This alliance was viewed cautiously by the gentry elite which held both groups in contempt. In fact it was a response of a rebellion (Bacon's Rebellion) of poor whites and blacks which led to a hardening of the color lines, this wasn't always the case.
So basically in absence of a strong African identity African Americans had to socialize themselves in accordance with the dominant cultures around them or that they were exposed to on a regular basis, this would be poor white culture more specifically poor English and Scot-Irish culture.
There is still some debate on just how much if any African influence is in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) but most agree that the American South English influence is dominant.
So is this primarily language-wise? or overall culture? These days, culture-wise, in my opinion, it's a back and forth, music, style, slang etc..
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