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Black and White Culture
Lacroix
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Reading a thread on racism and others I have heard the term 'black culture' bandied about. As a neccesary preamble I would like to note that I agree that racism is horrible and you should take my moral outrage at its existence as read (i'll post more in depth on that in the actual thread for it). But I am curious as to what is meant by the term 'black culture' -- maybe i'm not understanding which is why i'm posting this, but I don't get how such a term could ever lead to anything good in terms of race relations. Black and White people exist in every (almost every?) country - so I really can't see how there can be a 'shared experience' in terms of skin colour except the shared experience as defined by the existence of racism towards black people. Presumably the existence of 'white culture' must also be true, but I cannot think what that must suggest.
Religious based culture, sure, and is there a shared experience of people within a particular group from a particular area yes, but I cannot fathom what the existence of black culture could possibly entail.
Some of my block mates seemed to intimate that the hip-hop/gangsta lifestyle was part of their culture in this respect. Realistically this cannot be true as a shared experience for all black people though. Should children really think that they would be betraying the culture based on their skin colour because they did not act like rap stars? And conversely, should white kids be considered to be betraying their culture by not... I dunno, whatever 'white culture' suggests... being oppressive?/Working in wall street or some seedy business job?
Explanations are welcome, as I may be on the wrong end of the stick. But culture based on a shared skin colour cannot really have that much of a shared experience IMO, and may lead to widening of race barriers if people feel they need to show allegiance to cultural demands.
Explanations/Thoughts/comments?
Religious based culture, sure, and is there a shared experience of people within a particular group from a particular area yes, but I cannot fathom what the existence of black culture could possibly entail.
Some of my block mates seemed to intimate that the hip-hop/gangsta lifestyle was part of their culture in this respect. Realistically this cannot be true as a shared experience for all black people though. Should children really think that they would be betraying the culture based on their skin colour because they did not act like rap stars? And conversely, should white kids be considered to be betraying their culture by not... I dunno, whatever 'white culture' suggests... being oppressive?/Working in wall street or some seedy business job?
Explanations are welcome, as I may be on the wrong end of the stick. But culture based on a shared skin colour cannot really have that much of a shared experience IMO, and may lead to widening of race barriers if people feel they need to show allegiance to cultural demands.
Explanations/Thoughts/comments?
Lacroix on
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Did you forget the countless years of slavory which followed the countless years of African independance?
Black culture would probably refer to the African-American experience here in the US. Is anyone really claiming all black people everywhere share one culture?
I will readily concede that African Americans share many experiences, including cultural experiences. But there are, and have been, many "black cultures," just like there are many white cultures.
The website stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, despite its name or intentions, isn't making fun of white culture, it's making fun of yuppie/hipster culture. Now, I have no problem generalizing about yuppies and hipsters—they are obviously cultural demographics. The problem is when you equate these particular cultures with "white culture"—because you're leaving out other white cultures (hillbillies, i-bankers, elitist fops, etc). White culture is too diverse to distill down into any single generalization.
Similarly, so is black culture. Is black culture hip hop culture? Rastafarian culture? New Orleans Jazz culture? I think any of these cultures are valid to generalize about—that's what makes them cultures—but "black culture" isn't any one of these, it's not even an amalgamation of them.
Any cultural category based on as broad a demographic as race is going to be so broad that it's meaningless.
For starters, this association only holds for people under a certain age, since both rock and hip hop are relatively new phenomena. Secondly, both hip hop and rock are incredibly broad cultures to begin with. Thirdly, hip hop—and apparently rock too—are quickly becoming diversified with respect to race (lots of white kids listen to hip hop, and I hear black kids are increasingly playing Guitar Hero.)
I'm not arguing that it's a meaningful and inclusive taxonomy. I'm just saying that in my experience, this is the most common usage of the phrase 'he acts like a black guy'.
Zombie -
Nope, I just was unsure if it was sufficient for it to be deemed a 'culture' in any meaningful sense that can be passed on into future generations.... particularly if it is getting confused by the ideas surrounding hip/hop rap culture for instance. The pain and horror of slavery is a binding one, and of course a child will feel compelled to show rigid support of this culture, but when less important things get mixed in with the term 'black culture' then liking a certain sort of music becomes a rigid qualifier for what it is to be black - My concern with the term is that it is not clearly defined, and may in future not just reflect a shared experience, but CREATE an experience which people feel they have to live up to in order to be part of their race. If that makes sense at all.
Not significant (sorry if i intimated that) - just that they likely exist in almost every country - I was hitting on the disparate nature of these people, rather than them being a significant portion - in an effort to suggest that there cannot really be much of a shared culture for all black people.
Yes... the very term 'black culture' does seem to claim that it is the same for black people everywhere by its very name. It suggests a shared experience/cultural behaviour in virtue of skin colour, rather than a culture based on the african american experience solely in the US.
Sageina:
Which is precisely my question I guess. What is it that is maintained and carried on? What are the core cultural values that are supposed to be passed on?
Quingu
Yeah, thats pretty much where I was trying to go with this. Thanks for putting it in an understandable, readable fashion as I think I confused some people.
So your heritage is not considered culturally relevant at all? African Americans come from Africa. Africa has an incredibly deep and complex culture. You shouldn't tag it as "Black culture" because there isn't such a thing, but there is an African culture and an African American culture. You are using a very poorly defined term and attaching arbitrary things to it.
But Africa is more diverse than any other continent. The only real common feature is that they're all at least as dark as a good tan and were fucked by some whitey in the past (mostly Britain and France).
And that's hardly a connection at all. I think the term black culture is a complete misnomer. I understand that is meant to apply to the urabn/hip-hop type of lifestyle but I believe that lifestyle is mostly a byproduct of environment and not some sort of ingrained cultural history. I really can't think of any coherent argument that would be able to successfully form a connection between an ascribed status like ethnicity and a necessary adherence to a particular culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Africanism
African-American culture has very little to do with African culture, so it's not that useful to talk about heritage.
I always thought that the term "black" meant of direct indigenous sub-Saharan African descent. However, there is limited space on the census...
Is an attempt to give additional 'African' identity to the hundreds of societies already on the continent. It doesn't make it any more valid to talk of a single 'black culture' than Pan-Europeanism (that is much more developed) makes it not important to distinguish between an AndalucÃan and an Ã…lander.