- Jun 8, 2004
- 3,210
- 64
Good peops, I wanna thank y'all for the rousing response to the post(smile!) A great many things have crystalized for me as a man because of this subject, and that's why I approach it with such passion...
NNQueen and BlackBird, I notice you two are from the south, where my mother and father were born, and where they took me as a small child to meet the rest of my family who had not migrated to the North. It was not, at first, a kind experience, as their families lived in,what I call, small "eyeblink" towns, with no running water, no indoor toilets, no paved roads, and no lights. Having grown up in Brooklyn, New York, the environment was exceedingly foreign to me, but, ironically, the spirit of Southern African Americans was never as far away from me as those trips to the Carolinas...
For one thing, so many African Americans had migrated to the north that every one of my friends' parents spoke with a southern accent, cooked southern food, and all of them lived by the rules, customs, and culture they had BROUGHT with them on that trip down I-95(smile!) In the 1960's, as a growing child, I could not wander down a street in my neighborhood, and not be corraled and questioned and interrogated and threatened by some southern Black woman, who wanted to know if my parents had given me permission to be this far from home(half a block away!) That was the "Village" mentality of the south - even Africa - at work... Of course, we've all got stories to tell about how any grownup could whip your *** if you got outta line, and dared sass 'em. but truth be told, rarely did that happen, because rules and regulations were followed back then, by children deathly afraid of the Ironing cord on a bare bootie(smile!) NNQueen, in answer to your questions about what we've lost, it is that good, old-fashioned communal discipline, and respect for the chain of command(Elders)...
I also think we've got cold, and hardened by city life... I mean, my mother and father were pretty outgoing, smiling folks, who taught me through their example, to smile and greet folks with the pleasure of meeting them... In this town I grew up in, that was perceived as being too soft, so as a youngster I learned to put a little shade on my habit of smiling... When my mother passed on, I realized where all of her warmth and sweetness had come from, and it lead me on a journey to know more about that experience, that culture that has given America its only original Art Forms, The Blues and Jazz and Sweet Potato Pies(smile!)
On a final note, I mentioned I-95 as the highway that lead so many Southeastern African Americans into New York, Philadelphia, Newark, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, because these cities are filled with Carolinians, Virginians, Georgians, and Floridians, in contrast to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, which drew African Americans out of the deep south states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, along what is known as the Blues Highway, or simply Highway 61... Clearly, Highway 61 influenced the musical culture of this country and the world, as well as those cities to which those African Americans chose to migrate, and needs to be studied on the serious tip... As African Americans, we tend to think of ourselves as musical folks, with the same overall culture, but I no longer know just how true that is... I mean, I must ask myself why did Chicago and Detroit develop such a beautiful range of Black Sound, while New York never quite did??? After reading a book called Flash Of The Spirit, by Robert Farris Thompson, in which he says those deep south states are heavily Congo-influenced, and another book by Peter Wood, in which he says that Carolina Blacks are more heavily Central African-influenced(rice and fish cultivation)...well, it means there are no easy conclusions to be drawn without some serious research on our story... It is an amazing and stupendous puzzle which we must encourage our children to piece together for the generations to follow...
Peace!
Isaiah
NNQueen and BlackBird, I notice you two are from the south, where my mother and father were born, and where they took me as a small child to meet the rest of my family who had not migrated to the North. It was not, at first, a kind experience, as their families lived in,what I call, small "eyeblink" towns, with no running water, no indoor toilets, no paved roads, and no lights. Having grown up in Brooklyn, New York, the environment was exceedingly foreign to me, but, ironically, the spirit of Southern African Americans was never as far away from me as those trips to the Carolinas...
For one thing, so many African Americans had migrated to the north that every one of my friends' parents spoke with a southern accent, cooked southern food, and all of them lived by the rules, customs, and culture they had BROUGHT with them on that trip down I-95(smile!) In the 1960's, as a growing child, I could not wander down a street in my neighborhood, and not be corraled and questioned and interrogated and threatened by some southern Black woman, who wanted to know if my parents had given me permission to be this far from home(half a block away!) That was the "Village" mentality of the south - even Africa - at work... Of course, we've all got stories to tell about how any grownup could whip your *** if you got outta line, and dared sass 'em. but truth be told, rarely did that happen, because rules and regulations were followed back then, by children deathly afraid of the Ironing cord on a bare bootie(smile!) NNQueen, in answer to your questions about what we've lost, it is that good, old-fashioned communal discipline, and respect for the chain of command(Elders)...
I also think we've got cold, and hardened by city life... I mean, my mother and father were pretty outgoing, smiling folks, who taught me through their example, to smile and greet folks with the pleasure of meeting them... In this town I grew up in, that was perceived as being too soft, so as a youngster I learned to put a little shade on my habit of smiling... When my mother passed on, I realized where all of her warmth and sweetness had come from, and it lead me on a journey to know more about that experience, that culture that has given America its only original Art Forms, The Blues and Jazz and Sweet Potato Pies(smile!)
On a final note, I mentioned I-95 as the highway that lead so many Southeastern African Americans into New York, Philadelphia, Newark, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, because these cities are filled with Carolinians, Virginians, Georgians, and Floridians, in contrast to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, which drew African Americans out of the deep south states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, along what is known as the Blues Highway, or simply Highway 61... Clearly, Highway 61 influenced the musical culture of this country and the world, as well as those cities to which those African Americans chose to migrate, and needs to be studied on the serious tip... As African Americans, we tend to think of ourselves as musical folks, with the same overall culture, but I no longer know just how true that is... I mean, I must ask myself why did Chicago and Detroit develop such a beautiful range of Black Sound, while New York never quite did??? After reading a book called Flash Of The Spirit, by Robert Farris Thompson, in which he says those deep south states are heavily Congo-influenced, and another book by Peter Wood, in which he says that Carolina Blacks are more heavily Central African-influenced(rice and fish cultivation)...well, it means there are no easy conclusions to be drawn without some serious research on our story... It is an amazing and stupendous puzzle which we must encourage our children to piece together for the generations to follow...
Peace!
Isaiah