Joseph 的个人资料Reverend Joseph T. Evans...照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
|
6月27日 We are "Black" Americansby Joseph T. Evans
First of all, the Institution of slavery robbed African-Americans of their history and their identity while it simultaneously established stereotypes and myths in place of their lost history and identity. This complex combination of having too little unadulterated history in addition to having much more stereotypes, projected of African-Americans, has distorted African-Americans' identity making it crucially important for the Black community to learn about their heritage, and dispel stereotypes and myths rather than uphold them as truths, not just for all of Americans and the world community, but more importantly, for African-Americans who can also get all too confused and lost in the misportrayal of African-American history and heritage.
African-American stereotypes and myths were primarily established, on the basis that the stereotypes and myths, made regarding African-Americans as less than human, easier. African-Americans were seen as savages, apes, and even the fallen angels (the American based church, The Mormons once taught that African-Americans were the fallen angels from whom God had banished from heaven along with Lucifer) cursed to be slaves, servants and forever persecuted. Further distorting history, African-Americans and other peoples of black African descent have been classified as not having made any contributions to human civilization.
Stereotypes raised fears in Americans, including the Black community, making it hard for African-Americans to vote, live in various areas of the country, obtain certain jobs, and attain higher levels of education, and because the institution of slavery did not allow African-Americans to read or write, it was extraordinarily difficult to pass on an accurate African-American history. Yet, the history African-Americans were allowed to gain knowledge of was from an Anglo-American perspective where important contributions and achievements made by African-Americans were, and are to this day, rarely touched upon. Because of the fears created by stereotypes and myths, and African-Americans history being so distorted, African-Americans were relegated to positions of non-citizens. In fact, African-Americans were so dehumanized and their history so distorted that "slavery, segregation and lynching" were considered justifiable conditions.
The same stereotypical fears that were a contributing factor to the lynching of African-Americans throughout the South are today a substantial factor to why African-Americans are horrendously brutalized by police officers, suffer lengthy, and unjust prison sentences, and even die at the hand of fellow African-Americans; therefore, to remedy this problem, the mending component is for African-Americans to know their more positive achievements, contributions, and heritage.
According to “Merriam-Webster’s” dictionary, “heritage” is: 1. Property that descends to an heir; 2. Something transmitted by or acquired from a predecessor: LEGACY, INHERITANCE, TRADITION; 3. Something possessed as a result of one’s natural situation or birth: BIRTHRIGHT.
If African-Americans’ heritage are based more on a disproportionate balance of not knowing or knowing very little African-American history, and knowing far more about the ill-portrayed media driven propaganda of the Black community, African-Americans can, and in most cases, only advance to a certain level from the previous generation, usually in a negative direction, and the crucial question becomes: How does a generation of people advance based off of stereotypical lies and a distorted identity? The only logical answer is for African-Americans to know their history and their heritage in order to build from a more positive and more accurate foundation, but what legacy do we have other than slavery, this leaves African-Americans grasping at straws trying to find an identity for themselves.
When most African-Americans are asked about their heritage, it will most likely be intertwined with southern style cuisine, the most popular music of the time, and a legacy of playing into the stereotypical roles of being uneducated, violent, or non-productive. It is good to know the history of why we eat certain foods, have a shared music, and don’t forget our past, but our birthright our heritage is far broader than what is being depicted.
According to the definition, what most African-Americans view as their heritage is not at all wrong: African-Americans inherited the “Soul” food that we eat from a heritage of our mothers and grandmothers demonstrating through food, to the family, how much they were loved, and African-Americans’ musical legacy, which some humanitarian scholars and psychologists will argue was equivalent to hearing a caged bird sing; hence, once African-Americans were freed from slavery and regained some liberty, they, as a people, after so many decades of having their voices stifled were so jubilant to be unconstrained from the tyranny of slavery that a cornucopia of soulful talent sprang fourth in blues music, jazz, bee-bop, gospel and now hip-hop. We, Black Americans, in fact established the American culture through music, but that’s a different story.
Unfortunately, due to the disproportionate balance of knowing very little unadulterated African-American history, and knowing too much stereotypical information, as if trying to grasp onto some identity, African-Americans take on the media driven images as their own identity and heritage, and or try to find their identity with Black Africans. As a result, the negative media driven images generate more negativity, and trying to find a link with Black Africans only creates frustration. The negativity can be seen in the Black community through the music, how we treat one another, and how we distort our own image of what we think it is to be Black. The distorted image of what is thought of as being Black sticks to the old stereotypical ideas of being uneducated (kept uninformed), with an attitude that prison is acceptable (kept in chains), and being a non-voter (not contributing to society).
Alex Haley, the author of “Roots,” probably not knowingly, when he traced his lineage back to Africa and found his African family, also found a huge portion of the lost history and heritage of every African-American. It was important for African-Americans to have a history beyond the negative light of slavery. African-Americans found they were not just descendents of slaves who would be relegated forever to being persecuted like heaven’s fallen angels, but had a rich pre-history of royalty, heroic warriors, loving families, and spirituality. The importance of the Black community learning of their heritage and history helps to establishes an accurate history of African-Americans and facilitates the removal of stereotypes; furthermore, the Black community in learning about their heritage, accomplishments, and contributions helps the Black community to be seen for who they truly are, highly educated, hard working, patriotic and contributing Americans with the same goals and aspirations as any other American.
