- Joined
- May 23, 2020
I’m not American, but my country does try to copy the US in a lot of aspects, and indigenous issues here are treated much the same as those of black Americans. While I’ll always stand by the opinion it’s stupid to generalise an entire population of people, the way things are going in the States has made me much less sympathetic to the black community over there.
In particular it’s the way they tend to be very focused on group identity - everything runs contrary to the “we’re all human” narrative, the way there’s a big deal of distinguishing themselves from the white population. It’s like segregation never really ended but this time it’s self imposed, and the “cultural appropriation is bad” narrative doesn’t help. You see it in many aspects of the black culture - AAVE, the natural hair movement, food, music, the ghetto names you sometimes hear (Shaniqua, LaQuisha, DeShawn etc). I’d have no issue with this if they were less protective of this culture and open to outsiders taking interest in it, like how Asian people tend to be welcoming to outsiders who take interest in their cultures (if they aren’t living in the west and brainwashed into the cult of woke) but no, blacks go around partaking in their own culture while keeping others out. BLM hasn’t helped in this regard either, in fact they’ve made it worse. Not to mention gangs and how crime is acceptable to them. It’s hard not to roll my eyes when I see someone on social media behaving like a walking stereotype. And anyone who defies these expectations and tries to better themselves gets accused of “acting white”, which doesn’t help, and the activists give zero shits about improving the image of their community as that’d give them nothing to complain about anymore.
So it’s the culture, not the people. If you’re black and aren’t like that and want to just do your own thing, that’s great - don’t listen to people who call you a race traitor or whatever. But what does bother me is how black American culture is treated as a sacred cow that nobody dares criticise despite all its flaws.
In particular it’s the way they tend to be very focused on group identity - everything runs contrary to the “we’re all human” narrative, the way there’s a big deal of distinguishing themselves from the white population. It’s like segregation never really ended but this time it’s self imposed, and the “cultural appropriation is bad” narrative doesn’t help. You see it in many aspects of the black culture - AAVE, the natural hair movement, food, music, the ghetto names you sometimes hear (Shaniqua, LaQuisha, DeShawn etc). I’d have no issue with this if they were less protective of this culture and open to outsiders taking interest in it, like how Asian people tend to be welcoming to outsiders who take interest in their cultures (if they aren’t living in the west and brainwashed into the cult of woke) but no, blacks go around partaking in their own culture while keeping others out. BLM hasn’t helped in this regard either, in fact they’ve made it worse. Not to mention gangs and how crime is acceptable to them. It’s hard not to roll my eyes when I see someone on social media behaving like a walking stereotype. And anyone who defies these expectations and tries to better themselves gets accused of “acting white”, which doesn’t help, and the activists give zero shits about improving the image of their community as that’d give them nothing to complain about anymore.
So it’s the culture, not the people. If you’re black and aren’t like that and want to just do your own thing, that’s great - don’t listen to people who call you a race traitor or whatever. But what does bother me is how black American culture is treated as a sacred cow that nobody dares criticise despite all its flaws.
