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Is There a Double Standard for Black People?
Posted by lotusb • 5/11/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: do you wear too much black?
I'm a black & mixed culture woman. I identify with my black heritiage.
What I notice is that so many times there are Black book clubs, Black colllege associations, Black magazines...etc, but rarely do you see the same of white people?
Do you think this is a lack of open mindedness among some Black people, or is self segragation neccesary for minorities on some level?
* This is probably true for many minorities as well, I'm not just singling out Black people, it's just what I run into being Black.
User Comments
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I've always wondered about this too. I always hear how there should be equality, yet you still see segregation. It confuses me (not that it takes much).-
It confuses me too. I understand the need to associate with likes. To feel a sense of community and common interest. But to me this goes to a dangerous extreme at times.
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I think it happens to any minority that feels their culture is at risk. It's a safety mechanism to prevent assimilation and preserve diversity.-
After the American Civil War, many whites adopted "safety mechanisms" to "preserve diversity" in a violent manner. one of the shameful parts of our history. -
Agit8r
Right, I was more thinking about how the Scots and Irish had preserved their culture as an act of defiance to the English. Obviously minority rights end when they actively promote harm and hatred towards others. -
Well I think there is a truth that exists among both Blacks and Whites....we have no "culture"...Black Americans and White Americans are SO diverse and come from such an array of culture backgrounds that by limiting ourselves to the segregations of Black associations we are furher investing in the anialation of our individuality.... I am Black, Italian, Native American and German. My family is from the North. My father was a Black Panter...I don't want to be limited by the title of "Black".
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A lot of what you are identifying as self-segregation is actually trying to preserve the accomplishments of minorities. It's about honoring your racial and ethnic heritage. These clubs should be open to people of all races and ethnicity.
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I agree...I have a similar opinion of "Black History Month"...
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If people want to live together, they don't need any permission from any priest or any government. They need the permission of their hearts. And the day they feel that the time has come to part, again they don't need anybody's permission. They can part as friends, with beautiful memories of their loving days. Love should be the only way for men and women to live together. No other ritual is needed.” No co lour,Caste , creed , nothing .
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It's not only a question of preserving the past, but of creating opportunities in the present. If minorities want to have a voice in shaping the culture, there have to be outlets provided for them to do so.-
I think that there is a standard of black that is cultivated through these associations. If you don't fit into this catagory....your a misfit in your own cultural identity. Perfect example: try to publish a book as a black author that is not about sex, crime or deprivation and see how many black publishers want to get your book signed...
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It's the problem every individual artist faces. You have to buck the trend, stand alone, if you want to be your own person. It's inevitable, and never easy. Sameness never welcomes difference with open arms.
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Maybe if we all paid less attention to such things as colour, gender, & age and paid more attention to such things as character, compassion, empathy, respect and fairness, we wouldn't need to be having this discussion.
Personally, I have always thought such things as the Black Student Union in many universities and the Black Police Officers Assn in many PDs are, by their very nature, racist. They exclude people of other races and if a bunch of white students or cops were to start a similar organization that restricted membership to whites only, all hell would break loose.
Stereotypes and prejudice feed on ignorance; segregation promotes ignorance, whether that segregation is voluntary or imposed. One's heritage and history can be preserved without segregation, but the essential education of other ethnicities cannot be achieved with it.-
I agree. While historically there was a need for these unions and associations- to take a stand AGAINST segregation as a united front and offer support to the oppressed- I do think they are causing more separation than anything else now.
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"Personally, I have always thought such things as the Black Student Union in many universities and the Black Police Officers Assn in many PDs are, by their very nature, racist. They exclude people of other races and if a bunch of white students or cops were to start a similar organization that restricted membership to whites only, all hell would break loose."
