they're practically the SAME culture and co-opt black cuture!?
I think it’s so ironic how certain southern whites try to disassociate themselves from blacks when they have so much in common. They talk the same or similar, eat the same food, are church-goers and/or bible thumpers and listen to the same music (country is white people singing blues, blues is black people singing country- shur nuff, sho nuff, potato, pat-ah-to). Ok, sometimes country is just country and blues is just blues, but the roots of country can be traced back to the American slaves- both black slaves and Scotch-Irish immigrants are responsible for country- it’s a music that blacks and whites created together, yet people today no nothing of its roots and thing it’s just lily-white. And ignorant dolts think I’m trying to be “white” because I listen to country. The banjo is a black instrument- it’s originally an African instrument, the slaves brought it over. The first white people to sing country-type music were in blackface in minstrel shows. The show Hee-Haw is pretty much like an oldtime minstrel show except with white characters. White rednecks talk like black people, co-opt their dialect and slang and call it their own “redneck vocabulary”. I think it’s so sad how so many people have failed to notice all of this. People consider southern whites the “whitest” of them all when to me they really seem to be more “black” then other American whites. Trust me, I’m black and southern and based on experience southern whites have the same culture as I and seem more ethnically alike to me than northern blacks.
2006-09-17 17:46:43 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
Yeah I know these are stereotypes and this isn’t intended to be another one of those hyperPC “white guilt” rants but I hope you get the point I’m trying to make.
2006-09-17 17:47:06 · update #1
The answer to your big question is, some people just can not get past the race issue. You want to make it complicated when all it is, some white people can not get past their feelings towards African Americans. I use to think it was about education and that higher educated people knew better. However, I am very disappointed to say that is not the case. I have seen people with Dr. degree's act like morons when it came to race issues. Never the less I do see your point and I have wondered in the past why many whites do not see what you are talking about but they are so wrapped up in their definition of color difference they do not see the nose on their face.
2006-09-17 18:04:09 · answer #1 · answered by Shellback 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'll start by saying I am a northerner. I am also white. (I'll rephrase...I am a decedent of Irish...German...French...and Native American....and some more stuff.....)I lived in New York City for 18 years and moved to the south for college to experience a "new culture" within my own country. I'll agree Southerners have a very defined culture. I will however say that even within that culture there are sub-cultures. African American's, be it from the North or the South, have pulled various amounts of their culture into America. I think it's the same as Hispanics. There is such a strong need to capture bits of ones origin and ancestors origins in order to capture who we are as a person(people). I guess I'm not sure if in the end it really defines us, but rather it helps us define us. (Does that make sense?) So I guess I agree with you but I also think that everyone has something different to bring to the table.
In Brooklyn, surrounding Prospect Park there are numerous different cultures. In the midst to all this they all bring a new way to go about the day, celebrate, and morn. It's a beautiful thing and I think we should all grasp that concept and run with it. What fun would it be if we were all lumped into the same category with the same ways?
2006-09-17 18:05:38 · answer #2 · answered by sweet stuff000 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I live in the south and I moved here from the north. I think the problem in the south is on both sides of the racial line. Let me give an example to show what I mean: At my job I am 1 of maybe 20 white women in an establishment with over 1000 employees. I get comments all the time about how "We" do it this way, how do you do it? I feel as if in the south, all cultures seem to have a problem getting over the racial lines. I have 2 children and I'm a member of a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. With the help of my fellowship, I am raising my children to know that there is no difference between any of us. We are all humans on this earth. I am teaching my children that color, nationality, sexual orientation....none of it matters. I think I'm succeeding. One of my boys has a Spanish girlfriend, and the other has 3 of the most beautiful African-American girls you've ever seen chasing after him, he just doesn't want a girlfriend right now...lol.
I think the south has come a long way, but it still has a long journey ahead of it. It will come, give it time. I have to believe that or I would not live here.
2006-09-17 18:01:28 · answer #3 · answered by labryslvr 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Half of the white people may even have black blood in them. However, I am digressing..
It's like in the Middle East the Jewish and Arabs eat basically the same food, but they are trying to kill each other.
Actually the person who started country music (one of those Carters) went around to communities in the South with a black man to gather the sons. So country music has a big root in the black community.
Even the architecture is African. Architects know that the concept of porches came from Africa.
I know you were venting, but don't let them get to you. They are just trying to grab any reason to make themselves out to be better. You probably aren't getting more responses because your post is too long to hold most of the bigots' attention.
2006-09-17 19:53:51 · answer #4 · answered by Laughing Libra 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
As a so-called 'Yankee black' I have had the best success ignoring the type of people you mention, giving them a wide berth and staying away from them altogether. They have ignoramous issues, guilt issues, superiority/inferiority complex issues and sometimes just plain ISSUES. It's enough trying to deal with your own folx without adding on another five or six million backward individuals.
Just a thought.
2006-09-17 18:00:57 · answer #5 · answered by nora22000 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In my nutrition class in high school we had to bring a food from our ethnic background. My family is from the south, so I brought some fried taters. Everyone kept saying "That's black food, that's soul food, why'd you bring it?" No, it's southern food! Oh, hmm..seems like I went on my own little rant there. Anyway, I agree!
2006-09-17 17:51:38 · answer #6 · answered by i luv teh fishes 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Africans brought banjos with them to America? That's odd. Someone is ruthlessly sold by their own people into slavery, sent across the ocean, and yet they still remember to bring their musical instrument? Funny!
I do NOT speak in Ebonics. I'm actually quite proud of my grammatical abilities when it comes to speaking (and writing too, for that matter); I hate country music; I don't eat soul food--if you handed me a plate of collard greens, fried chicken livers and chitterlings, I'd probably vomit (seriously) on the plate; and I haven't been to church since I was a child (probably won't be going back any time soon, either) and I am not a bible thumper.
No dearie, I'm not black, and I don't profess to be. I'll continue to disassociate myself with black people for as long as I continue to live and breathe
2006-09-18 05:47:57 · answer #7 · answered by brevejunkie 7 · 2⤊ 4⤋
Congratulations on finishing your first year of college...
2006-09-17 17:58:41 · answer #8 · answered by sendmedaisies 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Racism....
2006-09-17 19:29:37 · answer #9 · answered by cub6ib9 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, don't get your point..
2006-09-17 17:54:23 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