In response to:
With respect, no one would question that, but do you not identify with your ethic origins when listening to the music of your choice?
And / or, has your generation lost its passion? Who would deny Armstrong, Cole, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith and the like, their place in the cultural history of your country.
I totally disagree with the whole ideology of ‘ethnic origins’.
I think it terms of humanity.
I can identify with all of human suffering as well as all human triumphs across all races.
I am not ‘white’. I am human! Neither am I an American. I am an Earthling!
Unfortunately, when living on earth you necessarily need to be a citizen of some country for economic reasons otherwise you’d be viewed as a vagrant and not be able to live very well at all. But there’s really no reason to identify with a particular race.
Can you honestly say that you can’t identify with people who have suffered inhumane treatment just because you never suffered it yourself?
Do you really believe that a person has to actually be black to know what slavery was like?
The black descents of those slaves have absolutely nor more direct experience with slavery than any white person does. Why should anyone believe that they have more of a handle on what it must have been like to experience it? Just because they are the same race as those who did doesn’t mean that they should have any more insight into an experience that they never had.
I don’t buy into the way of thinking that you are implying here at all. In fact, to me, that way of thinking only goes to feed prejudice feelings and racial divides where there shouldn’t be any at all.
I actually see that way of thinking almost as a purposeful preservation and avocation of racism.
No. I don't believe that a black person who has never experienced slavery can identify with it anymore (or any less) than I can. Why should they be able to?
Do you think that black people still bear and endure the wounds of the chains of slavery, in their m: click here to read the entire thread »