Slighty sick of this outlook within Black America

This is the only place I think I can post this in confidence and actually have people think about a response before posting it. I love the boom bap style of hip hop (think golden era late 80's early 90's style) and I had a chance to hear Nas's new single 'Nigger(The Slave and Master). So in listening to the single I heard the usual rants of "its tough in the ghetto" "they dont care about us" etc etc. And the song brought up a thought I have had for a long time.

I am not the first and only person to say this but I feel like Black America needs to get off the complaint train. Racism is still alive no doubt, but it seems to me that major portions of Black America choose to think and believe that the struggle in Black America is the only struggle to exist, that nothing else in the whole wide world can match the levels of oppression seen in this country. When I hear these ideas being expressed I cannot help but think of the horrors that are happening as I type this.

The truth is, although our country has been undergoing many hardships in the social and economic departments, it still means a lot to be a citizen of the United States of America. I think people do not realize the implications. If you do not believe me, make friends with someone that is living in the states that is not a citizen. These are people that are working hard with an eye on the prize; US citizenship.

I understand that many many people (black or white or neither) in the states live in a mental jail. We have lost our connection to the earth, and each other. But because I am typing this, this is a testament to success being possible despite the odds. I grew up in the worst parts of Los Angeles and outside of one other person, we were the only people to not get into gangs or drugs or drug trafficking. I was surrounded by the Brims, 8 Tray's, Rollin 60's and a whole wealth of other lesser gangs. I believe that it is possible to get out and see new things and learn new things but I cannot understand why a fair amount of Black Americans continue to cry FOUL rather than keeping it moving.

I guess my biggest gripe with the situation is that people choose to point a finger at "they", "them", whites, "the man", institutions(federal and municipal). I grew up very very pro black and I suppose that because of this I have a different outlook on the situation where I (at any level and context) believe in the idea of community and using the power of community to heal, teach and protect itself.

I dont get, I just dont. Especially after seeing OniBus 174. If you think Black America has it really hard, please read up on The Chinese Exclusion Act, the Amputees of Sierra Leone, Indian Raj, Lena Goldfield Massacre, Bloody Sunday(Russia), Ethnic Cleaninsing in Kenya, East Timor, Botswana, etc. The list is long, the list is very sad, but I bring it up to make the point that yes, Black America has hard it very hard and will have it hard for a very long time, but this is the US and outside of a mental cage I cannot fathom how the same argument that has been made since the beginning of the 20th century still holds up.

 

You make some pretty good points.
It is human nature to place one's self on top so people [a number of people] will look at their place in life and tend to think that "this is the be all end all".
Most native born Americans tend to think little outside of America so the plight of others is rarely more than an after thought.

I always thought we had it kind of good over here in the US of A.

Oh well...

 

The ability to look outside of one's self can in some ways be considered a gift. In spite of the hardships through which an individual may be going, seeing another person living (indeed suffering) through something equal or worse and recognizing that this person's situation also deserves attention is quite selfless. I've read many stories about such people who, inspite of their own circumstances, give their best effort to trumpet the cause of others to improve their lives. These people are to be commended.

Active members of this forum have posted stories about how their own lives were directly affected by racism, oppression or bigotry. That includes a number of the females members as well. Having said that, I don't believe that openly discussing your own experiences in any way means these people and others like them outside of this forum are on a complaint train. I also don't believe that they're not aware of either one or a multitude of the atrocities that are or have taken place with the people of other ethnicities simply because they're talking about their own experiences.

When given an avenue to express themselves about racism and how they've been directly affected, black americans are stating what they've seen, heard and felt. In other words, they're stating how they've been touched by these practices. I can think of no instance, during an interview dealing with this subject, where the interviewee was asked if they're aware of others who have experienced equal or greater crimes against humanity.

I'm aware of many of the situations which were mentioned (The Chinese Exclusion Act, Ethnic Cleansing in Kenya Bloody Sunday, the bus highjacking that inspired the movie Onibus 174 etc...). Speaking specifically about disenfranchised residents of Brazil's favelas, I know for a fact that these people complain constantly. However, the difference is that they aren't complaining through the same channels as black americans.

