"There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve."
Yeah, you make an important point, but you're missing an important distinction. If the title of this post had been, "It's Nice To …
"There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve."
Yeah, you make an important point, but you're missing an important distinction. If the title of this post had been, "It's Nice To Chill Alone Or With Folks Who *THINK* Like Me," or "Who Share My Cultural Reference Points," it would have been a very different conversation.
In fact, I'd have been in complete agreement. I often find it exhausting to be around people who don't (by my evaluation of these words) think logically and clearly. And even in Japan, it's nice to interact with people with whom I can speak easily or who watched the same TV shows as me growing up. The point is, I know I can't tell who does and doesn't based on how they look.
Lots of black Americans aren't a part of the "African American subculture" you're talking about. Especially as that culture also varies from state to state and even, in some cases, fro city to city. And some white people, who have grown up in the relevant neighbourhoods, are as steeped in those subcultures and understand their rules just as well as any black person.
I've said here and elsewhere, the fact that some black people in America feel a degree of alienation is understandable. But the *extent* of that alienation, the belief that the entire system is against them, is a learned behaviour and a lie, propagated, sadly, most often by "progressives." Young black people are being indoctrinated, to their detriment, to believe society is always and forever against them. That they need to be kept "safe" from it. And this stops them from participating in it fully. It's racism 2.0.
Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
So Melody perhaps inaccurately used skin color as a proxy, which is somewhat understandable given the rough overlap between African American subcultures and African American looking people themselves. But it is VERY rough as you point out.
So I think we agree.
The alienation I was referring to among my daughter’s Irvington students had little or nothing to do with DEI or progressive anti racist ideas. This stuff has very little if any presence in the really poor African American
areas where my daughter worked. She was referring instead to a broad feeling among her students that they had no place or future in the broader culture. A lot of these kids just think they are worth shit. As a teacher this lack of self confidence was by far her biggest hurdle.
When she changed to a more affluent integrated school in DC, the DEI crap hit her like a shitstorm. She is now in disciplinary proceedings for a “name based micro aggression” brought by the parents of a hyper entitled African American kid. She forgot that she was in a new environment. This would NEVER happen in her previous Newark and Irvington schools.
So yes the alienation derived from anti racist dogma is rampant and destructive. But it is not the real cause of the other type of alienation experienced in the poorest and most segregated African American neighborhoods in her experience.
Also IMHO: You should write several articles on Racism 2.0, Steve. I dunno if You coined the phrase, but it's so appropriate it should be patented. TY, as always, either Way...
I lived in Norfolk, VA for high school. I had a lot of black friends. People who would invite me to their homes.
I remember once I went to Richmond, which is not all that far away. The black people there seemed completely different, much more hostile. I remember one young man standing on a street corner with all the hate in the universe in his eyes.
"There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve."
Yeah, you make an important point, but you're missing an important distinction. If the title of this post had been, "It's Nice To Chill Alone Or With Folks Who *THINK* Like Me," or "Who Share My Cultural Reference Points," it would have been a very different conversation.
In fact, I'd have been in complete agreement. I often find it exhausting to be around people who don't (by my evaluation of these words) think logically and clearly. And even in Japan, it's nice to interact with people with whom I can speak easily or who watched the same TV shows as me growing up. The point is, I know I can't tell who does and doesn't based on how they look.
Lots of black Americans aren't a part of the "African American subculture" you're talking about. Especially as that culture also varies from state to state and even, in some cases, fro city to city. And some white people, who have grown up in the relevant neighbourhoods, are as steeped in those subcultures and understand their rules just as well as any black person.
I've said here and elsewhere, the fact that some black people in America feel a degree of alienation is understandable. But the *extent* of that alienation, the belief that the entire system is against them, is a learned behaviour and a lie, propagated, sadly, most often by "progressives." Young black people are being indoctrinated, to their detriment, to believe society is always and forever against them. That they need to be kept "safe" from it. And this stops them from participating in it fully. It's racism 2.0.
Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
So Melody perhaps inaccurately used skin color as a proxy, which is somewhat understandable given the rough overlap between African American subcultures and African American looking people themselves. But it is VERY rough as you point out.
So I think we agree.
The alienation I was referring to among my daughter’s Irvington students had little or nothing to do with DEI or progressive anti racist ideas. This stuff has very little if any presence in the really poor African American
areas where my daughter worked. She was referring instead to a broad feeling among her students that they had no place or future in the broader culture. A lot of these kids just think they are worth shit. As a teacher this lack of self confidence was by far her biggest hurdle.
When she changed to a more affluent integrated school in DC, the DEI crap hit her like a shitstorm. She is now in disciplinary proceedings for a “name based micro aggression” brought by the parents of a hyper entitled African American kid. She forgot that she was in a new environment. This would NEVER happen in her previous Newark and Irvington schools.
So yes the alienation derived from anti racist dogma is rampant and destructive. But it is not the real cause of the other type of alienation experienced in the poorest and most segregated African American neighborhoods in her experience.
Also IMHO: You should write several articles on Racism 2.0, Steve. I dunno if You coined the phrase, but it's so appropriate it should be patented. TY, as always, either Way...
I lived in Norfolk, VA for high school. I had a lot of black friends. People who would invite me to their homes.
I remember once I went to Richmond, which is not all that far away. The black people there seemed completely different, much more hostile. I remember one young man standing on a street corner with all the hate in the universe in his eyes.
You're knockin them outta the park here, Steve.
In roundabout Way, I "said" similar.
Whites are putrid, but not in the way Melody and a lotta black people think/feel. IMHO. (Yeah. Believe it or not, Humble Opinion. ;-)