Are we too far gone as a people???

[darkshadow4563]

Originally Posted by Jewels0479

These thoughts run through my head from time to time as I go about my life and I always tell myself that it's a struggle and I have to do my part but sometimes I look around at "us" and an overwhelming feeling of dread comes over me. I'm feeling particularly dispondent today because of some things that I've seen recently. I'd thought I'd throw this out here and see what you guys think....

First, people are always looking crazy when a black person says that they don’t truly feel American. Like just because they were forced to give us our freedom in order to win the Civil War and then forced again by worldwide media attention to stop lynching us (so often) and give us equal rights a mere 40 years ago we’re supposed to forget about the struggle we went through for it and act like it’s all good. That would just be foolish. While we are Americans in the sense that this is the only home that many of us have known for generations, we are still looked upon and treated as second rate citizens by many of those in power.

This is absolutely true. For the most part, in order to succeed in America, you have to be accepted by white people. We can go to school and better ourselves but many of us don't. It's all about the short term goal. We don't think about tomorrow. We seldom leave anything to our children so we are constantly starting over in a sense and never building upon. When we do have it, we don't use to uplift others. We don't use it to make a change.


Second, while I stand firmly behind what I just wrote, I have to say that some BLACK PEOPLE are just as bad as biggots because we tear down our own just like the white man taught us to do hundreds of years ago. While we face opposition both real and perceived in white america, we are our own worst enemies. We kill each other daily for no reason at all, we have demeaned one another so much so that when we do it now, there is little or no acknowledgement of it's detrimental impact on our image of ourselves. It's expected and accepted by us and society. Listen to the music on the radio today. Kids, 15, 16 years old talking about "superman that hoe" and we all know what that really means by now. That is unacceptable. We should be outraged but instead we just shake our heads, momentarily appauled, and keep right on bouncing to the music because we like the beat. While we are so busy trying to preserve our urban edge and coolness, we forget that we still live in the real world where people are looking at what we say and do on TV and in music (and on the internet) and taking that as our contribution to society. They will judge us no matter what we do but giving them justifiable reason to by acting ignorant and then backing ignorance with a foolish resignation to continue “keeping it real” is old and hasn’t helped us collectively get anywhere, ever.

You know, I think we are the only group of individuals that will allow any and everything to come into our community. Any and everything is acceptable to us. We can't see that is constantly dividing us as a race. We don't care what we expose our young to. It's like so many of us don't have the mental capability to understand that this impacts our children in so many ways. We don't stand up for anything for very long. We are viewed as being sex crazed, materialistic, dumb and with very little moral value. To be honest, our actions in so many ways depict just that. How can we get mad at the white man? We're doing this to ourselves. No pride.


With that said I have a few questions.....


Do we feel somewhat disenfranchised for the reasons I've stated in my first point or do we perpetuate the divide with our own insecurity and inability to rise above our circumstances because we're too busy playing the victim?


When are we going to learn that what we think, speak, and perpetuate is what we are perceived as, what we ultimately become and what we teach our children to become?

Honestly, are we ever going to learn to respect ourselves so that others will also respect us and take us seriously as a people?

I think I did this wrong but I can't tell without a preview

[Jewels0479]

Originally Posted by umbrarchist

Go to school and pay to be told what to think not encouraged to actually think.

Get a higher salary to buy more expensive clothes to wear to work. This makes sense? When have you heard an economist say accounting should be mandatory in the schools? Shouldn't that make sense under CAPITALISM? No the workers are supposed to be dumb consumers running on a treadmill.

But I don't hear socialists or communists suggesting mandatory accounting either.

umbra

The fact that you are aware that the school system tells you what to think instead of encouraging you to think for yourself gives you an advantage over the system. The conclusion that I'm drawing from your comment (and please tell me if I'm wrong) is that there is no point in getting an education because it will make you a robot in this capitalistic society. But how is not being able to compete going to help better our people? If you think that children need to be taught accounting, then teach your children accounting, encourage free thought and critical thinking. Take back your POWER. Once you have studied whatever it is that this capitalistic society has deemed important and necessary, open a book on your own and gain the knowledge that you believe will empower you and your cause. Then, once you get that piece of paper that they think means that you are smart and worthy in society, go about the business of making the changes that you see as necessary in the world. I think that we are forgetting that we have control over our own destinies. If anything, that is what "the powers that be" rely on.

[Jewels0479]

Thanks Darkshadow, I fully agree with your comments about what we allow into our community and how indifferent we are to what we expose our children to and the images that we ourselves perpetuate. Then we wonder why we can't get any respect. We don't respect ourselves. I LOVE black people and I'll never stop but sometimes I am so embarrassed and disappointed in us. We've got to do better, that's the bottom line.