Hearing a multitude of complaints certainly can become tiresome, but I do not see suffering in silence as noble. I see it as a choice. Having said that, in cases where a black person is incessantly complaining about oppression, I believe that speaks to that individual and is not representative of black americans as a whole. Black americans hate when others deem a negative behavior as something representing the whole race, yet we seem to have no problem throwing stones at one another. I see the "complaint train" statement as fitting nicely in the latter category.

 

8) ...well here's one brutha who's feelin' you on this. Black folks get offended when we speak the TRUTH about ourselves. It's a damn shame. Kudos for puttin' out there homeboy.

 

I just sent someone an e-mail today that stated the following

However you have to understand many of us only know the hood and all of it trappings. Trappings being, my father drinks and is never home or my mom drinks and is always working. My sister is pregs, my cousin got shot by Five O because he was selling that thang and it's five O fault.

It's not cool to learn in school, last time I got an A+ my friends laughed at me. I don't know how to save money, and why do I need life insurance and so and so on.

Prior to these recent wars we've been involved in I've always been in favor us going into the military, because you get off the fucking block and see the world with a different set of bifocals...

 

We can't get off the complaint train, because racist in high class america and corporate america is looking for us to put our guards down.

I understand a lot others have it way harder than we do, but that is only in comparison. We are still fighting things and when you put your guards down in a fight you get knocked out.

 

I think what makes black America's struggles different from most other "peoples of color" is that we had to fight our battles on someone else's home turf. In Africa, Asia etc., you have ethnic groups that have fought amongst themselves and in turn created openings for colonizers to come in and divide them even further. In those nations, the colonizers were a relative few while the oppressed were often the vast majority....imagine one person holding 10 people hostage with one gun.

In the U.S. it was like 10 people that each had a gun holding 2 people hostage.


It is our nature to complain. When Nat Turner led a revolt in 1831, you had Negroes that thought he was a troublemaker and a loon for rising up against tyranny. "Why did that Negro have to stir up so much trouble for the rest of us?".....that line was probably uttered by many a fieldhand.

When Malcolm X, MLK Jr. and others spoke up for civil rights and black self-reliance....you could hear people saying "Why are those colored boys stirring up so much trouble?"....indeed there were lots of blacks that didn't think anything was wrong with "seperate but equal."

Complaining and blaming are two different animals. Blaming others is a mechanism that allows you to divorce yourself from the responsibility of handling your own affairs....complaining is a negotiating tool to get what you believe is fair and just. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

Its the fault of our education system and that you can lay the blame right on Caucasians. Why?

Because instead of staying in the inner-city and doing the civil thing which is to force your local, state or federal government to help you keep your school safe, teachers well paid and staffed and working like a well-oiled machine, you instead tried to copy Elites in as they sent their children to private schools and then successfully in many states got the government to foot the bill for taking your children out of public schools so you can send them to private schools.

These are part of the COMMONS in this country.Public Schools are FREE, why would you want to pay a school to educate your children, they are doing it for PROFIT you moron!

With no investment by the local tax base into your inner city schools, you see what the end result is, while Private School educated students flourish. On top of that, you take "pride" away from these schools by getting their top athletes to transfer to private schools for so-called better learning, when the real objective is to beat that other private school in local sports, to gain national attention and create a "farm system" for major colleges.

Then many Caucasians aren't smart enough see through the code of the Matrix. When any election comes up, they pander to Suburbanites (mostly White) about cracking down on crime. When is a white person going to stand up and say "No that's not what you mean, your goal is to put more Black Men in jail for overall meaningless crimes that are actually NO threat to us as we don't live in the city, so why you telling US you wanna be tough on crime when the mafia runs rampant in OUR community?"

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/the_real_underbelly_546914

See either White people aren't smart enough to know when they are being BAMBOOZLED or simply just don't give a shit, I think its a bit of both actually.

