Every night, I wish upon a star that we can finally be done with identity. That we stop defining ourselves and each other by gender conformity or sex or who we like having sex with. By religious belief or political allegiance or favourite sports team. And of course, close to my heart, by skin colour. So far, the stars have been uncooperative. In my article, Blackness Is A Cage, I pointed out that “blackness” is a collection of stereotypes that are almost exclusively self-sabotaging. And worse, that if a black person defies these stereotypes by studying too hard or being too professional or speaking too well, they’re often accused, almost exclusively by black people, of “acting white.”
America is what it is because of the contributions of all who have lived on this soil, for better or worse. I like to focus on the better. We aren't really a melting pot, we are more of a stir fry where there is an undeniable flavor, but people can choose to enjoy all of it or pick some ingredients out and drop them for the dog.
We haven't all had the same experience, but it is still in many ways a shared experience that it is my hope and goal that we all appreciate one day.
Musically I'm a huge fan of Americana, America's gift to the world. From the roots of all of us. Something that could and should be a great uniter, but we aren't quite there because of the various dividers that people cling to. My apologies to those of you who are not Americans if I made that too red, white and blue. The world has grown smaller, and this could be applied to us all. I don't try to be an authentic American, I just am what I am.
I really love that Greg appears to have taken many of the central lessons from Albert Murray's The Omni-Americans to heart. That is a phenomenal book and should be far better known. One of its subtitles describes its thesis: it is a reaction against "the folklore of white supremacy and the fakelore of black pathology."
It seems to me that the underlying problem here is simple: ‘black culture’. Such a term implicitly ascribes a culture to a colour. But as we know colour can’t think, act, create, dance, talk or imagine. Ethnicity can do all that, but not colour. For me Jazz, Blue, Hip-hop and so many other monumental contributions to world culture, are part of ‘African American culture’ not ‘Black culture’. Obviously ‘African American culture’ has been shaped, to a large extent, by its opposition to White people and their historical racism against Black skin, but the resistance to that racism by African Americans wasn’t skin-deep. It was far deeper. I was speaking to a Senegalese friend recently and he said something along the lines of “what is black culture? Go and talk to an African about ‘black culture’ and they’ll laugh in your face”. His point was that all African culture is ‘Black’ (aside from parts of South Africa perhaps), and yet it contains a myriad of complex ethnicities, languages and cultures. Which begs the question, isn’t the idea of ‘Black culture’ a form of American essentialism? It’s so obviously problematic. For example, ‘Black culture’ in Britain is very different to ‘Black culture’ in the US. Can you imagine anyone saying ‘White culture’ in Britain is very different to ‘White culture’ in the US? It would be obvious because we all know that white peoples contain a myriad of cultures and ethnicities. Surely it’s racist to act like black peoples aren’t equally blessed with such a myriad of cultures and ethnicities?
Did you notice in the exchange that I explicitly refer to Black AMERICAN culture? I don't like the term "black culture" either, as it implies a culture derived from a racial designation. Another term of use I lean on is "Afro-American culture," a designation similar to what you choose. (For my own reasons, I don't use African-American, but don't argue with those who do.)
"𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘐 𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘢𝘻𝘻, 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘩𝘰𝘱, 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 (𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥) 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦."
America is what it is because of the contributions of all who have lived on this soil, for better or worse. I like to focus on the better. We aren't really a melting pot, we are more of a stir fry where there is an undeniable flavor, but people can choose to enjoy all of it or pick some ingredients out and drop them for the dog.
We haven't all had the same experience, but it is still in many ways a shared experience that it is my hope and goal that we all appreciate one day.
Musically I'm a huge fan of Americana, America's gift to the world. From the roots of all of us. Something that could and should be a great uniter, but we aren't quite there because of the various dividers that people cling to. My apologies to those of you who are not Americans if I made that too red, white and blue. The world has grown smaller, and this could be applied to us all. I don't try to be an authentic American, I just am what I am.
"I don't try to be an authentic American, I just am what I am."
If only this attitude was more common and more universally applied.
Thanks, Steve for sharing our exchange!
Here's an essay published just this weekend that I think you'll find of interest: https://developmentalist.org/article/considering-deracialization-a-response-to-glenn-loury-and-clifton-roscoe/
Hey Greg! My pleasure. Also, fantastic article. I really appreciate the way you've dug into the nuances on racialisation here.
Your article is excellent, I just reread it and then shared it.
I also really appreciated your article on being a "radical moderate" - you perfectly summed up my own perspective.
Another great conversation, kudos.
I really love that Greg appears to have taken many of the central lessons from Albert Murray's The Omni-Americans to heart. That is a phenomenal book and should be far better known. One of its subtitles describes its thesis: it is a reaction against "the folklore of white supremacy and the fakelore of black pathology."
Tablet has an excellent overview of the book: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/the-omni-americans
It seems to me that the underlying problem here is simple: ‘black culture’. Such a term implicitly ascribes a culture to a colour. But as we know colour can’t think, act, create, dance, talk or imagine. Ethnicity can do all that, but not colour. For me Jazz, Blue, Hip-hop and so many other monumental contributions to world culture, are part of ‘African American culture’ not ‘Black culture’. Obviously ‘African American culture’ has been shaped, to a large extent, by its opposition to White people and their historical racism against Black skin, but the resistance to that racism by African Americans wasn’t skin-deep. It was far deeper. I was speaking to a Senegalese friend recently and he said something along the lines of “what is black culture? Go and talk to an African about ‘black culture’ and they’ll laugh in your face”. His point was that all African culture is ‘Black’ (aside from parts of South Africa perhaps), and yet it contains a myriad of complex ethnicities, languages and cultures. Which begs the question, isn’t the idea of ‘Black culture’ a form of American essentialism? It’s so obviously problematic. For example, ‘Black culture’ in Britain is very different to ‘Black culture’ in the US. Can you imagine anyone saying ‘White culture’ in Britain is very different to ‘White culture’ in the US? It would be obvious because we all know that white peoples contain a myriad of cultures and ethnicities. Surely it’s racist to act like black peoples aren’t equally blessed with such a myriad of cultures and ethnicities?
Did you notice in the exchange that I explicitly refer to Black AMERICAN culture? I don't like the term "black culture" either, as it implies a culture derived from a racial designation. Another term of use I lean on is "Afro-American culture," a designation similar to what you choose. (For my own reasons, I don't use African-American, but don't argue with those who do.)
I go into much more detail in a recently published essay: https://developmentalist.org/article/considering-deracialization-a-response-to-glenn-loury-and-clifton-roscoe/
Thanks for your comment.
Greg Thomas