Time to redefine black culture

St Petersburg Times ^ | Novembeer 23, 2003 | Bill Maxwell

[Wonder Warthog]

"..."lollygagging" One of my very favorite words. Good post."

Well, if we would stop mollycoddling the blacks with "affirmative action" (aka "quotas") and let them stand on their own two feet, there would be less lollygagging.

[johnny7]

“I remember how these unflappable people put their families before everything else;”

So do I Mr. Maxwell... so do I.

[zebra 2]

Very good post. You are absolutely right, of course. I would only point out that you black leaders are going to have to do the heavy lifting to effect corrective action in the black community. In today's PC climate, for a white to comment on, much less be critical of anything "black", gets him labeled racist. Perhaps that's the first problem you need to work on.

[bert]

....Defining the Black culture?......

Within the broad American culture there are numerous subtypes.

How about noting some Black cultural attributes?

From TV news I see:
There seem to be two very noticable black female political subtypes..... those with very short hair, and those with very large hats.


I Have occassion to visit with black male and female truckdrivers. They frequently wear T shirts celebrating a large annual family reunion.

These identifiers are fairly common, specifically black and intended for some reason to differentiate the individuals. They seem to have some cultural subtype identification purpose.

[SamAdams76]

I agree with this column. People are judged - black or white - by their behavior. More specificially, their attitude, the words they use, their ability to interact with others in a civil manner, even the way they dress.

I know young white men who similarly place themselves at a socio-economic disadvantage. You know the type, the ones who are always copping an attitude, wearing a baseball cap backwards with sneakers and baggy ill-fitting pants, spewing obscenities, "talking trash" and showing no mastery of the English language whatsoever. Well this is the way that many young black men are perceived as well, and this, not race, is what is holding them back.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I say those politicians are LIBERALS first, last and always. It's time for people to look at the track record of these representatives not their color. It will serve everyone in the end.

[jocon307]

You are correct, sir! Indefatigably correct.

[JoeSixPack1]

Personally and socially, I am an American.

If I was grouped by my skin tone and heritage I would be repressed in my day to day thoughts and actions, hyped and hyphinated by my peers and disassociated with by those not like me because of a social stigma. So celebrating my "group" would be my only cover.

But being it's BLACK America we are discussing, we are given a pass on mindlessness to celebrate an ethnicity who describes themselves as only half American and endure endless racial overtones of inequality.

There is no other ethnicity that is even allowed the celebritory alignment of rejoicing. Let alone improvement as a culture.

When ethnic leaders remove the ethnicity from their argument they become little more then American citizens.

Aren't we lucky.

[djf]

But there is a dynamic there. Many blacks continually and repeatedly portray themselves as being separate from mainstream America.

Then whine and bitch when someone treats them as being separate from mainstream America.

A self fulfilling prophecy, wearing discrimination like a badge of honor.

[lainde]

bttt

[lainde]

bttt

[Mark was here]

Immigrants used to come here in an attempt to leave their old world behind them, to start new fresh lives for themselves and their children.
Now they want to drag their culture over with them, to replace our culture, and anyone who say's this is wrong, is labeled a bigot...

[cyborg]

Why is it so important to define black culture? The minute it's defined, then that's what people will think black people should only do. Then there will be black people doing things not enumerated within that culture who will be seen as doing things 'not black'.

[cyborg]

thanik you... very good post

[cyborg]

Black Americans have always been here. Where does immigration enter into this picture?

[IronJack]

It is not Whites who are denying any of these things to Blacks. It is the enablers, the race pimps, the gilded guardians of failure who ensure that Black culture is defined not by what it IS, but by what it is NOT, not by what it achieves, but by what it rejects.

Someone -- anyone -- please show me where Blacks are routinely disenfranchised SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF RACE. I contend that that is a myth, and hasn't been true since Martin Luther King awakened our slumbering morality.

I've said it before ... As long as Black culture is founded on rejection of the White definition of success, the former is doomed. Now ask yourself who benefits if that remains true. [Hint: it isn't Blacks in general.]

[cyborg]

Jesse Jackson would be out of a job. Al Sharpton would not have his peanut gallery of followers.

I agree with you about institutionalized racism existing. There is racism by individuals but I hardly think there is a conspiracy, otherwise how would black people from other countries come here and succeed?

The footballer from Ghana is black, he's also fourteen and going to COLLEGE, aside from being a genius on the football field he's a genius in the classroom. Routine discrimination?

[cyborg]

I want to also add that black people in this country were succeeding before they had self appointed leaders and snotty white liberals. The libs have a lot to answer for I'd say. They can't explain who blacks from other countries come here and succeed with all this atrocious racism around every corner.

Frankly, I've noticed how people deal with situations differently. I could have turned around and sued someone for blatant anti-white discrimination, but I didn't. Sometimes it's better to privately smooth things over than get loud about it. I also have to listen to people complain about how white people are prejudice against them, when it more sounds like them being an a$$ on the job.

[Carry_Okie]

I think the question should be, are we all going to be Americans...or will the 48 contiguous states eventually become another "Europe" with 48 little countries, each with its own etnic population?

Actually, allowing people to associate into different groups with laws that suited them was the purpose of Federalism. Pennsylvania was Quaker, New England was Protestant, Maryland had large numbers of Catholics...

Very good post, BTW.

[yankeedame]

I know young white men who similarly place themselves at a socio-economic disadvantage. You know the type, the ones who are always copping an attitude, wearing a baseball cap backwards with sneakers and baggy ill-fitting pants, spewing obscenities, "talking trash" and showing no mastery of the English language whatsoever. Well this is the way that many young black men are perceived as well, and this, not race, is what is holding them back.

Amen,sir! Thou hast hit the nail square on the head. Clothes - and language - have, does, and will always make the man.

When push comes to shove, when it comes to their money, their lives, their families, their whatever, even the trash-talkers (if left to their own devises and not pressured)will trust the Milburn Drysdale-type over the Emeniem-type hands down.