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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectIssues facing our communities: Black issues or American issues?
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12700639
12700639, Issues facing our communities: Black issues or American issues?
Posted by imcvspl, Wed Dec-31-69 07:00 PM
I'll offer my thoughts below.

Poll question: Issues facing our communities: Black issues or American issues?

Poll result (6 votes)
Black issues (1 votes)Vote
American issues (1 votes)Vote
The two cannot be separated (4 votes)Vote

  

12700641, its the american pool
Posted by tariqhu, Fri Jan-16-15 11:26 AM
and everybody has a lane.
12700711, thoughts
Posted by imcvspl, Fri Jan-16-15 11:50 AM
I keep seeing a lot of these bootstrap type of thoughts about our issues. That we've got to step up. Or we need to create our own power structure. The whole nation in a nation thing. And continually I am reminded of my question of what is the 'black community' because whereas America touts itself as the home of diversity, diversity in the black community is just as rich. This is in one sense a great thing, but when it comes to what makes a community a community it makes things difficult. Our diversity extends to our value basis. How can we create these structures to solve our issues when we don't agree on the values?

And we shouldn't. That's the thing. We shouldn't think of ourselves as a monoculture. But too often our individual self-righteousness wants to project our values on the whole of black america as the solution to our problems. Not recognizing the whole of black america doesn't share our individual values.

Which makes the actual dealing with our issues problematic from a monoculture perspective, or as black issues. This IMO is at the crux of Americanism. America has to stop treating us like a monoculture and open itself up to our diversity. When America can accept our diversity and allow for it in every walk of black life, well then we would have achieved. And so for me it's not so much about black issues but Amercia's perception of black, and the issues that arise from that.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."
12700721, we don't operate as a unit, but we are oppressed as a unit
Posted by John Forte, Fri Jan-16-15 11:53 AM
12700725, ^Succinct
Posted by Atillah Moor, Fri Jan-16-15 11:54 AM
12700729, so do we address the unit or the oppression?
Posted by imcvspl, Fri Jan-16-15 11:55 AM

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."
12700769, Here are the problems
Posted by Atillah Moor, Fri Jan-16-15 12:10 PM
>Which America has to stop treating
>us like a monoculture and open itself up to our diversity.

This just can not be. All whites have a stake in white supremacy. If we are no longer treated as a monoculture that would seem to suggest an end to White Supremacy/racism and that's just no feasible. Western society runs on that-- and it would basically guarantee a collapse of this society. Even non whites wouldn't rush to such a thing.


>When America can accept our diversity and allow for it in
>every walk of black life, well then we would have achieved.

Again that relies entirely upon white people changing and ain't nobody got time for that. None of us have another 300 or so years to wait it out and "hope" for change.

>And so for me it's not so much about black issues but
>Amercia's perception of black, and the issues that arise from
>that.

How is the American perception of black not a black issue? They seem intertwined to me. Our issues are not American issues because American i.e. white is the majority and we are not treated as the majority nor are we such.
12700718, primarily? poor issues, with a sprinkling of Black for taste
Posted by John Forte, Fri Jan-16-15 11:52 AM
12700739, all blacks aren't poor though n/m
Posted by imcvspl, Fri Jan-16-15 12:00 PM

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."
12700747, Well then, we have nothing to worry about
Posted by John Forte, Fri Jan-16-15 12:02 PM
12700771, Is it true that most of us are?
Posted by Atillah Moor, Fri Jan-16-15 12:11 PM
12700772, wanna effectively address Black issues? approach them as American issues...
Posted by BigJazz, Fri Jan-16-15 12:11 PM
***
I'm tryna be better off, not better than...