karmashines said:
There is no need to air our dirty laundry to non-black audiences who already see us in a stereotypical light anyway.
When it comes to the white media, we should only support positive images. Negative things should be discussed among ourselves and solved by ourselves.
kARMASHINES...I agree with your premise wholeheartedly... Though this statement is best directed at Destee, let me just generally say that African people at this website, as well as some whom I've talked to personally, just dont like the idea of being CRITICIZED at all...whether publicly or privately...
Granted, No One, including myself, LIKES being criticized, but I can hear my grandmother, and olther elders telling me, that everything we like is not necessarily good for us, and everything that we do not like is not necessarily bad for us... That is the issue we have to confront, whether we are willing to deal with the pain of getting in shape - as brother RADICAL FAITH drew that analogy - or are we going to continue floating along, eating our cake, waiting for the doctor to diagnose us with diabetes(which is MORE painful!)?
One thing we have to come to some under understanding of both the positive and negative aspects of criticism... It is not, as some suggest, TOTALLY negative... It has it's positive aspects much in the way of nuclear energy... It can destroy, it can be used to enhance one's life... I think too many of us deal with the connotation and throw away the denotation of the word - and that based on our own experiences with the act... It is not the act of criticism that hurts, but what one chooses to do with it, or not do with it, that oft hurts...
Again, though, where does one constructively instruct, and where does one destroy another's confidence??? I guess it would be in how one addresses a person, but that even depends on the addressee... Some handle criticism well, and some cannot even be told that they are doing anything wrong because of their sensitivity... No matter HOW such a person is addressed, they cannot handle being criticised... They don't like criticism, and aren't open to it under any circumstances...
Others WANT a critique... They're strong internally, and can handle even the most harsh things being said to them... They understand the difference between an honest critique, and someone seeking to tear them down.... This thing, in my humble opinion depends on where one's head is, where they are at internally... Some can handle public criticism as a by product of living in a world where all people are put on blast at one point or another... Others feel that it is possible to isolate African Americans from public scrutiny... I don't think that's possible in our world at present, thereforeI don't think it is realistic to entertain that as a possibility...
Peace!
Isaiah