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Re: 'What's wrong with the Black Community?'

I agree that the rambling about ones veiw of self identification and paranoia do become boring if not tedious especially when one can't provide a concrete answer to a problem that seems to be global and identifyable even if the only way to be politically correct in identifying that group is by referring to the population of those that are the target group as "Black". We al know who the author is referring to even if we don't agree with the imposed title. That means nothing when validating the intent of the question in which I personnally have no quarrel about answering fore I feel compelled to try to do so for I too am a member of the group so commonly refered to as "Black".
I almost don't know where to start because it takes somone ignorant (not knowing) or perhaps somone who doesn't understand history or the implication of events in history that effected "blacks" to the point that as a group though not a collective "we" are self destructing. With all that being said, one would have to note, that there is no real black community that I'm aware of in this hemisphere. To have a real community as a social group in my opinion, a group would have to own three resources and operate within the confines of those three to form a society/ group. Those three resources are land, political power, and Economic power. "Blacks" do not have that which in return is a breakdown on community, self worth, and group. What you have is everyone fending fore themselves. Not even in Africa do "Blacks", "Natives", or ( my favorite) Africans operate as a Group or collective. If So, whites and other invaders would have been thrown out decades ago.
The answer is very simple if your refered to as "black" because we live this nightmare. People who don't self Identify as being a person of primarily African decent have no clue because they take some of lifes basic essentials for granted. For example, a person moves to the United States form another country in desperate need to improve his or her own life. That person has a cultural background and blueprint that the colonial Europeans couldn't destroy or chose not to. That person is competing for employment with somone who is a decendent of a freed slave five generations removed. Who would you think has the brighter future as far as standard of life personally, and economically? Well of course you know who I'd say. The reason why the correct answer is the person from abroad is because that person has a social and cultural code to guide them. Just because they are foreign doesn't make them stupid or less capable. in fact, they are more capable because of cultural and social values.

That goes back to my point with the genocide the Europeans inflicted on the Africans world wide. As an outsider any person can walk down the sreet and judge somone with less and think that that person is immoral, savage, ghetto,stupid,etc..., but in reality that person may not have the answers to gain the opportunity to be the person that the dominate society wants him or her to be. After Slavery was Abolished in Trinidad and Tobago, Indians arrived to compete for labor positions. Imagine yourself being a person of African decent at that time. Now you have to keep working in the fields because massa ain't gonna give up his job and let you have everything that "he and his" worked so hard for. What are you going to do? Massa's got himself some new niggas from India and say he don't want you no more cause he ain't gonna pay his property to work. Most people don't understand that type of hatred. In modern times many citizens of Trinidad believe that "blacks" are no good for nothing and wouldn't have them ther if it was up to them. However, the Indian owes it to the "Blacks" for having a like in Trinidad for after all, The Africans were the labor choice of the Europeans in the western hemisphere, not only because of physical toughness, but mental ability to funtion in strictlay agrarian societies. In The U.S. after Slavery, some "blacks" mostly republican started changing the social fabric so quickly, that their former slave masters were on pace to becomming employees of former slaves. Then came the KKK and Jim Crow laws. The three branches of government (federal, state, and local) failed to protect the people. Well that depends on how you look at it. For example, "blacks" were considered one eighth of a man. Thats why in the United States if you are One eighth "black", then thats what you are. The leaders of the federal government realized that if things stayed the course, they might lose the country to people who were onse sold as livestock.
How did the the former slaves make such a rapid turn around? After the abolisbhment of slavery, the South had more former slaves than people of European decent. Former slaves who had worked alongside their masters learned from them and as history on many ocassions suggest in fact counciled them. To make a long story short, the former slaves that worked in the house or for masters who were involved in trade, politics, or science worked with the former slaves that worked in the feilds. For a short time period there was what could be considered a group of black people occupying the same community with shared ideas, cultural experiences etc...
However, that way of life was borrowed from the former slave masters and they didn't want the former slaves to benifit from them to the point that they could'nt thrive in a society that they erected.
Instead they erected laws to slow the development of former slaves into competators that could make the society viably stronger because of fear of losing everything that they stole from the Native Americans.Segregation was the biggest tool used because they figured that if "blacks" weren't in contact with whites, then they would "revert back" to some tribal way of acting and wouldn't be a threat to national security (socially and economically) again.

Everytime "blacks" made significant strides to improve their lives, laws were changed or altered to keep them in the background or even worse, innocent, decent people were tarred and feathered, or lynched, beat, maimed etc... up ta as recently on a common basis forty years ago. In some states less.

In the past forty years, the United States has welcomed millions of immigrants. They are put against people with no promissing concrete values for jobs. It's like placing two men onto a track for a race, but one doesn't have the proper running equipment and some baggage that has nothing to do with the race. I'm not saying that he can't win or won't have fun being a good competator, but I am saying that too many of us aren't even joinnig the race. Reasons many, but mainly because we haven't been able to shake the baggage in the qualifying rounds.

Then you have the drugs, thefts, ransoms, prostitutions and everything else. My only validation for that is that people have to survive and will do anything to do so. That is what you see on your television everyday in the form of entertainment and daily news. Every since the civilrights movement of the 60's and the Black Panther Party emerged from a group of young college men and women to allign with the protesters of the vIetnam war, drugs and guns were flooded into the "community" to slow anymore bright minds.

Plain and simple, the list of things that has happened to people of African decent makes me wonder if any other people would be able to survive and live on Earth in the same way. What if "blacks" felt the need to become suicide bombers?
To try to answer the question by saying the problem is this or that wouldn't be just. The problems facing "blacks" are many. However, one thing is for sure. If these problems aren't addressed by "blacks", they will be double in a generation. We the people of African Decent are the only ones who care for us. Katrina made it evident that if we don't no one else will. Those of us that have found some success have to move back to form communities where we can help one another grow so that one day we can be as bold to ask what another groups ploblem is without really caring what lay in the answer or solution.

Messages In This Thread

'What's wrong with the Black Community?'
Re: 'What's wrong with the Black Community?'
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