[librasoul22]

Originally posted by lovelyivy84
I have reservations about a few points on this list.

There is this idea in some circles that there is some mythic African culture. Africa is a continent, and as such has MYRIAD cultures. What do you say is this "African culture"? Is it Ethiopian? Egyptian? Nigerian? One of the hundreds of tribes?

What culture have WE lost? How do WE find this mythic culture? There were and are a million of them! We shouldn't identify with them because we're black, but if there is something that appeals to us spiritually within them.

It is my humble opinion, just judging by the people with whom I have come in contact that there really is NO common thread between blacks. The closest you can get is the fact that somone consciously self-identifies as black. We don't always have the same features, the same economic background, the same culture, or really ANYTHING in common except that we see ourselves as part of some sort of community. Whether that is based on an African identity or not is up to the individual.

Just because someone makes the decision that African culture is not what they want, or what makes them happy, what right have any of us to judge them? I firmly believe in the ideal of a black community, but a lot of people don't, for various reasons, some of them quite understandable.

This just sounds like essentialism, and I think that's a door that shouldn't be opened. I am NOT African, I am if ANYTHING Jamaican-American. That is my culture, that is what raised me and I love it. I have little allegiance to some idea of an African self-identity because I don't need it to feel like I have a community, or some obligation to my community.

Man, I must say, this has been one of the most thought-provokng posts in some time.