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Forum nameOkay Activist Archives
Topic subjectRE: next question
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=11848&mesg_id=11903
11903, RE: next question
Posted by guest, Fri May-19-00 05:01 AM
>if european americans calling themselves white
>is wrong, then so is
>african americans calling themselves black.
> i know you have
>explained the difference before, but
>can you do it again?

The difference is that it is neither wrong to call yourself Black or White- but in calling yourself White you must accept all the things you are saying about yourself. I have researched Blackness and I accept and am willing to be accountable for everything Blacks have done and been obliged to do. Would a so-called White person be willing to do the same- certainly not.

The only reason White people continue to call themselves is that they are under the impression that man can lively exculsively beyond traditions and deeds set forth by his culture- but thats just not how the world works. People who call themselves White may feel guilty but they refuse to be accountable for being White- thats what is wrong.

>ok, moving on...
>if we decide to call ourselves
>african americans to reclaim our
>heritage (no matter how broad
>'african' is) then isn't that
>a HUGE contradiciton? aren't
>african values/society directly opposing to
>american values/society, which have been
>directly descended from eorpean culture?

I didnt suggest that- and yes you are right; that doenst mean that those cultures cant coexist and reach mutual conclusions- as they do quite clearly in the minds of African Americans; they lead to much conclusion indeed but thats another issue.

I personally call myself Black for the sake of solidarity against a system that tried to impose that classification on my people- In response I accept that classification and spit it back at the system and ask WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU? Furthermore- my belief is that African was something that was stolen from me and American is something I still havent been given- so i call myself Black to represent all that. What does calling oneself White represent?


>my understanding of the historic relationship
>between the african and the
>european is that they have
>irreconcilable differences. both realities
>can exist in the same
>world, but not in the
>same space. like islam
>and christianity exist in the
>same world, but mosques and
>churches will never be combined
>to form one place of
>worship.

Your analogy doesnt speak well enough to the nature of man- while a mosque and a church will never be the same place- it does not preclude that Christian men could not be welcome in a mosque and vice versa. Certainly their are particular examples that deny this- but religion is a totally different issue. As far as the analogy- their may be cultural disputes but reasonable men can live civilly under even the most oppresive circumstances. If we couldnt- there would be no use- what we have currently is a great number of people who are not willing to try.

K