Culture query
Ed Brown
email to me, what you believe your culture is and how you classify yourself
by race.
This question is the result of an ongoing discussion concerning what is
culture vs race issues.
Your help would be appreciated.
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Mike Bowen
: Hello netters, I have a simple (?) question to ask you. Please post and/or
: email to me, what you believe your culture is and how you classify yourself
: by race.
: This question is the result of an ongoing discussion concerning what is
: culture vs race issues.
this is always fun. much better than those fill in the blank surveys
in esquire magazine....
i am an african american man born in 1961 in southern california. (my
next immediate thought goes to retracing my ancestry because the natural
question is why were you born in southern california at that time?) but
that's not exactly the question. though i don't hesitate to say that i am
black because both my parents were proud of their lineage and my mother
married a man who looked like her father, my father married a woman who
looked like his mother. a largely aesthetic choice for both of them
which they then attempted to infuse with the stuff of their dreams.
my appreciation of my culture came through politics and at a very young
age. my father is an episcopalean from connecticut, my mother a born-again
ex-catholic from louisiana. his politics in a short phrase were primarily
a scholarly shade of black nationalism, hers a conservative tint of
classic liberalism(1*). the politics of the family were much in the mix
beyond our immediate household. one uncle an old school academic on a
serious trickster tip bogardin' through administrations, the other a sharp
and worldly economist who worked in west africa.
from this standpoint all blackness was understood by our generation to be
a cultural and intellectual contruct. from the racial perspective, it went
without saying that only africans and american blacks had any real interest
in it's creation, extention and preservation. blackness was as black folks
created it and that creation would sustain us against the barriers of race.
i personally was involved with my father's institute for black studies in
it's publishing and neighborhood activities which included writer's
workshops open to children and adults. as well i was part of the now
well-known Us organization of dr. karenga.
i have always understood that a thorough understanding and continuous effort
at redefining and refining the problems and solutions of the day was what
gave extraordinary people the courage and ability to be fearless. for black
people, this was the work of the 'race man' into whose 'talented tenth' i
had been born. the fearlessness was part and parcel of freedom and it was
required because of the very well known means by which blacks have been
deprived of their freedom in america.
my race was a given. i and my family and all of my friends were enemies of
those in power here. but we never doubted our entitlement to freedom. my
blackness was my culture and my politics and my intellectuality and my
style - my well orchestrated and well wrapped system to deliver that freedom
to me. blackness was necessary because freedom was denied.
at the time, there was little doubt in any of our minds that black nationalism
as it was originally constructed was the ideology that fueled and shaped
what our blackness would be. as well, beyond that there was little question
that a pan africanist world view was appropriate. that was the point.
today black nationalism and pan-africanism are changed as am i.
now, i see myself in many more ways, but i am satisfied that african-american
is constructed as it is. much of what my family is and the choices we have
had to make spring from the fact of our african origin, and the ways and means
we have to fight for freedom or whatever we fight for is instructed by our
history and presence in america.
when i speak of race, i speak of a fiction whose usefulness is long past, if
it ever had any. if it was darwin who first suggested humans be classified
according to 'race' or some perverse american school of thought which distorted
science to justify its gross constitutional hypocracy - neither is what i
have in mind when i speak of blackness. nor was it ever really what a negro
was all about although free men of color, that pre-civil war term, might
come close. i know it has taken much for africans to unthink this thinking
and much more still to communicate such knowledge to those who would benefit.
but i see that as an equivalent task of blackness. in determined struggle
against the trap of race has been born the power to overcome its very
definition. but was that the point? no. the point was to achieve freedom, not
to merely transcend race. one can transcend race by scientifically denying it
but that can never account for blackness.
so even as legal sanction of racial oppression falls in bits and pieces around
the world, i still have reasons to be black because my blackness creates
freedom. it was never based on some essential darwinist characteristic.
so i am demographically african american and my blackness -- my culture,
my intellectuality, my politics and my style -- takes up from time to time
aspects of multiculturalism, liberatrianism, taoist philosophy, hiphop
aesthetics, postmodern thought, polytheism, liberation theology, and african
american history, literature and film. that's what i call the mix and i
put myself in it for the sake of self-fulfilliment and out of an obligation
to a continuing struggle to create freedom.
existentially, this is a very difficult task. consider the opportunities
one is presented to explain oneself thusly. more likely americans want to
know my zodiac sign. no problem, but. the creation of space to *be* black
like that is very important and i know this is something african americans
struggle with constantly. i happen to like s.c.a.a. despite all its
shortcomings for this reason. i have decided to *be* black here and be
free here, despite the limits. i see others have as well, in plain sight
of many folks who can only see race and worse fictions. but of course that's
what being fearless is all about.
more power to us!