Now, in saying all that, I have to say that we, African-Americans, have to realize that the history and culture we do need to appreciate is the history and culture of “Black” Americans. We are too far removed from Africa; hell, we don’t even know the names of the peoples of Africa we just call them Africans as if they were only one people.
Second of all , African-American is a term we as Black Americans chose to use to establish an identity, but we are Black Americans. When Spain tried to colonize the Americas they didn’t send over ship loads of Spanish, instead they built missions and forts and indoctrinated the Native American Indians in the ideology, customs, and faith of the Spanish people. In a sense, what the Spanish did was not bringing Spain to the new world, but instead turned the new world into Spain. This is basically what the Americans / British did to the African. They took their history, their identity, their culture, their religion, and they forced the African to assimilate into the American / European based society; losing everything that identified them with Africa and much like the Spanish acculturated the Native Americans into becoming Spanish American / British acculturated Africans into becoming Americans.
African-Americans are Americans, we are “Black” Americans and can not be anything else. Our ties with Africa were cut over 500 years ago. We are a new people with our own identity, history, and culture. So, I as an African-American, a Black American agree with most of the views of Black Africans when they say we are not African and absolutely understand why they don’t accept us as African, because we aren’t African anymore; haven’t been for centuries.
Contrast the African-American with the Native-American and it is easy to understand why we are no longer African. Historically, it is noted that thousands of years ago Native Americans came from Asia along a land bridge that formed from Russia to Alaska. The Asians crossed over the land bridge establishing a new home in the Americas. They learned to live a different way of life, developed a different diet, acquired a different history, a different culture with different customs, different language, and of course created a completely different identity for themselves. Now, the Native Americans can no more claim to be Asians and want to return to their historical homelands, no more so than we Black Americans can; furthermore, it would not make sense for Native-Americans to call themselves Asian-Americans, because they know nothing about Asia’s people, history, culture, customs, beliefs, language, and just like the Black American in relation to Africa, nor do they know which Asian group they actually came from.
We need to accept the fact that we are a different people. Although we took on the title of African-American, we are truly not. We are “Black” Americans and what Black Africans need to understand is that while they were eventually given their independence from European colonialism, we Black Americans were forced to further assimilate into the American colonial culture and society -- a society that feared us and continues to fear us. We don’t know anything other than America. So, don’t look for any resemblance of Africa in us. We in a sense are White Americans who happen to be black. Traditional Americans come in two colors white and black -- we are the same. It’s just unfortunate that we continue to live in a society that continues to stereotype us out of a fear of us, further confusing not only Black Africans, but also Black Americans. If only Black Africans really knew the contributions we’ve made to America as slaves, and more so as freed Americans. But just like I don’t know any African history, I can’t expect Black Africans to know any of my history.
What we do know of each of the other is still provided by a white, European, colonial legacy. Blacks Africans learn of Black Americans through the white ran media such as CNN, and Black Americans learn of Black Africans through the same media as well as books like National Geographic. Black Africans see Black Americans as being uneducated, lazy, all criminal minded, and talking in Ebonics, and Black Americans see Black Africans as being uneducated, tribal, no history, not able to feed themselves, nor able to properly govern themselves; in fact, we don‘t even see them as living in cities at all but in the jungle. We, both sides, both groups of people, Black Americans and Black Africans, need to realize that these are untruths and we need to learn about each other directly from the source not the white ran media driven propaganda or to be fair just from their ignorance of us.
Lastly, Black people can be found throughout all four corners of the world: Asia, Africa, Europe, and The Americas. Sure, most of Black Africans were distributed throughout the world via the slave trade, but what about the Blacks in Asia. There are Blacks in Papua New Guinea, Blacks in India, Blacks in Australia, and even the Agta -- thought to be the original inhabitants of the Philippines. They probably don’t consider themselves black since black, for some mysterious reason, equates Africans (and those in the Diaspora -- Blacks of the Americans) only. It is the same thing in Saudi Arabia and the middle east. The story is told that black people are there because they were brought there as slaves; to the contrary black people have always lived in the middle east they are the original inhabitants of the middle east.
How did Blacks get to Asia? No one truly knows, some say they are actually Asians, but they have very distinct negroid features, no Asiatic features at all. We, Black Americans and Black Africans just know they are Black people with their own identity and with no ties to Africa. Black Africans don’t expect them to know anything about Africa, because they clearly see them as a different breed of Black people; consequently, so, too are the Black Americans and the Blacks of the Caribbean. We are all Black people, but we are all clearly very different. Black Americans and Blacks from the Caribbean are even different. We have different cultures, different ceremonies, different customs, different heritages, and different language; we are different. The one and only common bond is that we are all Black people, but in saying all this a Black American is an American not an African, and an American, only. Also see essay I too know why a caged bird sings, and The History of Blues评论 (1)
引用通告此日志的引用通告 URL 是： http://soldiermedic10.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!753CA398A3BDF507!231.trak 引用此项的网络日志
|
|
|
