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.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
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."