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mbo...@panix.com harambee!
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(1*) all americans are liberals of one sort or another. but i leave that
for another post. (c.f. cornel west - keeping faith,1993)
B. Radney
[...]
i happen to like s.c.a.a. despite all its
>shortcomings for this reason. i have decided to *be* black here and be
>free here, despite the limits. i see others have as well, in plain sight
>of many folks who can only see race and worse fictions. but of course that's
>what being fearless is all about.
>
>more power to us!
>
not a gift, not a right. a decision.
today's quote: (from my desktop calendar)
"a man who will not labor to gain his rights is a man who
would not, if he had them, prize and defend them."
-frederick douglass
----------------------------------------------
my "address" is my company's, but
my opinions are, thankfully, my own.
Chris Blask
You'll excuse me for reposting this, but it was the most logically,
philosophically and poetically sound thing I've heard on the net for a long
time.
-chris blask
Ed Brown
Ed Brown
> Hello netters, I have a simple (?) question to ask you. Please post and/or
> email to me, what you believe your culture is and how you classify yourself
> by race.
>
> This question is the result of an ongoing discussion concerning what is
> culture vs race issues.
>
Okay people, now its my turn. Then, results will follow in another post.
How do I "define" myself?
My race is Black; actually, by the strict definition of race, it's Negroid. (Before any
flames, look up the strict definition of race AND the major groups.)
How do I define my "culture?" For this exercise I use the strict definition of culture
as: the ideas, skills, arts, tools, and way of life of a certain people in a
certain time.
The first part is easy. My father is Jamaican, so by blood I would have to
say I'm 50% Jamaican.
However, by the definition of culture, I would say 5%. There are not many attributes
of mine that I can define as a part of the Jamaican culture. Now, the rest of
the puzzle is difficult. My family has roots in the South so I would suppose I have some
Southern values and ways. I'll start with food, that's simple enough.
Well, I LOVE greens, (mustard, collard, kale), seasoned with pork. Pork is THE food that
I believed to be an important part of African Americans. It is, I believed, one of the
"Black thangs." Or is it? I was told by a person who
classifies herself as second generation German American, that seasoning food
using pork is something her German grandmother taught her. Hmmm... other food
likes of mine are Italian, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, French,
and Jamaican. I do like Southern fried chicken, chitterlings, ice cream, Buffalo wings....
This can go on forever, so I'll press on. For this part, I'll say I'm a world food
eater.
I believe that hard work always pays off in the long run, education is paramount,
respect of others is essential, and that God exists.
I prefer "urban contemporary" music, jazz, some reggae, and some light rock. (Rap comes
under "urban contemporary" music.) I love to dance, play sports, (even though I'm
terrible at basketball), cook, eat, act silly, and drive fast. I like African Art
and some "abstract" art, nature scene art, movies, plays, and Sega/Nintendo.
I try to raise my daughter with firmness, but fairness, tutor "disadvantaged" African
American children, and treat my friends as family. I am an urban dweller. I have to have
a city in close range for me to be happy. That city also has to have a decent
sized African American community.
I drive for pleasure, take nature pictures, read, listen to music, and fool with the
drug of the next century, the INTERNET. At work I dress conservatively, at play I go
for "urban casual." (My definition.)
I am Black. By default, I have to deal with all the comes with being a Black person
in the United States. This means being afraid for my life when stopped by a policeman,
dealing with suspicion when I enter a store or walk down the street. I deal with
negative personal attitudes and negative media attitudes. I live with the idea that, in
work or "intellectual" setting, I will have to do more to prove myself than I would
have to do if I were White. Being Black in America, means dealing with my
attitude towards the majority. I deal with everyone as a person, yet I recognize
that my experiences affect how I relate.
All the paragraphs, except for the last one, would classify me as an American. As an
American, I am a "mongrel of the world." My culture encompasses other cultures of the
world, especially, European. It's the last paragraph that changes things
drastically. I can't, and wouldn't if I could, change my color. As a result of my
color, I have another dynamic to my "way of life" that helps to define "my" culture.
[If this were a multimedia forum, I would start playing James Brown, "Say It Loud"
or "Lift Every Voice and Sing"]
There are those who are now thinking that I am defining myself because of others or/and
that I am defining myself using negatives. If you think so, then so be it. The pride
that African Americans have or had when Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Joe Lewis,
Jesse Owens, Paul Roebson, Justice Marshal, Martin King Jr, ... accomplished what they
had, was a direct result of bonding due to sharing common adversities and injustices.
This is MY culture and I love us and me.
I am a Black American; or, if you prefer, an African American.