What even are an ethnic group's "roots", exactly? - And how would understanding or "rediscovering" them affect the ethnic group as a whole?

[Iwasamwillbe]

I often talk to various black people in my state, and a few of them state that the American black community is in such a poor shape right now in part because they don't know their roots. African Americans are, in a word, "rootless".

A similar taking point exists among the "dissident right" spectrum of thought, where they complain that the white race is going into a downward spiral in part because they are abandoning their ethic "roots", and that by "rediscovering their roots", the white race can make white-majority nations strong again.

But what I want to know is what exactly the "roots" of a race are in either given context, or in any context whatsoever? How would a race come to "understand" or "rediscover" their "lost roots"? And how would knowing or rediscovering their roots significantly affect or benefit that race as a whole?

 

[Fuck China]

It doesn't and it won't. Your "roots" serves as nothing but a piece of history that you learn in order to avoid past mistakes.

It's just a bunch of boomers complaining about the good old days like they always do.

Call them a nigger and move on

 

[TFT-A9]

The "roots" of a given group are its past, its mistakes and lessons learned, and the traditions and such that arose from learning those lessons.

Of course this isn't applicable to African Americans because they never learned a damned thing.

 

[BingBong]

When it comes to jews, it means having literal demons as ancestors.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

In either context, I believe "roots" means the qualities that made them what they are today. By "forgetting your roots" you're forgetting the qualities that brought you to this point in your life. To understand your roots, you need simply look at your history.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

It's something sad robots with no real identity beyond superficial shit like their skin color or sexual orientation cling on to to see more than just another automata.

 

[Haffhart]

I never liked the "roots" thing because every race is already in touch with their roots in some form. Asians and Hispanics and Blacks etc in America all have a bit of their culture in them, whether that's an accent or a family tradition or a staple food

 

[saralovesjuicyfruit]

It also depends on how far back you want to go. Like, this thing, for instance:

 

[Chaptersevenbankruptcy]

Anyone who spergs about society "needing to get back to X" is a loser and reeks of loser-ness to everyone around them.

1) Anyone who talks about how society needs to do X is externalizing the locus of control of problems in their life. This is not to say that society couldn't be improved with certain systemic and structural changes. Obviously, the inmates are running the show and we can't have nice things. But people who talk about improbable mass public movements as the necessary/inevitable solution to what ails them are very obviously whining about how they are losers who can't make it in the world, and they would like the world to please change to accommodate them. This applies to incels and campus socialists and nationalists and every little lens-shaped bit of overlap on the Venn diagram.

2) Water doesn't flow uphill. Inasmuch as the word "roots" means anything, aside from a vaguely-remembered set of traditions, now idealized beyond all recognition, those "roots" were abandoned for reasons. Whether those were good or bad reasons is immaterial. What matters is that there were reasons, and history has already happened and it is an entropic process, like all processes. Things will not snap back to the status quo ante. Reality remains at the new equilibrium no matter how hard you try to ignore it. You may think that guns are gross insults to the glorious code of Bushido, but guess what, you can't un-invent the fuckers. What's more, there's an asshole with a whole flotilla of boats with gigantic stonking guns on them who is all too happy to dictate terms if you willingly give up yours.

3) Every society in history has had winners and losers. If you are fundamentally at odds with the current society, and are complaining about it, it just might be that you are a loser.

 

[Ningen]

Roots is how I call the huge veins of my penis

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

It's just a modern variant of 'o tempora, o mores'. It's not without justification, given that institutions that were once omnipresent and considered unshakeable, like the nuclear family and marriage, have waned to almost nothingness over the last century. This is especially true of the Black American community, in which comparisons of the average ghetto in 1970 to one today is almost night in day in terms of culture. That having been said, modern problems require modern solutions. Just going 'those were the days *sip*', and being nostalgic about the past without any concrete plan isn't going to achieve anything. Rather than just wishing values would return to the community, you could take steps to bring them back. I'd wager that alot of these old-timers have a natural gravitas and authority, and they could use that to reach out to kids through a variety of community programs. Give the people who are most at risk of turning into self-centred degenerates a role model. It might not work, but it's better than if you had tried nothing.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I find that they are very helpful in understanding some inclinations in oneself.

Compare something like breakdance and capoeira. They're both musuc/dance styles that originated on the american continent and they get confused for each other. Why is it that african ex-slaves, seperated by such a long distance and before media connected people, that something so similar emerged?

It's the same reason why south african boers have an individualistic mentality and didn't create a similar kind of dance style that bordered on ritualised warfare, with "battles". Because even when seperated from your roots, a potato still grows into a potatoplant. There are some superficial things to understand, like how you may now be living in an area that you don't have ideal pigmentation for, and not producing enough vitamin D if you're a nig living in canada because you never get enough sun light and always being burnt if you're a cracker working your farm in africa.

But this connects to many other things. An adopted vietnamese boy might not understand why he is so much more reserved than the birth children if his foster parents, until he notices that on average asians are more reserved. And these are still the more superficial traits, there is a depth, murky and unclear, to the things that feel most natural to each of us.

It's like the first time a boy picks up a big stick and the first time a girl holds a puppy. There is something deep and ancient that suddenly stirs inside, like teens having their first hormone induced crush. It generally feels good and at "home" to be allowed to be what stirs inside, though it certainly isn't always good to allow unfettered expression of it, but I'll leave that topic on the side for the moment.

To answer the question more directly, I know an adopted guy and the first time he tasted food that was from the area where he was from genetically he asked "what is this? This is amazing!"

Considering it took only a dosen or so of generations for an african country (I think it was Niger) to go from mostly lactose intolerant, to being mostly able to process lactose efficiently, it isn't out of this world to think our tastes have evolved to some degree to what our ancestors ate.

Discovering your roots, can feel like coming home. In media and popular culture this is mostly pushed for genegroups and cultures foreign to white people, but I think there is a significant opportunity for white people to rediscover their roots and culture as well, after it being shit on consistently for about 5 decades.

 

[tuscangarder]

Roots are purely a sociological reality.

 

[Urist Steelthrone]

Roots are purely a sociological reality.

That's way too vague. Explain.

 

[Christ Cried]

I'm a direct descendent of the Visigoths. Every morning when I wake up I have to suppress the urge to destroy Rome.

 

[Non-Expert!]

Our roots are generally what we imagine they are. For example, white supremacists have this imagined past in Europe in which there is some sort of mythical white tribalism, etc. Everybody was a Nordic type of white person, with indigenous Norse religion, etc.

Black supremacists have this imagined history in which they were kings and queens in Africa etc.

But the concept of roots can also be based at least somewhat in fact ... like if some white folks claim that their "roots" are in Appalachia, that means that their origins are in that region ... as in, they are descended from a line of people who lived that lifestyle historically up to now, etc.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

Roots are something that mainly comes up when you're having an identity crisis and cant find yourself where you are which fits black Americans to a tee. The culture never got to really grow into itself and is constantly changing within itself from numerous fronts. How much is African and how much is southern cant often be easily distinguished and the influence of rabid africanists and the black version of conservative inc leads to even more confusion alongside the stigma of how to even count as black.