Steve Nash Double Swirling Gone Wrong!!

This is very true. That's one of the reasons I took care to distinguish this as the US system, and further, to highlight that the US economic/cultural hegemony has caused this system to be foisted on much of the world, although definitely NOT in the same degree as it is here. As a result, much of Latin America is going through racial consciousness movements for both the indigenous and black populations, similar to the 1960s US. Brazil's and Cuba's black movements and Bolivia's and Peru's indigenous movements come to mind most readily. Both are a response to discrimination by the predominately European elite. Fascinating really.

 

Good points on both sides here...

I think you guys are agreeing with each other on some points but terminology keeps tripping us up, most notably the 'white' versus 'European' or 'black' versus 'Latin', 'African', etc or ethnically-specific labelling. For example, there are both types of 'white' cultures in the Australian setting you use as an example. There is in fact a generalized 'white' normative culture to which all whites belong as distinct from non-whites in such settings. To the extent to which they maintain the creole association with their ancestral homeland there is also that culture. As a result there is both, for example, a 'white' Australian culture as well as a 'Greek' Australian or Irish-Australian culture. The whole conception of 'whiteness' as a singular culture is a function of colonial/metropolitan countries where whites from various European heritages come into contact in an atmosphere of greater racial diversity. The 'white' culture then develops as a byproduct of racial isolation from the non-whites around them. In the absence of these environments, whites are simply defined by ethnic identity/nationality.

 

:smt023:smt023

 

Well said. This is exactly what I've been trying to say.

 

Gotta second you on the similarities among all island cultures, MrFantastic. I noticed that from my Puerto Rican black family: musical rhythms, religious practices more Africanized in form, food, styles of expression, etc. It helped me connect with black people from the Diaspora more readily. My African-American black family has much more in common with Southern whites than with island blacks, in many respects, yet there is still a common thread of black West-African-based cultural norms that I have noticed in both groups.

* In the statement above, by 'both' I was referring to both African-Americans AND Caribbean/Latin Americans. So yes, I do agree that African-Americans have traces of West African culture in our culture as I can personally attest, yet not nearly as many as Caribbean/Latin Americans, as I can also personally attest. *