Also, I don't think even our most open and loving leaders of the past were seeking assimilation. Integration and assimilation are not the same thing. The expectation that Black people should assimilate into White culture is an expectation that we will shed whatever cultural and social markers identify us as non-White and do everything in our power to emulate thier behavior. Integration anticipates a mixing of cultures together, not water any one down but to be able to live life side by side, with the ability to maintain your own cultural identity. In the past, integration was treated as the equivilent of assimilation and this is where many of our misguided broters and sisters who go into denial about their own racial identity learn to "act White" as some would say. Really, IMHO, it is an internalization of negative stereotypes that has mainfested as self loathing.
(none of this is to say I am necessarily a fan of integration either...there is a little Garvey-ite up in me...)
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