So very, very true. I have seen it happen, there were several article 15's passed out when I was in the army because we had a racist sgt, so the white people joined started keeping tabs on the offenses to report it to our EO Officer, yeah apparently that was racist but the fact that she called us all types of names, had us on sheet detail because "you hillbillies never had an issue with wearing sheets before" and physically pushing blond privates was A Okay. FYI: there was also a black group and a latino group but only the white group was slammed with 15's. Why didn't the groups all go together? why was it segregated? The latino group had issues with specific leaders, the black group liked ssgt rose (the racist) and nobody wanted to allow the white kids to play with them. My room mate said this when I asked her about it "crackers in numbers ain't ever a good thing".
The point of this little rant and to better answer the question, each group has their own agenda that effects/commemorates/celebrates or despises something. More often than not, the groups cannot agree on a bigger issue than what serves them. It breeds intolerance and misunderstandings, but it's pretty much the way things work. I once started a project to try to figure this all out, but well, apparently the mission statements of all involved conflicted and I pulled the plug. To come together requires people letting their guards down and trying to understand one another. When it comes to this, humans are quite cowardly.
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I don't know if there would be a need for it if there was an identifiable history such as other immigrants groups have, like irish americans, italian americans, greek, asian, etc etc. Since others have strong identifiable roots that are represented why begrudge african americans a means to aknowledge a common ancestry through group associations. Don't see what the big deal is really.
In response to the comment about black police associations. there are irish police associations
www.irishamericanpolice.org/
german american police association
www.igapa.com/
Polish American
www.polampolice.org/
and others to represent the diverse immigrant population, so why not african american?-
African Americans are not African. We are Black. Our roots are so spread out they hardly ever pointin one direction. Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans etc...can point to the majority of their ancestry. But Blacks cannot. The "culture" we must associate with, is created and based on intellect and means. You are either one of the hip hop genre or the black power genre to put it VERY generally. These associations had a purpose in the 60's and so on, but now they are actually very crippling in creating the mind set that such a wide variety of people, Black people, must fit into very small widely accepted genres.
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I dunno... I'm German, Swedish, Russian, Sioux, English and Scots and some of my genealogy research indicates there might be a little Dutch and Norwegian in the mix as well. There are too many things in my ancestry for me to identify as being German-American or Russian-American...
I think we'd all be better off if we just called ourselves Americans, focusing on our common ground, rather than qualifying ourselves with ethnic or national prefixes that focus us on our differences. -
"Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans etc...can point to the majority of their ancestry."
I am going to have to agree with lotusb, in my lineage it is seriously 2 things, 3 if you count the origin of PA dutch being from west Germany. I went back 13 generations for a book for my boys and the Irish side, has been solely Irish until it married into Pa dutch and had my mother. The pa dutch side was very segregated, even have their on language so they stuck to their own as well since no one had any idea what the hell they were saying. My mother was a 60's child and some folks broke away and english was empahasized but before that, they self segregated from all cultures. My father's side is straight Irish, dating all the way back as far as I could go. So 1 full Irish father, and one half Irish half PA dutch mother= Irish American to me using simple majority rules.
I agree that the term african american is used loosly, some folks were taken from Island's and other places, to say a group must be african amercian is a blanket term and I can understand why some folks would take offense. What about Haitian americans and such?
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It is significant and necessary. A group who looking backwards suffered the oppression they did having a group identity in order to counteract the results of centuries of oppression is necessary, helps define the group giving those in the group stronger identities, role models, and helps defines goals going forward.-
I tend to disagree. A lot of these unions are so heavily focused on negative stereotypes that in order to keep their definition they set the expectation that standing separate is the only way to defeat said stereotypes. Yes, they had their purpose 100 years ago, and even 30 years ago. But now, more than anything, young blacks and other minorities need to understand that race has very little to do with how far you can go now-a-days, and that it's much more defendant on your ability to think out of your box.
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Our family is like the United Nations. As for the rest of the humans, it would be so very refreshing if we would all embrace one another and see ourselves as Children of The Universe.
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Why Black?
I mean ... yeah why black-
I'm not sure I understand your question? You may want to re-red my initial post...
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@lotusb: Your attitude seems very unique and unconventional. Are there many other black people who share it? I am Jewish and have that same amorphous sense of my lineage. I find it hard to identify with anything other than humanity or Life in general.
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