Discuss Black History Month (Myth Busting)

The Texass Republic was actually founded by illegal immigrants (the Mexican government set a quota which was blatantly ignored) who illegally brought their slaves into the territory (against Mexican law).
 
Sun Devil said:
Seriously?!? Look at television, movies, etc etc....

Why do you think Denzel and Halle Berry winning an oscar was such a big deal? Because aside from Sideny Poitier, no other African-American had won an oscar. Look at prime television. Most shows represent white families which is why articles that talk about the rise of African-Americans and other people of color is because there is less of a representation of minorities. When I talk about whites in television I'm talking about representation...period.....Please argue that whites are not overtly represented in television.
Click to expand...

Not the shows or channels I watch; but then, this is of course based on your own biases.
 
Sardonic said:
So, it wasn't that interesting, but I guess if you were uneducated about the tribes of Africa and were making excuses for your relatives you might think so.
Click to expand...

i didn't deny that other cultures did it. so I don't really get why you felt the need to make that argument.
 
Sun Devil said:
(1)

I'm not talking about Europeans though am I? I'm talking about the founding of this nation. The early settlers didn't forcefully use European slaves did they? They used African slaves not Europeans who prior to the use of African slaves were indentured servants.

(2)

I just explained it to you clearly...Africa is not a fucking country so the comments "Africans selling Africans" is moot because slavery wasn't practiced in every single country in Africa. So if you're referring to some Africans selling Africans then you have to specify the countries that sold slaves to Europeans. Secondly, Africans sold their enemies to Europeans much like the Greeks selling other Greeks to slavery. As I noted above you're using the Arab slave trade argument. Excusing one evil for another by highlighting the evil of another culture.

(3)

There is no problem of other cultures who are not represented by the majority to have their holidays or cultural celebrations. That is what this country is about.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but number 1 is incorrect, there were many white slaves before the black slave trade even started.

http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/yes-virginia-white-slavery-existed/

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/white_slavery.htm
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
I am sorry but number 1 is incorrect, there were many white slaves before the black slave trade even started.

http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/yes-virginia-white-slavery-existed/

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/white_slavery.htm
Click to expand...

As for number two, what difference does it make if Africa is not a country? The fact remains that many tribes in West Africa sold slaves to the slave traders, there was a BBC TV programme called Great Railway Journeys of the World made in 1996 where a black writer Henry Louis Gates stated that unequivocally. He is also on record as calling it "ridiculous" to think that only blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature.


While Gates has stressed the need for greater recognition of black literature and black culture, he does not advocate a "separatist" black canon. Rather, he works for greater recognition of black works and their integration into a larger, pluralistic canon. He has affirmed the value of the Western tradition, but has envisioned a more inclusive canon of diverse works sharing common cultural connections:

Every black American text must confess to a complex ancestry, one high and low (that is, literary and vernacular) but also one white and black...there can be no doubt that white texts inform and influence black texts (and vice versa), so that a thoroughly integrated canon of American literature is not only politically sound, it is intellectually sound as well.[SUP][2][/SUP][/TD]

Gates has argued that a separatist, Afrocentric education perpetuates racist stereotypes. He maintains that it is "ridiculous" to think that only blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature. He argues,
.
"It can't be real as a subject if you have to look like the subject to be an expert in the subject,"[SUP][6][/SUP] adding, "It's as ridiculous as if someone said I couldn't appreciate Shakespeare because I'm not Anglo-Saxon. I think it's vulgar and racist whether it comes out of a black mouth or a white mouth."[SUP][7][/SUP]
.
​
Supporters of Afrocentrics such as Molefi Asante and others say that they assert not that the study of Africa should be exclusively Black, but that the approach of Afrocentricity is critical for setting up black people as agents of their own history.[SUP][8][/SUP][SUP][9][/SUP]
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates_Jr.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwood,_Tulsa,_Oklahoma


Greenwood is a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As one of the most successful and wealthiest African American communities in the United States during the early 20th Century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street" until the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The riot was one of the most devastating race riots in history and it destroyed the once thriving Greenwood community.

