Posted on 11/27/2013 4:45:00 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I’m not a racist. But I do have a race problem. I finally owned up to it as I was anticipating seeing 12 Years a Slave. In the weeks leading up to its opening in my state of North Carolina, I tried to think of whom among my friends I could see this film with. I have a number of racially and ethnically diverse friends and acquaintances who would love to see it, and yet, I knew I could only see this movie alone or with another dark-skinned person.
This is hard to admit. I will hurt the feelings of people I love. But isn’t confession the first step to being reconciled? I have good, healthy friendships with a range of people, but I could not think of one white person where I live with whom I would feel emotionally safe enough to see this particular movie about slavery. I did not want to have to entertain any of the likely responses from anyone who could not see themselves in the skin of the enslaved men and women on the screen. I had no desire to dissect the film politically and theologically, engage in well-meaning social commentary, marvel at the history conveyed through the movie, or grieve over what was done to black people.
I did not want the burden of the social translations that black people so often have to do automatically on so many internal levels while engaging in discourse with whites in this country. There are things we learn to do almost subconsciously in order to keep some whites comfortable enough around our blackness. Things like gauging their actual level of interest or understanding of black culture in order to know how far to take a particular conversation....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
“Is there any way to research the changes in the anger level of black people over the years, from 1900 to 2000?”
No real need to do research. Art reflects the culture and mood of the people, and we have plenty of examples of black art from that period to look at that can tell us what you are looking for. Music is probably the easiest to look at, because black Americans made a heck of a lot of it in the 20th century.
Early 20th century “race” music wasn’t very angry at all. Sad, hopeful, joyous, rambunctious, defiant, and funny, but not much anger. In the 40-50s, with doo wop and rhythm and blues, the music tended to be similar in form to the precursors but more upbeat and modern, and more appealing across racial lines too. If anything, there was even less anger and more happiness reflected in the music of that period.
In the early 60s, you got soul music, which covered a range as big as most of the previous styles combined, and really jumped the racial barrier. Still, Motown and Atlantic soul records didn’t rule the charts with angry songs, at least not in that period.
I think the late 60s, early 70s is where you will see the first real reflections of growing anger in black music. Marvin Gaye came out with the first hit, black produced “protest” record with What’s Goin On?, but it wasn’t a very angry protest. As the 70s progressed, though, there is a really significant increase in the anger showing through in the music. Listening to later Gaye albums like Trouble Man, or Curtis Mayfield’s stuff from that era, and you can hear it.
Then, in the 80s, you got rap and hip hop music, which was just party music at first, but quickly evolved into some of the angriest music around by the late 80s/90s. So I think your assessment of the anger starting after the Great Society and growing ever since seems to show in the music pretty well.
You could have told her that Klan members were all Democrats.
And watch her head explode.
Oh, and by the way, we'll give her a little test. It's after midnight. She can walk a mile down some street populated exclusively by black people (especially those wonderful young males with their baggy clothes, hats turned sideways, and blaring their rap music), or she can walk through and all-white neighborhood. Which one would she choose?
Hooray for that!!! Now if she can just convince a lot of her liberal friends, white and black, to not have children, in twenty years time this country would start looking much better.
I won’t be watching it with a white person either.
indeed she was
You completely missed my sarcasm. I wrote: “Never end a sentence with a PROPOSITION.” That is a spoof on the time-honored grammatical rule of not ending a sentence with a PREPOSITION.
If she has to have that as her first sentence, she probably is. From the rest of her article, she certainly is.
And you missed mine :) Every sentence in my post ended with a preposition :D
That’s a heckuva note to go out on ;)
You do NOT want to see it in an audience which includes any significant number of black strangers, who may come out of the movie in an angry mood.
So, arm the little bastards. Teach them not to be murderers.
The incidence of black on white crime would be one indication.
I’m thinking there is a definite silver lining to this woman not having children.
She just wants to whine and be the eternal victim.
During that time period, the Soviets were lavishing their propaganda on the college students and inner city blacks in order to "divide and conquer". It worked pretty well as can be seen by the existence of Communist hippies (liberals) and blacks.
Check out the various factions that comprise the RAT rank and file. They are not simply "Americans" but rather each is identifiable as some kind of special interest group.
Some time back, this was an answer to my own question: "Just because a person is black, why do they have to be a Communist?"
They don't hate because of what white people have done. They hate because of what white people ARE.
They look around and see white people founding major corporations. They see Asians and Latinos starting their own businesses and making a go of it. What are their more prosperous black friends doing? Being government employees, or being academics in "reserved" sections of the university, or being the "diversity officer" in a company run by white people.
It's easier to hate white people than to admit that blacks have to stop whining and work harder in school at passing math and science, and learning to write and speak proper English.
Off topic, but my pastor spoke a bit about your namesake during his sermon last night on the history of Thanksgiving...
Great post ck.
Great point!
And compare life expectancies
I could go on and on
I am just sick of all this white
Its a soft race war on my tribe
Hell with the enemy
And white collaborators
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