Some things you say anywhere and some things you say in your own space.
During yesterday's Blogcritics conversation Eric suggested giving one's American aspect ascendancy over one's "other" aspects is the best move, and that he truly feels America is past the half-way point to accepting Black folks…that the mainstream would find Black folks acceptable if we stop being Black.
P6, to answer your question: yes, I do think the USA acknowledges Black Americans as full members IF THEY CHOOSE TO BE SO ACKNOWLEDGED, but a part of the bargain is demonstrating an adherence to certain shared values, one of which is that they see themselves as an individual and an American ahead of seeing themselves as Black. It does not appear that you are willing to make this "trade," which has been requested of every other subgroup in America also.
I asked how long that had been the case (resisting the impulse to say I must have missed the notice in last week's mail) and got no answer. Okay, I mark that point as mine.
But he did tell me that the "you" he mentioned was me, as opposed to "you people," because of this
Pronoun trouble. Singular or plural "you"?Singular: America is a field of operation to me and the culture is a toolkit. As such, I see little sense in identifying with either.
Plural: You can't look at the history of Black folks in the USofA and make any sense of that statement. Black people fought to be allowed to fight for America. And you know why there was no major Black revolution in this country? Because there was an active decision made to pursue legal means, futile as that sounds to me. Look at the motivation of the Harlem Renaissance.
That's simply wrong.
Which brings me to my point.
Black people have never been the ones to make "integration" difficult. Black people only pursued separatism when they became convinced there was no way to gain respect in the USofA…to this day most hold out hope for integration; the separatists are a significant but still small fraction of the communities. The collective has been struggling desperately to do exactly what Eric suggests the mainstream requires. The opposition has flavors that range from subtle to bombastic but is still highly active.
When the Black community had exactly—EXACTLY—the same values as the mainstream we were not accepted. Roughly 50% of the country thinks we don't know how to decide who is our enemy and who is our friend. No way I lambast the crew for not trusting the mainstream, be they liberal or conservative.
I do lambast the community for their belief they understand white folks. If they did, they'd be able to manipulate the situation better.
Posted by P6 at May 12, 2004 07:44 AM
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Comments
-sigh- Man, sometimes I just give up on there ever being any understanding between the 'races'.
Posted by Michael at May 12, 2004 10:25 AMYou want the truth, Michael, I don't think there need be understanding between the races. I just needed a working understanding OF the races.
I've considered seminars.
But there are a lot of things totally within the range of human behavior which are so alien to the average mainsteamer's self-image (and I include mainstream-type Black folks in there) that such a seminar would likely get my house nuked.