- Jun 24, 2007
- 3,282
- 102
- Occupation
- HR/Finance
Full article here
...first, we must understand the reasons why we are in such horrible shape as a people.
We need to first understand that we are in bad shape because we believe that we are and others believe that we are not very good people.
Our current state is to accept whatever the worldview of African or African American happens to be.
Due to the commodification of our culture, we are now only as deep as the outlets issuing our culture back to us. As opposed to creating new extensions of our culture and then sharing it with each other, the world now takes from us what they want and eventually, it is packaged and sold back to us--presented as authentic Black culture. We consume this artificial culture as the rest of the world does and it is sickening us as a child who eats too much sugar.
We are cultural children. We are not fully developed as a people, because we don't know who we are, what we stand for or where we are going. Many of us don't even think about it.
The best that many of us can manage is to be whatever white folks are trying to be in their secondhand, deviant duplication of culture stolen from us. Blind to our own obfuscated culture, we embrace it as though it is true culture, which explains the success of someone such as Eminem.
And when we do play Afrocentric, it's like children who play house but never really become responsible adults and parents. We can see throngs of Blacks with Afros, Dreadlocks and Braids claiming to be moving closer to their roots, but nothing else about their lifestyle or mentality is African or intrinsically African American-whatever that is.
[...]
Our parents came from a movement that was revealed as hollow and at its roots revealed as superficial. Only a few people were Martin and Malcolm, while the rest were dressed up for the occasion, which explains how the "movement" stopped short when a handful of people were killed.
Now, just like white Americans, many of us watch television for cultural cues.
Black men in their thirties and forties who watch rap music videos are being silently affected by the second rate candy-culture, which is why we see grown men with sagging pants, talking like stupid *** rappers and thinking like them, which is killing us.
White women can watch shows like Sex And The City, but Black women who allow the imaginary socialization to seep into their psyche are damaging themselves and their potential for real relationships.
The world ain't fair, and it ain't cool. Black men are being left out and left behind, but the useless, counterproductive gangster lifestyle is still being glamorized. AIDS is at the doorstep of Black women more than anyone else's, but yet, they still want sexual freedom. Freedom from what?
Full article here
The author, Darryl James - lays it out..
...first, we must understand the reasons why we are in such horrible shape as a people.
We need to first understand that we are in bad shape because we believe that we are and others believe that we are not very good people.
Our current state is to accept whatever the worldview of African or African American happens to be.
Due to the commodification of our culture, we are now only as deep as the outlets issuing our culture back to us. As opposed to creating new extensions of our culture and then sharing it with each other, the world now takes from us what they want and eventually, it is packaged and sold back to us--presented as authentic Black culture. We consume this artificial culture as the rest of the world does and it is sickening us as a child who eats too much sugar.
We are cultural children. We are not fully developed as a people, because we don't know who we are, what we stand for or where we are going. Many of us don't even think about it.
The best that many of us can manage is to be whatever white folks are trying to be in their secondhand, deviant duplication of culture stolen from us. Blind to our own obfuscated culture, we embrace it as though it is true culture, which explains the success of someone such as Eminem.
And when we do play Afrocentric, it's like children who play house but never really become responsible adults and parents. We can see throngs of Blacks with Afros, Dreadlocks and Braids claiming to be moving closer to their roots, but nothing else about their lifestyle or mentality is African or intrinsically African American-whatever that is.
[...]
Our parents came from a movement that was revealed as hollow and at its roots revealed as superficial. Only a few people were Martin and Malcolm, while the rest were dressed up for the occasion, which explains how the "movement" stopped short when a handful of people were killed.
Now, just like white Americans, many of us watch television for cultural cues.
Black men in their thirties and forties who watch rap music videos are being silently affected by the second rate candy-culture, which is why we see grown men with sagging pants, talking like stupid *** rappers and thinking like them, which is killing us.
White women can watch shows like Sex And The City, but Black women who allow the imaginary socialization to seep into their psyche are damaging themselves and their potential for real relationships.
The world ain't fair, and it ain't cool. Black men are being left out and left behind, but the useless, counterproductive gangster lifestyle is still being glamorized. AIDS is at the doorstep of Black women more than anyone else's, but yet, they still want sexual freedom. Freedom from what?
Full article here
The author, Darryl James - lays it out..