[umbrarchist]

The conclusion that I'm drawing from your comment (and please tell me if I'm wrong) is that there is no point in getting an education because it will make you a robot in this capitalistic society. But how is not being able to compete going to help better our people?

It isn't competition it is WAR.

Getting credentials and getting an education are two different things.

Getting credentials is part of dealing with the war in which the enemy has more control. Just don't expect the so called education they dish out to be adequate.

It is 39 years after the moon landing. Do automobiles do all that much that they didn't do before the moon landing? The music systems are better and they have GPS but did people get lost all that much without GPS? Is it just a gimmick?

John Kenneth Galbraith was talking about the planned obsolescence of cars in 1959. Have you heard economists saying much about it in the last 20 years? Do the laws of physics change style every year? So what good are most of the changes? If we are educated to get jobs and we get the jobs to make money then why not mandatory accounting and financial management? Are we just supposed to know enough to be used?

Amazon.com: The screwing of the average man: David Hapgood: Books

um

[Jewels0479]

Umbra, I don't understand. What exactly is the point that you are making about automobiles? We should have flying cars by now or ones that run on something more cost effective and environmetally friendly than gasoline? Please tell me what that has to do with black people taking responibility for their actions and betterig themselves.

[Istlota]

Originally Posted by umbrarchist

I tried getting a Black woman to read a book by Octavia Butler. She gave it back. Said it was too weird. She even disliked the cover.

If I had to pick one of Octavia Butler's books as her best, it would be Wild Seed. It is science-fiction, but the premise is also as Afrikan as you can get with all sorts of hidden messages for those who pay close attention.

All of mankind is being oppressed by a soulless being [Yurugu?] who has the capability to destroy the souls of other people and take possession of their bodies [Agent Smith?].

The story begins in the early days of the Maafa when the soulless antagonist, Doro, while searching for human "seed" on the African continent, finds a black woman, Anyanwu, who has special abilities of her own --- to heal, to reshape her body into any form she wishes, and to live forever. The story concludes with a final showdown in the current age when, unlike other science-fiction novels, this time the savior of the world, if there is to be one, must be a black woman instead of a white man.

The sequel, "Mind of My Mind", chronicles the experiences of one of Anyanwu's descendants, Mary, who has inherited some rather unique and powerful abilities of her own.

[umbrarchist]

Originally Posted by Jewels0479

Umbra, I don't understand. What exactly is the point that you are making about automobiles? We should have flying cars by now or ones that run on something more cost effective and environmetally friendly than gasoline? Please tell me what that has to do with black people taking responibility for their actions and betterig themselves.

This has to to with most technologies but cars are the most egregious example.

Technology and the implementation of technology are two different things.

Looking at it historically cars appeared before propeller driven airplanes so cars are an easier technology than planes. The aerodynamics of planes is obviously more critical since air is what holds them up and they fall out of the sky if the engines fail. But planes with propellers were flying at 400+ mph in World War II. I wouldn't want to be on the road with most people if they were trying to do over 100 mph. Faster cars would not be better just because most people couldn't handle them and my mother tells me to slow down if I am doing over 65.

Most of the variations in cars are just useless styling changes that make the cars more expensive and create repair problems. The cars lose 20 - 30% in depreciation in the first year mostly because of these RIDICULOUS variations in styling. But that means we borrow MORE MONEY from the White people to buy the cars and pay them more interest and lose it in DEPRECIATION.. That also makes the insurance more expensive. Then the White economists don't talk about the total depreciation lost on the cars. It is not like just Black people are scammed by this nonsense.

There have been 200,00,000+ cars in the US since 1995. At $1,500 in depreciation per yer per car that comes to THREE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR in depreciation. Now how do all of these White economists manage to not talk about that every year for decades? So shouldn't we be letting each other know about such things?

The problem is all these people that LOVE cars.

umbra

[nycbrotha]

There are no true Black institutions that reinforce our culture. We are left at the mercy of White peoples values which express it's self through the media, schools, job markets, and every other arena. Of course we're gone if our institutions and businesses are not in place.

[umbrarchist]

Originally Posted by Istlota

If I had to pick one of Octavia Butler's books as her best, it would be Wild Seed.

All of mankind is being oppressed by a soulless being [Yurugu?] who has the capability to destroy the souls of other people and take possession of their bodies [Agent Smith?].

I haven't read a lot of her stuff but of what I have read I would pick Wild Seed as the best also.

I never thought of the similarity to Agent Smith.

We are Euroborg.

You will be assimilated.



Resistance is Futile!

um

PS - I decided Europeans were the Borg of planet Earth long ago.

[DBlack]

Originally Posted by Jewels0479

I'm still struggling with this. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Are you white? do you have white in your family? ...curious...