Maintaining Blackness

bodhesatva said:
I have a few thoughts on "cultural appropriation."

There's one situation where I definitely agree that it's bad: black guy does new thing X. Popular culture acts like it's bad or tacky. White guy copies X, then suddenly X is cool and amazing. A real world instance is how large butts on women were long viewed as "ghetto" or gross when it was only desirable on black women, but as soon as it was desirable on white women, too, it became a lot more acceptable.

That's definitely bad. But *in general* I don't really think cultural appropriation is bad. If Asian people listen to rap or rock music that Black people created, Black people eat McDonalds or Subway that White people created, or White people watch Kung Fu movies that Asian people created, I think that's great. I think sometimes people complain about cultural appropriation when it's just melting pot in action.
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Well from what I see with black people it's this constant feeling of being cheated out of financial opportunities while at the same time being demonized for it. The best example is rap. I'm every other form of entertainment people see white characters and don't assume that's the real person. No one is checking Eminem or Iggy for weapons.
Dude talked about killing his ex in the most graphic ways I've ever heard no big deal.
Black artists constantly go through that shit
 
bodhesatva said:
I have a few thoughts on "cultural appropriation."

There's one situation where I definitely agree that it's bad: black guy does new thing X. Popular culture acts like it's bad or tacky. White guy copies X, then suddenly X is cool and amazing. A real world instance is how large butts on women were long viewed as "ghetto" or gross when it was only desirable on black women, but as soon as it was desirable on white women, too, it became a lot more acceptable.

That's definitely bad. But *in general* I don't really think cultural appropriation is bad. If Asian people listen to rap or rock music that Black people created, Black people eat McDonalds or Subway that White people created, or White people watch Kung Fu movies that Asian people created, I think that's great. I think sometimes people complain about cultural appropriation when it's just melting pot in action.
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first they ignore it or say its a bad thing
then they mock it
then one of them can do it well
then its all the rave
then they claim it as if they've always done it
 
Black and white are western social constructs that have social and political value in the west.

The descendants of African slaves in America are called black for a reason of convenience. People in Africa aren't black. They are Nigerians and Kenyans and Malians etc... Those are specific ethnic groups. It's not that they aren't just black... they aren't black at all. Africans aren't black as black and white are western european concepts that don't apply to africans in the way it applies to the american descendants of the african slaves. The term/designations black/white has very specific meaning in western culture that doesn't translate easily outside of it.

And the n-word is just a bastardization of the term negro which is spanish for black. Because most of us don't know the particulars of our african heritage beyond the most general knowledge of you came from this continent (hence the generalized term AFRICAN-american rather than say Nigerian-american or Ghanian-american and you can break it down even further from there) therefore we're stuck with a skin color designation of black..and we've been building a culture and heritage from that.

I'LL ASK AGAIN...WHAT IS BLACKNESS?
 
hellified said:
Black and white are western social constructs that have social and political value in the west.

The descendants of African slaves in America are called black for a reason of convenience. People in Africa aren't black. They are Nigerians and Kenyans and Malians etc... Those are specific ethnic groups. It's not that they aren't just black... they aren't black at all. Africans aren't black as black and white are western european concepts that don't apply to africans in the way it applies to the american descendants of the african slaves. The term/designations black/white has very specific meaning in western culture that doesn't translate easily outside of it.

And the n-word is just a bastardization of the term negro which is spanish for black. Because most of us don't know the particulars of our african heritage beyond the most general knowledge of you came from this continent (hence the generalized term AFRICAN-american rather than say Nigerian-american or Ghanian-american and you can break it down even further from there) therefore we're stuck with a skin color designation of black..and we've been building a culture and heritage from that.

I'LL ASK AGAIN...WHAT IS BLACKNESS?
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I get your point but Nigerian, Kenyan and Malian aren’t ethnicities, they are nationalities. Ethnicities would be Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Kikuyu etc.
 
Madeleine said:
I get your point but Nigerian, Kenyan and Malian aren’t ethnicities, they are nationalities. Ethnicities would be Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Kikuyu etc.
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I think Europeans are more conscious of African groups/tribes. And we know that all Nigerians are not the same.
Similar with Malians etc
 
I think people get far to invested in "who's sleeping with whom". I had a conversation with a friend about this and she was explaining black woman's perspective as she saw it, but when I asked her why it mattered what someone else did, she could only say that women are getting tired of it. I still don't think people should view members of their ethnic group as "theirs".
 
orejon4 said:
I think people get far to invested in "who's sleeping with whom". I had a conversation with a friend about this and she was explaining black woman's perspective as she saw it, but when I asked her why it mattered what someone else did, she could only say that women are getting tired of it. I still don't think people should view members of their ethnic group as "theirs".
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Tired of what exactly?
 
orejon4 said:
I think people get far to invested in "who's sleeping with whom". I had a conversation with a friend about this and she was explaining black woman's perspective as she saw it, but when I asked her why it mattered what someone else did, she could only say that women are getting tired of it. I still don't think people should view members of their ethnic group as "theirs".
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Some years ago I had this conversation with a close friend who is actually an old friend from high school, and we dated during our twentysomething years. Her explanation to me was that BW feel like they're losing out all around because... So many BM are doing nothing for themselves and/or in jail, and then they have to share the remaining desirable BM with all other women. To her credit she does see where many BW (especially those growing up in our inner city neighborhood) simply had a bad set of priorities, and were often passing over the good guys. She's also of the mindset regarding IR that basically everyone should be able to follow their heart without getting drama and such.

I will admit that I've also seen some BM get up in their feelings about BW who are with WM. A good example of a well-known person is Serena William' case.

The Dark King said:
Tired of what exactly?
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Yup, yup! Always takes me back to the BW I know who get seriously mad at BM who reach celebrity status, and are with WW.
 
In my experience the vast majority of black men could care less only those who don't think there's enough complain about what's on your plate. Usually when I do see black men comment on relationships like Serena's its to call out the clear as day hypocrisy where these same women who condemn someone like Kobe cheer on Serena. Honestly most men in general are too focused on trying to get the women they want they don't really care what anyone else is doing unless it hinders their ability to get what they want.
 
The Dark King said:
In my experience the vast majority of black men could care less only those who don't think there's enough complain about what's on your plate. Usually when I do see black men comment on relationships like Serena's its to call out the clear as day hypocrisy where these same women who condemn someone like Kobe cheer on Serena. Honestly most men in general are too focused on trying to get the women they want they don't really care what anyone else is doing unless it hinders their ability to get what they want.
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Agreed! It seems to be rare for BM
 
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