[Phasad1913]

I think that a lot of you who have posted are making too light of and/or are glossing over an issue that is much more deep and complex. Many of you used terms such as rediculous and ludicrous to describe the sentiment that achievement and academic success, among other things, equal acting white. Of course it is. However, the root of the sentiment has more to do with resentment and a rejection of the OVERALL white ways of life that black people have had to, or actually were forced to adhere to over the past centuries in this country. It isn't just being academically successful. When pretty much any and everything that is unique to your culture and who you are as a group has been shunned and down-right used against you by your own country and the majority population for the whole of the existence of the group in the country, the group, in general internalizes, as the article (if you want to call it that) mentioned, and resents those who shun.

When Kanye West made his comments about Bush during Katrina, I noticed on Fox News that the "commentators" were putting him down, or course, and one of them said "why are we even talking about anything that some rapper said anyway". I got really heated at that because I wondered, what does his being a rapper have to do with the legitimacy of his feelings on issues? Is he not an American citizen who has an opinion, while harsh and not what conservative Bush lover's wanted to hear" and out of anger spoke on it? That's what I mean by something being unique to our culture being dismissed by those of another culture. One area of rap is based on negativism, gangster rap. Not the entire area of music. But, those who are ignorant about rap and our culture completely dismiss it and dismiss those who proudly embrace it. Stuff like that causes resentment and instead of people bowing down to that kind of shunning and dismissal or belittling of things that mean something to us, people react differently.

I've said this before on this message board: What you have have in America are two totally different cultures and basically, two different countries functioning simultaneously. Often, the two never even really coincide. It's a result of centuries of abuse and mistreatment from the majority against the minority. That's the truth. The result is, and it was always inevitable, that the minority harbors a lot of resentment, especially when the lasting effects are felt everyday. So, when you hear young people acting out though their musical expressions, speech patterns, and what many whites have expressed to me at times, just plain old meaness toward them, that's a manifestation of the deep-rooted anger that many of us feel. It's just the way it is. I think that a lot of whites simply do not understand this and frankly do not have to try because, as it has always been here in America, they are in the majority, so their ways of life, their ways of looking at things, are always going to permeate throughout the society so those who are not in the majority who do not care to adopt those ways and are tired of being made to feel different throught the lack of attention and awareness based on who THEY are are naturally going to "rebell" in various ways and go against the grain.

Its a difficult phenomenon to articulate, but its dicussed quite often so I know what it is I'm TRYING to say. If there is anyone else who can jump in and add soemthing to make my point more clearly, feel free.