Posted: Fri 03 Jul 2009 04:28 Post subject: Re: Can racial definitions solve our race problems?
Hargrove wrote:
I like that the words and images posted here, about people of African descent, informs the public that appearance is unreliable for predicting race. By contrast, I find it disturbing that so much energy is applied to defining people racially, with the implication being that the less African blood you have, the better. This is especially confusing when the one thing we all have in common is that we are of African descent. People of African descent won't respect themselves, and they won't be respected, until they elevate being African to something that is not fearful or shameful. A *Diasporan can puff out their chest and declare 4/5 white blood, but as long as they think the white blood is what gives them value, they will feel inferior to the white person who declares 100% white blood!
Instead of people of African descent identifying themselves by how much African blood they don’t have, we should have an all inclusive name, like Diasporan, which identifies our historic African connection, but that is not racial. We are the only people on the planet telling others that we are not what we look like racially, if we look African; or explaining that we look the way that we do because we are not entirely African.
The culture of racism was put on us, but we won't be free of it until we throw it off. I think that President Obama is a perfect example of what I'm talking about, namely, he identifies inclusively, African-American, but he owns all that he is by openly referencing relatives who are not of African descent. One mentor of Barack said that he knew him for 20 years without learning that he is bi-racial.
Barack faces the world with what they see of him, but he doesn't hide what he is, he just doesn't make a point of it. I would venture a bet that white looking Diasporans don't go around telling people not to judge them by their looks because they have African blood. That is, with the exception of Carol Channing. It's people who look like they are of African descent, but who try to minimize their African roots by pointing to their otherness.
There is a woman in my neighborhood who looks like an average Diasporan, but after five minutes in her company, she will tell you that she is French, and she doesn't mean that she was born in France. I actually believe that she is telling the truth about her family’s French ancestry, but it is obviously joined with African ancestors as well, but her family does not acknowledge their African ancestry.
It is sad, undignified and boring, to witness a person anxiously explain, over and over again, that they are not what they looks like, or that they look like they do, because they are not entirely African. But perhaps the worse thing is that it’s divisive of Diasporans. I saw a mixed race website with a Diasporan woman pictured with her two children. The girl looks white and was described by a racial name, and the brown skinned boy was given another racial name. Is this how we want to define ourselves, so race conscious until a brother and sister are divided by more or less African blood? I don’t think so.
*Diasporan: A descendant of a survivor of the African diaspora.
Your idea that all descendants of "the African diaspora" (however you define it) should have some common political and/or social identity is unrealistic and stigmatizing. Have you noticed that many American whites are proud to tell everyone that they are part-Indian? Could it have something to do with the fact that no one expects them to surrender their white identity in order to claim it?
Posted: Fri 03 Jul 2009 10:41 Post subject: Re: Can racial definitions solve our race problems?
Hargrove wrote:
I like that ... I find it disturbing that ...
Hargrove wrote:
we should have an ... We are the only people ...
Hargrove, do not start your participation here on the wrong foot. Even though you are a new member and are therefore given some leeway, you must familiarize yourself with the site's Posting Rules. Everyone is expected to follow them. The first quotation above violates rule 1.3. (You may express your likes and dislikes only in the two political advocacy fora.) The second quotation above (indeed the entire second half of your message) violates rule 2.4.
Dame Shirley has had three children. The eldest, Sharon, was born when she was only 16 (Bassey has never revealed who the father was) and was raised for the first nine years of her life by one of Shirley's sisters, believing that her mother was really her aunt. She is now the mother of four boys and lives near Reading in Berkshire.
Sharon, who recently split from her husband Stephen, said she was not willing to discuss her mother, but confirmed that she and the boys all went to Glastonbury to see her perform and they speak for hours every week on the phone.
"I will say that I am very proud of her," she said.
John Terry, a former neighbour of Sharon's, said: "Dame Shirley used to visit quite often. I remember seeing her turn up outside and I found it quite amusing.
"Because of her tax exile, her chauffer would park up outside and she would dash in, always looking very glamorous. She would spend some time with the children then rush out again to be driven straight back to Heathrow."
Her second daughter, Samantha, (widely assumed to be the daughter of Peter Finch, but Bassey has never said) died shortly before her 21st birthday in mysterious circumstances. She had fallen from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol in what appeared to be suicide.
But Dame Shirley has always refused to accept that she might have killed herself, and says the pain of losing her is still absolutely fresh. Her new album is dedicated to Samantha.
Mark Novak, the son she adopted with second husband Sergio Novak, has been estranged from his famous mother for some time and has had trouble with drugs. He was recently heard of living in Spain.
In print she has castigated herself many times for being a bad mother who was never there for her children when they were growing up. She always put her work - and her determination to be a star - first.
"If there's anything I wish I could have changed in my life, it would be that I'd been around more when my children were younger," she said in an interview.
Posted: Sun 12 Jul 2009 20:03 Post subject: Re: Can racial definitions solve our race problems?
Quote:
Your idea that all descendants of "the African diaspora" (however you define it) should have some common political and/or social identity is unrealistic and stigmatizing. Have you noticed that many American whites are proud to tell everyone that they are part-Indian? Could it have something to do with the fact that no one expects them to surrender their white identity in order to claim it?
Posted: Sun 12 Jul 2009 21:24 Post subject: Re: Can racial definitions solve our race problems?
fwsweet wrote:
ImBack wrote:
*sick*. Someone hand me a bag quick!
Wrong forum. As I told Hargrove, value judgement is restricted to the two political advocacy forums. Consider yourself warned.
I had a bodily reaction to someone's behavior and you call it an opinion! I threw up all over my key-board. I'm the victim. I need reperations from the government for my pain and suffering and physical ailment.
Hahahhahahhaha. Okay. I know that was wrong. Damn 2 warnings.
'
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*sick*. Someone hand me a bag quick! 