Black people have no culture. Everything is borrowed. Nothing inherent, nothing original. There is no belief system. No traditions, no culture. No culture means no heritage. Don’t even mention slavery and Martin Luther King. There are no traditions, no basis for an organized system, no tangible history, culture or rituals younger generations can hold to, base their identities and found themselves. Nothing. Who is a black man? What is a black woman? What is their soul? Any answers? You certainly didn’t have them. I wasn’t expecting any. What should young black men model themselves after? Who portrays the ideal black woman? Nicki Minaj, Patty Labelle, Janet Jackson, Maya Angelou, Denise Huxtable, no she is not black enough, tainted mulatto, there, the premise of an African-American community. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. Have Black preachers tackled these questions in churches amidst the effervescent display in churches… “catching of the holy Ghost”? What does the black community pride itself as the foundation of its race?

As Joe Wilburn says Everyone knows that a house with a faulty foundation is a house in serious trouble. In the midst of a storm or a trembling of the ground there is great danger to the house. It may shake violently. What was once a small crack may dramatically increase in size. The house may shift in one direction or another. Any of these occurrences means danger for the residents. The house is no longer safe. Is it the fault of the wind or the tremor that the house is in peril? Or is it the fault of whatever made the foundation faulty to begin with? This is a question worth considering when we look at conflict within our lives and that within the community. When the race turns away from the ancestry and bondage from whence we came, the foundation becomes weak and cracks. The tragedy is that most often this is insidious and we don’t even realize that it has happened. Those who can see the cracks in the foundation raise appeals for it to be fixed. Sadly, these are often ignored.

Where and how does the black young woman find the depth and strength to boldly assert her soul is black? In our contemporary times, the identities and terminologies for black communities has changed as circumstances have. Is it rationalized that a black man is defined by the clothes he wears, and if so, what is black? A bow tie, skinny jeans, or baggy jeans? Is the media’s classification (which black people have adopted as a principal culture-defining means), of black women as predominant grossly overweight loud obnoxious disciplinarians (Madea) correct, and if so, is Hallie Berry a sell out? Booker T Washington or WEB Dubois, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, who exemplified the quintessential black man? Hill Harper, Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburn, Morgan Freeman, Steve Harvey, Tupac Shakur, or Sean Combs, which of these men do we point to young black men as heroes of the black community?
Perplexed? You should be. There is no indignity in the black community.Blackness fails at every level in both the historical and political context. However, Africans, are the natural people of Africa: The hair, the skin, are all specific adaptations to living in the African landscape. The motherland of these adaptations and the people’s history is Africa; hence the relevance of the name. Escaping race is clearly a luxury for those who have already ascended to become the dominant race-class, for everyone else, race engagement is a consequence of that domination. So the appreciation or relevance of Africaness is located in the face of a multi-racial world and the primary function of defining African identity is first and foremost an exercise in political self-interest. Kimani Nehusi, a progressive African academic at University of East London, sums it up in his statement “If we are unclear about identity, we will be unclear about everything else”. And black people wonder why our sons have gone astray? What in the world is “mindless behavior” (a music group), I held my head high in shame when I saw that, and an older black man (21 and over) stood by, and encouraged these young men to continue in the already dilapidated portrayal of black people in the media. I spit in shame. The black community is pathetic. Black women have a habit of complaining about how black men are disrespectful. If your mother don’t correct you who will? Ciara is a black woman, did anyone see her telling the young boys to speak with some respect to black women, no, she grooved her backside with the young boys gyrating over mad b*ches they pulls. Lost cause? Maybe. It is crucial to note that the marginalized black woman listens to the same lyrics she, professes to be degrading. Mindless cyclical hypocrisy. For this black community to survive there must be an establishment of a patriarchal system of strong men, not males.

Being African or being of African heritage are different paradigms, which often, but not always mean the same thing. But every African is of African heritage, while not every person with African heritage is considered African. You can be from Africa (many Arabs, etc) but that doesn’t satisfy being African in terms of self-identity; and we must deal with the two realities. But if someone is of African heritage and denies being African how does it affect their racial classification, since what you are is what you are. The late Sadat was of African ancestry but dis-identifies with being African. The first condition is factual based on his ancestry – that cannot change. The 2nd is subjective, however he does fit
into the diverse box that hugs being physically African i.e. Sedat looked no different from most Sudanese or Ethiopians. Historically people in the Americas have always denied being African, this doesn’t not alter the fact that they are an African people. Now if someone identifies with being African but are not genetically attached to native Africans then they are not African. The present black community lives in a borrowed culture. What is black music – Hip-hop? :Who invented hip-hop; Jazz, Blues, African drumbeats or chants -; what is black food – who concocted soul food -; what is black dressing – is it the ankra, baggy jeans, durag or good ol’ skinny jeans – ; what is black language – Ebonics, AAVE, or any other slur from Atlanta and Alabama? What is black religion – loud baptist churches, voodoo, musical gospels? What is black thought – pro black activism, literary essays or freestyle rhyming. Where is the black home – the south, a ghetto or a house with a black soul?

The debate of Africaness must shift; expand, refine itself, but all the while keeping itself anchored in a fundamental link to the historical Africaness. The 21st century definition of African identity is expanding to include new values, which embed the best African characteristics therefore servicing stronger Pan-African identities. Enriching the paradigm and sourcing from the diverse and complex forms of the global African cultural personality. Africans must be intelligent and live in a world where they are politically astute to broader interest. Outside interest for a long time realized that the first and most sophisticated line of attack is to challenge the concepts which unify African people. i.e. African identity.

Black is not a racial family, an ethnic group or a super-ethnic group. If there are a black or Black people then where do “black” people come form? Since Asians come from Asia, Indians from India (all makes perfect logically sense). So where do Black people come from? Blackia, Negroland or Blackistan following the obvious naming convention. So if they do not come from these fictitious places and we find that so-called Black people come from Africa (at some time in our recent history) then why not just call them Africans? What is the purpose of Blackness? African and black are not interchangeable just as Dark continent and Africa are not. Self-determination allows a people to re-examine definitions and sculpt them to their reality.

The debate of Africaness must shift; expand, refine itself, but all the while keeping itself anchored in a fundamental link to the historical Africaness. The 21st century definition of African identity is expanding to include new values, which embed the best African characteristics therefore servicing stronger Pan-African identities. Enriching the paradigm and sourcing from the diverse and complex forms of the global African cultural personality.

Africa is born in us that is why we are Africans, not because we are born in Africa.

 

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