How can someone be proud of their race, something they had absolutely nothing to do with?

Question

When you hear " White power" or "Black power" or stuff like that, it always amazes me because that doesn't make any sense. It's like saying " Tall power" or "Medium Weight power"...you didn't contribute anything, had no say or choice in the matter.
Now race and culture is different. If you're Irish, Italian, Brazilian or Zimbabwean, you can be proud of the accomplishments or achievements of your family, ancestors and history.That's understandable and you can also argue that you're contributing.
I can understand African Americans though because I define them more of a culture than a race. I mean, after all, they don't know where they came from but their history is similar once they were in the US. And there's usually a big cultural difference between an African American and an African even though they're all black.

princess temptress,

I understand what you mean. But my question to you is " Is Black synonymous with African?"
If you've met someone from Africa, you can sometimes even go as far as saying that you have more in common with a "white American" than someone from Senegal or something.
Same goes for a white American with some dude from Belgium.

Answer 1

There's really no point to be proud of anything that you personally weren't responsible for. But if you had a cousin that discovered the cure for cancer, wouldn't you be proud of that? Some people feel proud when someone of the same racial or ethnic background as them accomplishes something great. Are you saying that it's okay to be proud to be an African-American, but it isn't okay to be proud of your "blackness"? Black Americans ancestors originally came from West Africa.

Answer 2

There is no african americans, you are either an african or an american. If you where born here you are an american, with african heritage. But not all blacks came from africa, so some need to check their heritage to make sure. I wish everyone would forget about race and concentrate on the person. Forget about the outside and look at the inside.

Answer 3

That is an important issue you are talking about. Race, like I've said before, had almost come to the point of being an accusation. It felt as though somebody had to pay for coming out black in colour or different from the rest. We have always known that we don't choose our parents and neither did they choose theirs. So to torment somebody for a colour or anything that might be different is a show of a problem that is very deep with the person that is doing it.

The African Americans know that they came from somewhere in Africa. That is an established and well known fact. Now during the last two years people I've got to know have made comments to me like, "You can't say you are from Africa. You have to specify which country. Africa is a very large continent with many different cultures. It's like comparing Eastern Europe to Western Europe". I've answered them that "I understand that fact but, like many Africans, I've always passed for black in my neighbourhood, at school, on the subway, everywhere". Your topic is also good for the people who often like to generalise when it suits the situation or argument at hand. The result of that is that the contradictions sometimes are too much to handle. Some of the things that have been generalised before is IQ, testosterone levels, criminaltiy, you name it. These things have known no continent or area, people have been lumped up on grounds of colour i.e. black ,white, yellow, red or anything you might like to call it. This means that your type of argument becomes convenient for people during certain situations and inconvenient in others. There's alot of work to be done. I have also heard many upset people tell black Americans, "we'll send you back to Africa (our created hell)".

I think individuals, who make up what we call society, have been largely responsible for creating greater divides among people through the language/words they have chosen to use, as well as actions. In so doing they have also brought other people closer together. Whenever people have been punished for colour it has been justified by saying that they lack the mental capacity to create better societies for themselves, they are mentally challenged, they sleep around too much etc. etc. etc. We know that the genes make up a person and who they are. Yet generalisations have been applied on people who might not be identical genetically. In so doing others have been brought together by common struggles, shared pain etc. etc. It is wrong. The essay is now finished.

Question:
LIPPIE who posted below me. You said not all blacks are from Africa. I must say that was new for me. Where are some of them from and how did i miss this all through my years?

Answer 4

This is an handy one. If the arena will get too sizzling, we have tested that we will live to tell the tale it for the reason that the "Cradles of Civilization" had been in sizzling, dry places. If the arena will get bloodless, then we have already tested that we will resist ice a long time, and that is with none "prime" technological know-how. If the arena will get overpopulated, it's going to, out of necessity, stability itself out. I do not feel we have to fear approximately surviving the following one hundred years. The truly query is how one can we hold the following one hundred years from fitting the following Dark Age.

Answer 5

i think it is just human nature for people to search for reasons to accept themselves and feel secure in this world, since they really didn't have a say in some of thier traits. and when a group of people find that they all deal with it in the same way, they tend to band together to make themselves feel even more important. unfortunately, sometimes it gets a bit out of control, and we end up with extremists of all sorts.
being a 'white girl' i have many cultures and heritages that i can choose from, but i'd rather not. i have always felt a little disconnected from my different heritiges, which i think others can kind of identify with. i find it funny when people like myself pick one of thier backgrounds and run with it like they are straight out of a different culture, letting others know how proud they are to be 'Irish', 'Chinese', 'Italian', 'Portugese', 'Indian', or whichever of thier ancestories that they prefer.
these days, many of us come from multiple backgrounds. i just call myself american, since that is where i was born and live. i mean, what else am i to do, you know? yes, i am sometimes embarrassed to call myself american when it comes to politics, but that's where i'm from!

Answer 6

Because it makes people feel unique i suppose. Like when people post something on here and someone responds by saying that they are this and that and every thing else which probably meant the person's great great great great great great great grandparent was this race. You can be all the races under the ranibow, yet people think they are interesting if they add on that they are multinational......

Answer 7

The basic reason is that they are totally undistinguished and have nothing else to be proud of.
Also true of some feminists.

Answer 8

Interesting argument

Answer 9

I often wonder that myself

Answer 10

It's ignorance... simply ignorance