I've been thinking about this a lot since you posted it. It is very thought provoking and exposes an angle that I hadn't considered before, at least not to this depth.
Thank you. I am truly grateful for your posts here.
I have observed many black immigrants from Africa who have done well in America. As a general rule, they tend to have more hope and enthusiasm for their opportunities than black Americans... and to be honest, more than most white Americans, too, but I digress. Maybe it's a matter is not appreciating what is given to you. :shrug: But anyway...
I see human beings as similar recipes; we're all the same basic ingredients, but the conditions we're put into differ, often dramatically. I think the disparity between African immigrants and African Americans is a strong argument for the power of nurture in the nature versus nurture argument.
We tend to think of culture as something that can only affect us if we permit it, but i think that's more of an illusion. Our brains are developed within an environment that shapes us in ways that we aren't necessarily aware of. Once we're developed,
then maybe we have our own self-identity, our own self-worth. Said another way, once who we are has taken form, then we can be who we are independent from environmental/cultural influence.
You talk about a culture being ingrained in a community over generations, and I do not dispute that one bit. In fact, I agree with it.
So, this dichotomy begs the question: If African immigrants can do well and be happy, is it possible that it's not white Americans keeping blacks down? (There will always be some instances, but I'm talking in an overall sense.) I mean, the past is what it is, and a mindset can indeed be a hard thing to change in oneself, let alone in a community overall, but this would seem to be evidence that active or passive racism... while not wholly gone or irrelevant... is being overplayed.
I don't think it makes sense to blame white Americans, as a group. The white Americans who were responsible for slavery are long gone. I was born into this country at a time when black Americans were already disadvantaged, so it makes little sense for me, as a white male, to bear responsibility for that.
But we still participate in this culture. American cultures evolved from ones in which slavery was widespread. To the extent that our behavior could contribute to maintenance of culturally-learned racial inferiority, we are responsible. And maybe that's why i can get sensitive when people seem to casually conclude that racism doesn't exist anymore; maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but we have little to lose by exercising caution and we have a lot to lose if we assume there is no problem when there actually still is (at least some part of) one.
I'm not sure if i'm understanding how you are suggesting that racism could be overplayed. For me, anything that potentially can internalize racial inferiority could be considered racist. Inferiority can be internalized in a way that is detrimental to self-worth.
And actually, i think this is similar to what some of our culture is doing to poor people: we enact policies that teach them that they aren't worth resources (by, say, cutting healthcare subsidies). A lot of what i see as anti-poverty class warfare has correspondence to propagating
impressions of racism. To a poor black community, the two may be difficult to distinguish.
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