White Americans as a whole don't give a fuck about the next man and his problems and sure has hell aren't interested in what happens in the inner-city and only concerned about it when they have to park their Benz downtown to go to City Hall.

They rather take their PITTY, yes PITTY and go down to 3rd world countries and offer them time and money, rather than giving that money or time to a inner city child in your own COUNTRY, what kind of NONSENSE is that????

As I keep saying most of you are not informed and not nearly as much as you think, especially the White Women on this broad, especially if you listen to Nas and draw your conclusions from that.

I'm not saying we don't have problems in the Black community we do, but it doesn't help that rampant racism still exist and by YOU pointing the finger back at us saying "You should fix your own problems and then WE might help you" is so condescending I don't know if I should laugh or slap your ass.

Nas is right, White people don't give a fuck about us. Its true, wanna know how true -

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/the_chavez_connection_545899

Watch and learn.

Notice how our Government wants to paint all these Latin countries as "Terrorist" and "Liberals" as they finally beat back all those crazy Reich Wing "Free Market" Million Freedman NONSENSE and took their country back.

Do you wanna know what happen when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and now what's going on there? The American media doesn't wanna cover it, its not in their best interest, you have to go elsewhere -

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/coming_up_in_katrina39s_wake_131744

According to Naomi Klein (and she has no reason to lie but your government does) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2kTy7glZ9s&feature=related

Noam Chomsky -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8pxyAWTBk&feature=related

The bottom line is this -

They keep you stupid and mis-informed for a reason, if you rise up you'll take them out of power, strike at work and do other civic minded things.

In Latin America that's when they usually rolled out the tanks. Just like China did.

If you were HALF as informed as you should be you wouldn't make post like this in a feeble attempt to point fingers back at Black people. We keep telling you THINGS ARE NOT QUITE RIGHT and THINGS REALLY ARENT better than 40 years ago, save that more of us are going to college and getting good jobs so we can buy computers and post on message boards like this or the DIGITAL DIVIDE would be much WIDER and what happens to all those people that don't have a TV with a digital tuner, what's going to happen to those people that don't know the Government will give you $40 for a new digital to analog tuner for your non digital TV?

Why don't you see the FOREST from the TREES?

I can't marry White American Women that are THIS STUPID!

 

I may be wrong but...

I think ladeda is a BM.

 

I was just thinking-no ww have even posted on this thread so what stupid ww are you refering to dj? might want to get YOUR facts straight.

 

:smt017 WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, PUMP YOUR BRAKES!!! Maybe I missunderstood the point of this thread, but I don't think this is about letting ANYBODY off the hook.

Most of what you're saying has great merit, but I believe the point of this is to address the weaknesses w/in our community THAT WE CAN ADDRESS. I think we all understand there are issues the the powers that be can manipulate w/out our consent or awareness, but that's not what this is about...at least as I understand it.

It's about not using scapegoats as we often do (such as your "inner-city school point, which I fully agree with) and pulling ourselves up by our boot-straps so that we can consciously and communally fight the injustices that we do face. We cannot fight in the face of bias and injustice when we constantly wound ourselves in the very fight we complain about. Bottom line, we are not as united and culturally sound as we can be.

...and I do believe Lededa is a BM...but if he aint...then what I said just lost it's weight.

 

Lucifer!

Talking about missing in action...

Always glad to read your soulja-boy sig!

 

yeah hey, glad the thread is taking action, i am in fact a black male. I am 27, in California, proud to be an American.

 

Excuse me for not attaching an A to the end of my screen name as many things can fool a person into thinking they are a female.

But anyway, I am 37 and from California by far the most PROGRESSIVE state in America, but that's besides the point.

Our education system is a joke, its not an scape goat or I don't use it as one, I used it as an example.

That's fine but I said NOTHING WRONG OTHERWISE...

The TRUTH HURTS!

I can handle it, with GLEE cause I love saying " I TOLD YOU SO..."