Within five years after the riot, surviving residents who chose to remain in Tulsa rebuilt much of the district. They accomplished this despite the opposition of many white Tulsa political and business leaders. It resumed being a vital black community until segregation was overturned by the Federal Government during the 1950s and 60s. Desegregation encouraged blacks to live and shop elsewhere in the city, causing Greenwood to lose much of its original vitality. Since then, city leaders have attempted to encourage other economic development activity nearby.
 
Sun Devil said:
Let me answer the continuous question that many whites (including some of my white friends) have regarding "White History Month" White television etc.

Whites are represented everyday, not just because whites are the majority in the United States but the most politically and socially influential group in the United States. Not only are whites in the United States are the most represented group when it comes to the history of the United States, but media wise, whites are the most represented group. That is why you have channels like BET, Telemundo, and other ethnic channels because cultures want to be represented as these cultures in comparison to the dominant majority. The reason you don't have a WET or White Entertainment Television is because whites are the most represented group on television. If anyone here has objections please I'd like to see your argument.
Click to expand...

There is no WET because its owners would be labelled as racists.
 
Sun Devil said:
If you are black from Africa and move to France why would you be called African-American if you aren't from America? If you are black from Africa and move to France you'd be called whatever so-called politically correct term they refer to African migrants to France perhaps African-French or Black-french (To ditinguish from African-Arabs who have French citizenship).

Personally I don't like the term "black" or "negro" because all Africans aren't literally black. Black is a color and genetically "blacks" come in all shades.
Click to expand...
Yet you have no problem using the term "white". Please explain.
 
Ghost of Watermark said:
a) Don't really know where you are going with this argument. You didn't dispel the "myth" at all. Keep your thought process consistent.

b) I think people just bring it up because there are undoubtedly some ancestors of white abolitionists today being lectured about their "horrible ancestors" by perhaps an african american who's own ancestors might have sold people into slavery. Kind of an interesting perspective to think about.
Click to expand...


I call it a myth because there are many whites and other ethnic groups that have this idea that the entire continent of Africa is one country and that every single African sold slaves. I'm basically saying slavery was not practiced in every single country of Africa, so the term "Africans sold their own to slavery" is incorrect.

Regarding to b) that remains to be seen whether or not they are being lectured. Not too many people even know their family history let alone assume that some of their family were abolitionists.
 
Sardonic said:
No, not really, warring tribes in most races and ethnicities enslaved, sold or ate their captives.
Click to expand...

That is exactly my point...The slaves sold into slavery were those who lost in battle, captured slaves and those that were traded. These practices were well common among the Greeks and the Romans.
 
Sardonic said:
It can be said there were no indigenous people to North America, they all migrated in that case.

I was thinking of the period of time after the formation of the Unites States of America.
Click to expand...

No I'm talking about the homo Sapiens who later developed culture thus becoming the "Native Americans" not pre-colonial natives
 
Teflon Don said:
What is African ancestry? You said it isn't a country which means it isn't a nationality
Click to expand...

It's common sense Teflon...

As an Irishman who considers himself Irish-American...

The Irishman claims ancestral lineage to the land called Ireland although his origins are of America. That is his genetics, his culture, is that of those who are of the country that is called Ireland. The same with Brack Obama calling himself African-American or black. Although genetically, he is bi-racial he owns his cultural heritage to that of African-American culture because that is how he identifies himself.
 
cawacko said:
If you are black, from Africa and move to France (so you have no roots in the U.S.) would you expect to be called African-American? That's what my friend brought up and I have no idea what the correct terminology would be.
Click to expand...

Afrique-Français, peut-être?
 
Right said:
Yet you have no problem using the term "white". Please explain.
Click to expand...

I say white casually here but I have said Caucasian. The reason I don't say Caucasian American is because its really not used because unconsciously people assume such in such cases because America whether Canada or U.S is predominantly white. People often times such as myself do not decipher between French-Canadian, Irish-American Scottish-French on so forth because we all unconsciously assume anyone (no offense to anyone here) with pinkish fair skin is white. White people do it. Black people do it. Arabs, Mexicans etc.

Let me ask you something why do "Caucasians" call Puerto Ricans Mexican when they speak spanish? LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top