Quote:
Originally Posted by 4MYPEOPLE
I would tend to disagree with you. There are definitely "original" people and original cultures in certain areas. The Native Americans are the "original" people of this hemisphere. Their cultural identity today is mixed as well because of the infusion of White America later, however they certainly have cultural aspects, religious, foods that are their own. Not borrowed. And even the cultural aspects that are borrowed in certain cultures were borrowed waaay more than 300 years ago..so it has been INFUSED as their culture..stolen or not. Many cultures have thousands of years of history.
|
You say this because you don't know where the Native Americans derived some aspects of their culture from.
Both Native Americans and black Americans developed cultural tools through adaptation.
Black Americans had borrowed some aspects of our culture 200 years ago. Ever read about the activities of the slaves and free blacks during the Slave Era? These things have become infused as our culture...stolen or not. We would have thousands of years of history if we had not been sold from our native lands.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4MYPEOPLE
[I think its an unfortunate predicament of people who's identity has been stolen because of slavery, oppression etc.-therefore everything that makes up their identity is borrowed somewhat from SOOO many different cultures that the mix is often NOT embraced by the masses. And as I said earlier, this happened so recently (in a sociological sense) that it is not suprising to me that we do not have a firm "cultural" identity. I am sure in 500 years there will be one, that is formed of the borrowed culture, language, food, ideas, colors etc. but has become our own. right now, i dont think we are there yet.
|
Well, in a sociological sense it wasn't that recent and we do have a firm cultural identity. What we are looking at is the remnants of slavery and oppression, in addition to present-day social constructs. However our identity as black people is not that of an oppressed people. We have so much history and tradition outside of being enslaved and oppressed that we sell ourselves short by denying it. What happened/s to us makes us stronger and adds to our identity--it doesn't take it away or is the sole definer of us.
No need to wait 500 years. It's here now so people need to stop denying us what other groups have been afforded.