You know something i noticed the other day?
I was thinking about how we don't have as many black -fill in the professional position here-, and i thought about our history as black people in this country.
I thought to myself, "how is it that we don't do as well as anyone else?" We're obviously capable.
T had mentioned in another online venue how black history has been so diluted in this country and how it continues to be (ie the shit with the textbooks in Texas); she noted, accurately, that black people in this country have no cultural history of their own to give them any kind of pride. If you look at other people of color in this country, marginalized though we all may be, certain segments seem to view themselves differently (in general) than black people. Chinese-Americans, for example. A great deal of chinese people were brought here as slaves to build railroads in the west, but unlike African slaves, they retained their language and history, and were able to retain their culture living here. And that's just one example. By and large, all other POC have retained their language and culture, and have that history to fall back on to give them a sense of pride, countering whatever slurs might be thrown at them, or whatever marginalizations they may be subject to.
What do black people have? Technically (unlike the Haitians) we didn't even free ourselves.
All we have is about the last hundred or so years as free people, trying to build a culture, and faced with oppression, marginalization, hate, Jim Crow... The civil rights laws in this country are not even fifty years old. In the face of the Chinese-American example, who have thousands of years of conquest and unity under their belts... how can our history measure up to that?
So when we're discriminated against, or are insulted, or are told that we can't, as a PEOPLE, ever amount to anything (whether in actual words or in implication), the most we have to go on is the psuedo knowledge that once upon a time we were a proud race of people, but there's nothing solid. I mean, i don't know where my family is from originally. What tribe, country... i'm sure they are some record somewhere, but i doubt that they have been kept in someplace like the library of congress. Lets face it, slavery is a blight on american history and they're trying to erase it (as evidenced again, by the text book shit in Texas).
Can you imagine what kind of uproar there would be if suddenly, EVERY black person KNEW where they were originally from, and what family stole them?
So when i think about the examples that Eve would have to look up to in this country... Who are the more famous black people here? They're mostly sports stars and entertainers, and if you look at our history, there are more entertainers than anything else. And when that's the only history you know (or that's readily available), that's all you think you can do, because that's the only context you have.
Like, who's a famous black animator? I don't know the name of a single black animator who's done anthing significant. I mean, the only animators i can look to for inspiration are white, Japanese, and Korean. What black person started a computer company that's become one of the standards for OS's the world over? The only people i can think of at ALL are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
And it's not that we can't do it. Obviously. We absolutely can. But the same eductional and societal systems that brought us Bill gates and Steve Jobs also systematically pushed down someone who would have been their black counterparts, because those people was too poor and didn't have the same access or whatever. Those systems have evolved, but the playing field is not anywhere near even enough, and the negativity just keeps perpetuating. Plus, if a government decided to, say, pour loads of tax money into fixing public schools in poor areas, which are predominantly black, it would be called favoritism (or socialism, or communism) or some such nonsense, when it's actually just balancing the scales. Of course there are other considerations (like libraries and public safety) as well, but that's for another post.
Point is, i want my daughter to have people to look up to, and i want at least some of them to be black, and i would like some of said black people NOT to be entertainers and sports stars, but the problem is that these examples are not readily available to us, unlike white people who see examples of white accomplishment in various fields ALL THE TIME.
It's going to get tiring when the majority of my responses are "you could be the first black -whatever white people have done for years now.-"
I thought to myself, "how is it that we don't do as well as anyone else?" We're obviously capable.
T had mentioned in another online venue how black history has been so diluted in this country and how it continues to be (ie the shit with the textbooks in Texas); she noted, accurately, that black people in this country have no cultural history of their own to give them any kind of pride. If you look at other people of color in this country, marginalized though we all may be, certain segments seem to view themselves differently (in general) than black people. Chinese-Americans, for example. A great deal of chinese people were brought here as slaves to build railroads in the west, but unlike African slaves, they retained their language and history, and were able to retain their culture living here. And that's just one example. By and large, all other POC have retained their language and culture, and have that history to fall back on to give them a sense of pride, countering whatever slurs might be thrown at them, or whatever marginalizations they may be subject to.
What do black people have? Technically (unlike the Haitians) we didn't even free ourselves.
All we have is about the last hundred or so years as free people, trying to build a culture, and faced with oppression, marginalization, hate, Jim Crow... The civil rights laws in this country are not even fifty years old. In the face of the Chinese-American example, who have thousands of years of conquest and unity under their belts... how can our history measure up to that?
So when we're discriminated against, or are insulted, or are told that we can't, as a PEOPLE, ever amount to anything (whether in actual words or in implication), the most we have to go on is the psuedo knowledge that once upon a time we were a proud race of people, but there's nothing solid. I mean, i don't know where my family is from originally. What tribe, country... i'm sure they are some record somewhere, but i doubt that they have been kept in someplace like the library of congress. Lets face it, slavery is a blight on american history and they're trying to erase it (as evidenced again, by the text book shit in Texas).
Can you imagine what kind of uproar there would be if suddenly, EVERY black person KNEW where they were originally from, and what family stole them?
So when i think about the examples that Eve would have to look up to in this country... Who are the more famous black people here? They're mostly sports stars and entertainers, and if you look at our history, there are more entertainers than anything else. And when that's the only history you know (or that's readily available), that's all you think you can do, because that's the only context you have.
Like, who's a famous black animator? I don't know the name of a single black animator who's done anthing significant. I mean, the only animators i can look to for inspiration are white, Japanese, and Korean. What black person started a computer company that's become one of the standards for OS's the world over? The only people i can think of at ALL are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
And it's not that we can't do it. Obviously. We absolutely can. But the same eductional and societal systems that brought us Bill gates and Steve Jobs also systematically pushed down someone who would have been their black counterparts, because those people was too poor and didn't have the same access or whatever. Those systems have evolved, but the playing field is not anywhere near even enough, and the negativity just keeps perpetuating. Plus, if a government decided to, say, pour loads of tax money into fixing public schools in poor areas, which are predominantly black, it would be called favoritism (or socialism, or communism) or some such nonsense, when it's actually just balancing the scales. Of course there are other considerations (like libraries and public safety) as well, but that's for another post.
Point is, i want my daughter to have people to look up to, and i want at least some of them to be black, and i would like some of said black people NOT to be entertainers and sports stars, but the problem is that these examples are not readily available to us, unlike white people who see examples of white accomplishment in various fields ALL THE TIME.
It's going to get tiring when the majority of my responses are "you could be the first black -whatever white people have done for years now.-"