The Black Experience in America is Unique
The Black Experience in America is Unique
By Peter I. Rose
Unique Americans
The black experience in America is unique—it has no real parallel. And black Americans are unique. Paradoxically, blacks may well be at once the most estranged and the least foreign of all the citizens: most estranged because of their special history, which began in subjugation, continued in separation, and persists to this day under various forms of segregation; least foreign because, ironically, having been cut off from their native roots, they had few guides but those of the master and his agents. This is not to say no “Africanisms” survived. Of course they did. Still, most black Americans, for good or ill, were imbued with many of the same goals and aspirations of those of the dominant group. Many of their cultural traits were similar too.
What they said and what they ate, what they believed and, in some ways, the way they worshiped, were heavily southern Americana. And so with their names. And in these names one finds the true paradox of being both a part of and apart from society. Names are labels by which others know you. Black people’s names are those of whites, usually white masters. It is little wonder that one of the symbolic gestures in the new search to assert both self-hood and people-hood by young blacks is to cast off their “slave names” and to adopt African ones—or simply to call oneself “X.”
By and large this assertion did not come about until quite recently. For years black people—named Smith and Jones and Brown and Washington—quested often the American Dream and sought to take their place with whites. For many, the venture proved quixotic. Some succeeded, however, and became black equivalents of the white nouveaux riches, with all the material trappings to indicate having arrived. Others eschewed such life styles and sought other benefits in the dominant society, especially through higher education and work in the professions. They often found smoldering bitterness and exacerbated doubts about the rightness of seeking to integrate in the first place.
They sometimes proved more akin to the Arabs in French Algeria than the Italians or Jews or Irish-Americans with whom they were so often compared. As Raymond Aron points out:
The French never established an integrated society in Algeria. Ironically, the young Algerians who came closest to being French, by education and training, were usually the most hostile. But this is understandable, because they were the most sensitive to their rejection by the French ruling class.
Persistent relegation to inferior status and the internalization of values regarded as most typically American (such as the idea of individual achievement through hark work) have led, especially in recent years, to a different sort of response on the parts of blacks compared with members of most other American ethnic groups. Some began to argue that the more they learned about the wider society and its members’ unwillingness to honor its own lofty ideals, the less they should encourage their “brothers” and “sisters” to accept its basic tenets. Since whites appeared eager to maintain their position of preeminence, many blacks began saying that integration was, in fact, highly dysfunctional for blacks—just as it was in Algiers.
These observations are not to suggest that all social scientists who see blacks as the latest immigrants are white supremacists. But they may be quite naïve in assuming that admitting black children to white schools, opening neighborhoods, saying, in effect, “You’re as good as I a,” will solve the problem. Assimilation may have been the goal at one time but it is being severely challenged (see Chapter Seven).
http://www.nathanielturner.com/blackexperi...
By Peter I. Rose
Unique Americans
The black experience in America is unique—it has no real parallel. And black Americans are unique. Paradoxically, blacks may well be at once the most estranged and the least foreign of all the citizens: most estranged because of their special history, which began in subjugation, continued in separation, and persists to this day under various forms of segregation; least foreign because, ironically, having been cut off from their native roots, they had few guides but those of the master and his agents. This is not to say no “Africanisms” survived. Of course they did. Still, most black Americans, for good or ill, were imbued with many of the same goals and aspirations of those of the dominant group. Many of their cultural traits were similar too.
What they said and what they ate, what they believed and, in some ways, the way they worshiped, were heavily southern Americana. And so with their names. And in these names one finds the true paradox of being both a part of and apart from society. Names are labels by which others know you. Black people’s names are those of whites, usually white masters. It is little wonder that one of the symbolic gestures in the new search to assert both self-hood and people-hood by young blacks is to cast off their “slave names” and to adopt African ones—or simply to call oneself “X.”
By and large this assertion did not come about until quite recently. For years black people—named Smith and Jones and Brown and Washington—quested often the American Dream and sought to take their place with whites. For many, the venture proved quixotic. Some succeeded, however, and became black equivalents of the white nouveaux riches, with all the material trappings to indicate having arrived. Others eschewed such life styles and sought other benefits in the dominant society, especially through higher education and work in the professions. They often found smoldering bitterness and exacerbated doubts about the rightness of seeking to integrate in the first place.
They sometimes proved more akin to the Arabs in French Algeria than the Italians or Jews or Irish-Americans with whom they were so often compared. As Raymond Aron points out:
The French never established an integrated society in Algeria. Ironically, the young Algerians who came closest to being French, by education and training, were usually the most hostile. But this is understandable, because they were the most sensitive to their rejection by the French ruling class.
Persistent relegation to inferior status and the internalization of values regarded as most typically American (such as the idea of individual achievement through hark work) have led, especially in recent years, to a different sort of response on the parts of blacks compared with members of most other American ethnic groups. Some began to argue that the more they learned about the wider society and its members’ unwillingness to honor its own lofty ideals, the less they should encourage their “brothers” and “sisters” to accept its basic tenets. Since whites appeared eager to maintain their position of preeminence, many blacks began saying that integration was, in fact, highly dysfunctional for blacks—just as it was in Algiers.
These observations are not to suggest that all social scientists who see blacks as the latest immigrants are white supremacists. But they may be quite naïve in assuming that admitting black children to white schools, opening neighborhoods, saying, in effect, “You’re as good as I a,” will solve the problem. Assimilation may have been the goal at one time but it is being severely challenged (see Chapter Seven).
http://www.nathanielturner.com/blackexperi...
Hello Steve,
Your blog is pure nonsense. I will not allow Black Americans who are my people to be tied up in your irrational nonsense. Since you support Peter I Rose, his rhetoric and nonsense is the same as your rhetoric and nonsense
Black Americans who are descendents of slaves will become a sovereign people or have complete independence on a portion of this continent that we could call our very own country with borders.
The time has come that black Americans will have their hands on the helm of their own destiny.
Black Americans must come to brave the natural obstacles that nature hurls at every sovereign people and country to be sovereign.
Black Americans must experience that close quarter interacting with each other. To have such a relationship we develop our own civilization, culture and other qualities we could never obtain through your nonsense.
Black Americans must be sovereign free and will be sovereign free. When this happens then Black Americans could interact with White America and any other race because we will have our own. Do you understand where I am coming from Steve?
I am the way for Black Americans as Moses was the way for the Hebrew people. God inspired Moses with a permanent solution of the Exodus. Likewise, God have inspired me with a permanent solution of Sovereignty for Black Americans who are descendents of slaves on a portion of this continent that we could call our very own country with borders.
Tell me what you think.