Black People Politics : Obama Tells Africa; Stop Blaming Colonialism For their Problems

[RAPTOR]

"Obama Tells Africa; Stop Blaming Colonialism For their Problems"



Philosophically and or conceptually, is it a responsible thing to say?

Thoughts?

 

[mywordsfly]

Culture is not just the fashions you wear or the music you like, it's how you live your every-day life.

Btw, I wasn't "arguing" for anything; I was being facetious.

I am not saying African Americans don't have a CULTURE I'm saying it's more AMERICAN than it is AFRICAN. Therefore, it is harder for us to contribute regarding what is the best step Africa-wise when we are so trained America-wise.

I am also not denying that there are some things about Black people that just ARE.
Black people are often wholly honorable, generous, appreciative of each other, and try to keep their families together I'm sure. And I'm also sure you know more than one black family that gets together and makes Tshirts for family reunions.

This being said when I scoff at African American culture, I am not scoffing specifically at a family BBQ you attended and enjoyed and thought to yourself "This is culture!" Africans in Africa enjoy a BBQ now and again so I hear.

I am telling you that perhaps where you live African Americans consider BBQ to be culture, but were I live it looks like most blacks are trying to live lives that actively deny their African background and seek out the "American" side (for various purposes I'm sure, most probably just trying for "success" in this country).

The African American culture isn't portrayed as though MOST African Americans are church-abiding, collard greens n' pork eating, honorable street fighters anyway!
And BESIDES even if we were church-abiding, collard greens n' pork eating, honorable street fighters, that mostly sounds supremely more American than it does African. I mean, can you imagine in a traditional African village everybody just having a throw down and bringing all the boys for a brawl? Do you see my point? We aren't really African by culture anyway. And certainly "Being More African" isn't even the goal of most African American families OR communities anyway.

EVERYTHING WE BLACKS DO IN AMERICA is working off the skims of what we once had when we were first brought to this land. ALL CULTURE WE HAVE NOW is what we were GIVEN and ALLOWED after that point.

Anyway, my point here is that our culture isn't African enough to tell Africans what to do. We've just got the skin, but most of us don't have the background after living here in America.

 

[Kadijah]

I am not saying African Americans don't have a CULTURE I'm saying it's more AMERICAN than it is AFRICAN. Therefore, it is harder for us to contribute regarding what is the best step Africa-wise when we are so trained America-wise.

This is what you wrote:

But one could hardly pinpoint a "culture" that us African Americans have adhered to. We can only contribute, but we don't have much of a basis to lay back on, considering our language and customs were erased a few generations ago.

Then I wrote that culture is the way a people are, their likes/dislikes, their way of being human. I said nothing about "contributing" as African-Americans are the originators of our own culture, here in the U.S. That some aspects resemble continental culture is understandable since our AA culture was forged in the crucible of the customs and traditions of dozens of tribes during slavery.

As such, I will agree to disagree, especially with the unnecessary churlishness of saying "I", not black Americans, but me, personally, went to a bar-b-que and thought, "now that's culture!" hehehe For one thing, I wouldn't be so ignorant as to think the bar-b-que represented culture rather than the different age groups represented and partying there.




P.S.
At NO point did I say anything about telling continental Africans what to do or not do. Certainly not when speaking of culture the meaning of which I am aware of:

Definition of culture (n)

Bing Dictionary
cul·ture
[ kúlchər ]

1. arts collectively: art, music, literature, and related intellectual activities, considered collectively
2. knowledge and sophistication: enlightenment and sophistication acquired through education and exposure to the arts
3. shared beliefs and values of group: the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people.

AND:

the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.

 

[Enki]

"He's BLACK!" Why? Because of the way he wielded the bat. There was a rhythm as well as a purposefulness that whites in that same scenario don't have/use/whateva. How we do what we do comes out of culture.

........


Peace!

 

[BlackSunlight]

Peace!

Yeah, I know. Cartoon-icons, that's all you got lift... I know. LOL