[AXJules]

Originally posted by Sistermadly
Consisder yourself lucky. They're terms that were brought into the African American/Africana studies lexicon by Dr. Marimba (Richards) Ani, in her book Yurugu. In a nutshell, the asili represents culturally structured thought. Ani would say that the idea of European cultural supremacy is an example of the Caucasian/European asili. The utamawazo is the act/state of putting the asili into action. It's how a culture -- European, African, or otherwise -- structures its collective thought patterns and influences the culture so that all within it adhere to it.

If you're not a student of philosophy, they're kind of dense concepts. Even if you are a student of philosophy, it's some chewy stuff.



ktsnake, are you sure you're not a closet Liberal? Seriously - this is probably one of the better responses I've seen to this whole issue about "their" issues versus "our" issues. If you're human, it's your concern. If you're a citizen of the world (or even a Citizen of the United States), you should be concerned that there are more African American men in prison than in University -- no matter what your skin color/race. I should be just as concerned about the poor whites in Appalachia as I am about the poor blacks in public housing projects.



Mine too. I'm not blind enough to say that we can ignore the effects of history and economic/social discrimination, but dammit -- we're (meaning Black Americans) are decendants of people who chose to survive. We're stronger than we realize - and that's what I get out of messages like Cosby's and others. We need to start looking in the mirror and asking ourselves what we can do to better our individual -- and thus, our collective --realities. Like MJ said, start with the man in the mirror and ask him to make that change.

I don't really have much to add, just that I think yours was an excellent post.