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If Sowell is guilty of anything, it's overstating the case. It's unnecessary. This isn't something requiring a thesis.
African American's roots in this country are southern (unfortunately) in origin. Their culture encapsulates everything good (not much) and bad (a whole lot) about that culture from language to food to religion.
Blacks simply emulated the people who were in charge...the local white folks. African Americans are uniquely America's creation. They aren't like blacks in any other part of the world.
I'm no acolyte of Tom Sowell, but when he's right, I give him his due.
Im not a fan of Sowell either, but he is basically correct on this. The cultural and personality traits that many uneducated black Americans regard as authentically "black" have their roots ironically in rural white "hillbilly" subculture, not anything African. It frustrates me that liberal black thinkers do not also generally seem to understand the importance of criticizing and deconstructing backward & narrow notions of "blackness" as well as other internal cultural flaws.
If Sowell is guilty of anything, it's overstating the case. It's unnecessary. This isn't something requiring a thesis.
African American's roots in this country are southern (unfortunately) in origin. Their culture encapsulates everything good (not much) and bad (a whole lot) about that culture from language to food to religion.
Blacks simply emulated the people who were in charge...the local white folks. African Americans are uniquely America's creation. They aren't like blacks in any other part of the world.
I'm no acolyte of Tom Sowell, but when he's right, I give him his due.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk
There are certainly similarities between poor Southern culture and poor African-American culture, in that African-American culture to a major extent is poor Southern culture.
One similarity is the exaggerated on personal honor. "Suh, you have sullied mah honah, and I dahmayand satisfaction!" boils down to the tendency of both poor Southern whites and poor African-Americans to pick a fight at the slightest hint of disrespect.
I doubt Sowell, though, has done enough real scholarship to trace it back to Britain--I suspect all the characteristic earmarks are almost wholly American in origin, both black and white versions of it.
However, "redneck" is not the same thing as "poor Southern culture," nor is it the same thing as poor African-American culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheArchitect
Im not a fan of Sowell either, but he is basically correct on this. The cultural and personality traits that many uneducated black Americans regard as authentically "black" have their roots ironically in rural white "hillbilly" subculture, not anything African. It frustrates me that liberal black thinkers do not also generally seem to understand the importance of criticizing and deconstructing backward & narrow notions of "blackness" as well as other internal cultural flaws.
Agreed IF talking about the "bottom of the barrel" PWT and hood rats here.
"Violence was far more common in the South -- and in those parts of Britain from which Southerners came. So was illegitimacy, lively music and dance, and a style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery. All of this would become part of the cultural legacy of blacks, who lived for centuries in the midst of the redneck culture of the South."
Nothing like resorting to the worst form of racial/ethnic stereotyping to prove that racism plays little in the lives of those it affects. In this recounting Sowell reads no better than the worst rhetoric of 19th century Nativist and No Nothings.
It's an issue of poverty more than race. Poor "rednecks" or poor whites have a very similar "culture" to poor blacks because they both deal with similar issues like joblessness, drug addiction, problems with the law and a bias discriminatory police force that thinks anyone poor is just a thug and up to no good.
We can't talk about 'class' in this country unless in the positive ie middle, lower, upper (based on income). So race substitutes for class and because minorities make up the bulk of the working class in this country, we mistake experiences most poor people share as racial/cultural traits.
Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell wrote an essay (summarized here: Black rednecks and white liberals - Thomas Sowell - Page full claiming that American black culture is largely redneck.
I see many similarities, one striking point is how many southerners still blame northerners for the dismal economy in the south while claiming black americans blame white americans for the same thing.
That's a nonsense theory. I have never heard anyone define what is so called Black American culture.
I have never heard anyone say how it's different from American culture since the only culture most black Americans know is American.
In fact, the average black American can trace their family lineage far further back in this continent's history than the majority of other Americans including white folks.
This means most black Americans don't have recent cultural connections that aren't American.
While the vast majority of other Americans white people, Latino and Asians Americans do have much much more recent connections to cultures that aren't American.
So the basic premise that black American culture isn't American culture doesn't make sense to me.
It's never shown how this so called black American culture is different from "normal" American culture.
There just seems to be huge assumptions that everyone knows what black American culture is supposed to be, but they can't articulate why.
It emulates American culture PERIOD...not just Southern Redneck Culture. They both come out of the same culture.
True but Southern culture is rooted in the areas Sowell indicates. There were distinct patterns of settlement in this country in the early days. Some argue even though these areas maybe dominated by other groups people assimilate to the founding ethos of the area.
Im not a fan of Sowell either, but he is basically correct on this. The cultural and personality traits that many uneducated black Americans regard as authentically "black" have their roots ironically in rural white "hillbilly" subculture, not anything African. It frustrates me that liberal black thinkers do not also generally seem to understand the importance of criticizing and deconstructing backward & narrow notions of "blackness" as well as other internal cultural flaws.
There are a few things that I see among African Americans that are common with West Africans, the importance of looking presentable, matriarchal familial formations and importance of extended kin. Generally though I agree with Sowell the dominant influence is the historical culture of the American South.
True but Southern culture is rooted in the areas Sowell indicates. There were distinct patterns of settlement in this country in the early days. Some argue even though these areas maybe dominated by other groups people assimilate to the founding ethos of the area.
But he claims it's traceable to characteristics of certain areas of Britain...and I'd doubt that. I particularly doubt he's done more than a few minutes of Googling to claim it...no real scholarship.
There are a few things that I see among African Americans that are common with West Africans, the importance of looking presentable, matriarchal familial formations and importance of extended kin. Generally though I agree with Sowell the dominant influence is the historical culture of the American South.
However, all of those are also present among poor whites in the South.
And the matriarchal familial formation is a matter of a history in which slavery broke up families and racism since then has specifically targeted black men--it's not a carryover from Africa.
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