I Would Rather My Ancestors Not Have Been Slaves Than Being Born An American

How is Asian culture organized? What is Asian religon? Islam? Buddhism? Hinduism? Christianity?

I can't define something as complex as an entire ethnicity's culture. I can't do that for "Asian culture"(like what ****ing part of Asia???) or Black culture.

But I can tell you their culture is a response to conditions they as d group experienced. Again, culture is a effect.

My family is Muslim because of Islamic expansion into the Indian subcontinent. Hence my family's religion which is part of culture is a effect of conditions.

 

Naw, I don't have that type of fight in me. I'll express my viewpoint and move on.

 

There is no such thing as "cultureless world". If humanity exists, there is culture. Just because you disagree with someone's culture doesn't mean their culture doesn't exist.

 

You think culture is this fluid, wishy-washy thing that can't really be defined, okay, I disagree. I think when it can't be defined, when you can't identify key aspects of if, then it's not culture. It's a lack of culture. That's all.

 

For me to "define" a certain group's culture I would need a 5000 word essay. That's my point.

Your premise is Black people do t have a culture because they concentrate on "history" when in reality that is the aspect of all cultures as culture is formed through the historical conditions a group of people share. You keep on not understanding that culture is a effect in a cause and effect relationship. Causes are environment, weather, economics, political power etc.

 

As I said, I do not understand what is being discussed. A solution to what?

I tend to agree with @fchowd0311. Defining a culture can not be done with a a few sentences of ambiguity. Nor can you take millions of a specific group of people an somehow lump them into one defining factor. For example, what exactly defines black culture? To this day, I still do not quite understand why people use the word black culture. The bigger the tribe gets, the harder it is to define a culture. Stereotyping and culture are very two different things.

I dont think you understand the problem you're trying to solve. Up until the 1860's, our country decided to take a certain group of peoples basic freedom of choice and human rights and legally gave them to an elite group of individual people. Our government then decided to remove themselves from enforcing this power from these individuals. To say that slaves were free after the 1860s is a misnomer. Nobody gave a **** about them. One of the key reasons why emancipation was enforced is because of fair economic practices. Its hard to compete against a competitor if they are using free labor. It wasn't until the 1960's that society finally gave black people equal rights.

The term 'sins of the father' is more about early life experience for the child and learning the wrong ways more so than being held responsible for the fathers past atrocities. No one should expect the impact of 3 centuries of persecution to suddenly evaporate over 2 or 3 generations and its ambiguous culture is certainly not going to solve the problem.

That said, its not an easy problem to solve and I do not agree with the common approaches. Im a big advocate of solving racial issues through war on poverty, but its very obvious our country is going completely in the opposite direction of this approach...which explains why we have an uptick in racial issues when the vast majority of our country agree racism is wrong.

 

To be fair this was over drinks but he was pretty serious about the Irish soul being about suffering. Most Irish writing is about suffering from famine, poverty and oppression from Brendan Behan to Frank McCourt. According to Irish musicians that I know most Irish music can be broken down to:
1. My family / land / livestock was taken by the British (rich people)
2. My family is starving
4. I killed or robbed the British (rich people)
3. Life sucks at sea but I have to go because of the above
4. I'm being shipped away in chains because of the above
5. My friends and family died at sea
6. I'm drunk

I'm not even talking about old trad folk songs either:

 

Also to add the Holocaust is pretty important to modern Jewish Culture. Israel likely doesn't exist without the Holocaust.

 

I think I get the gist of what you are trying to convey. Truth be told, I have never let the idea of slavery personally affect me. I have studied it extensively. I know all about the horrors of it, how it's existence shaped the nation and the terrible legacy it left behind. But it happened so long ago I can only relate to it intellectually rather than emotionally. I grew up having to deal with it's legacy: segregation and blatant racism - two things I've been trying to get over all my life.

 

Every culture has their struggles front and center. American Individualism is based in the struggles of fighting for independence from a tyrannical monarchy. Almost all our celebrations and holidays are based in a former historical struggle.

 

you sound like someone who didn’t suffer crap as a child. Who the eff are you to judge whether and the extent to which a child’s suffering impacts what they become as an adult.

this is strong proof that you are stupid.

 

Their poetry, their music, their literature, their politics, their symbols, their religion...all deeply influenced by one calamity after another, mostly brought about by the British Empire. It's shaped national identity...it shaped what they taught their children after they got to America, even. It shaped what my grandfather told me about Ireland and his grandfather who came over.

[UNRELATED WASTE OF SPACE IN THIS THREAD ] Incidentally, I learned that my great great grandfather, Thomas Patrick McMahon, fought with the Rhode Island 5th Regiment Heavy Artillery. I have his discharge papers, showing he served in Company D of that Regiment. They were famous for their involvement in the Battle of New Berne, NC, and freeing a Confederate prison near there. I recently bought a book about that group that was an account made by someone who served with it. To my surprise there's a story about Thomas McMahon in there. Apparently a Confederate cannonball from far away hit him with very little force in the backpack he was wearing..it knocked him over. He tried to keep the cannonball as a souvenir of the war, but it got too heavy, so he left it behind. I know from family history that about 10 years later, he made his way to Texas, and married an Irish girl named Sara Mullins and had (I think) 9 children. After I shared this with my sons, my older son said, "wow, our story almost ended before it ever began, if that cannonball had hit with a bit more force." Anyway, cool story, bro, TLDR, ok bye.