Black People : The Danger of Defining What it Means to be Black

river

Watch Her Flow
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Mar 22, 2004
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I was going over old school songs and singers with a friend of mine the other day. To my surprise, she rejected The Commodores, Dionne Warwick and Lou Rawls as not being Black enough. Everybody has a right to like or not like whatever suits them. Yet, I see a danger with over defining what it means to be Black.

Actually, doing this does more to divide Black people than excepting our diversity. The more strictly we define what it means to be Black, the more Black people will find themselves excluded from that definition. Plus, these definitions of how we walk and talk, sing and act. what foods we eat and what we believe. are mostly based on caricatures and stereotypes invented by White people. A lot of the music we call "crossover" is based on styles stolen from us by whites and claimed for their own.

Diversity doesn't cause division. Exclusion causes division. Defining ourselves in unrealistic boxes cause division. Refusing to grow causes division. Letting others determine what we think of as common sense causes division.

This has been a public service message brought to you by Da river.
 

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