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I'm curious what by what you mean by "conform to the white America".  If you are talking about being assimilated, that is the experience of any and *all* groups in America.  To the degree that, to take just a couple of examples, Japanese or Chinese Americans have assimilated that is the same degree to which they have been successful.  I grew up on the West Coast and outside of my time in the military have lived out this way although I've done regular business on the East Coast.  While it is true that there are more blacks on the East Coast than on the West (and particularly in Oregon) the greater numbers alone may account for more successful blacks who are not in sports or entertainment being visible in, say, DC or Chicago or Philly.  

Regarding cultural identity.  Like it or not, black American culture is American culture.  Even our criticisms about American culture come from a distinctly American (and therefore Western) starting place.  I think that this idea of a uniquely black American culture can be, if taken too far, disastrous for our community because it unmoors us and makes us feel like strangers in our own land.  Yes, there are black writers but their novels and poems are still firmly in the tradition of Western narrative forms.  There are the various forms of music we have invented (and why is it that we, as black people, are less proud of jazz than of rap/hip-hop?) but still these are not African in any meaningful sense of the word.  When we criticize American culture, we are doing so in the spirit of Locke or Hobbes.  When we talk about the breaking of the social contract (whether we use those words or not) we are echoing Rousseau.  When we talk about the various strategies for achieving equality, we are invoking John Rawls (again whether we realize it or not).  

Cheers

Aj

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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ourth of July is always a weird day for me. I did not grow up in a military family but I grew up in a military and government town during the 70s and 80s. Patriotism was everywhere. My family was patriotic without being superpatriotic. However, as I got older and saw more of the world I came to understand the meaning of patriotism in that special way that blacks have to come to terms with in America. I learned my lessons about patriotism from my father, a man who fought in WWII, was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and when he came home, was not able to cast a vote until Voting Rights Act of 1964 passed. At some point during my military service, which was entirely in peacetime, I began to understand what it meant to love America. It was something much deeper and more profound than the ?America, love it or leave it? jingoism that so often passes for patriotism.

In my mind, there are three things I love about America; the People, the Constitution and the Land. We are a People of no ethnicity, no race, no religion. Barack Obama is as American a name as John Brown. I with my brown skin and dreadlocks look as much an American as my partner with her red hair and Irish complexion. We are a People not because of where we were born. Madeline Albright is as American as Bill Clinton. We are a People because we subscribe to an Idea. That Idea, really a suite of memes, is codified in our Constitution and, just as importantly, the myths we have about that document and about the Founding Generation. It involves freedom of speech, religion and conscience. These require a certain level of tolerance be developed, something America has not always had a shining track record on. Yet, organically, stumbling along and getting it really wrong sometimes, we seem to move forward. We are the optimistic teenagers of the world. We truly believe that the world can be made a better place and for the most part we want to do things so that it becomes one. We behave, when we decide to, as if the word ?impossible? were nothing more than synonym for ?this will be challenging?.

The Constitution is that which we should all be most proud of. Flawed as it is, it leaves open the possibility of changing it. It?s genius, though, is that it lays out a broad outline of what our government can and cannot do. It hamstrings the would-be tyrant. Yet, it can only do that effectively if we the People do our job and this creates a tension (or should) between the citizen and her country. I must trust, at some level, that people of goodwill and conscience who understand their Constitutional role and limitations run my government. I must, at the same time, be watchful for signs that they are breaching that trust and behaving in a manner beyond what their mandate is. This tension must be there for we are the ultimate firewall of our democratic republic. Ultimately, we elect these people. In the final analysis, we are the ones who send politicians to do our bidding and I believe that the founders were relying on the American people to be active citizens informed about their nation and its policies.

Then there is the land. I?ve been on numerous cross-country road trips, mostly when I was a child and teenager and it gave me a sense of what an amazingly beautiful place America is. I?ve spent significant time on the West Coast and the Deep South, each having their own unique beauties. Anywhere you are in America, you can find someplace relatively close that will stop you in your tracks in awe, if you are at all amenable to awe. Watching the sun disappear into the Pacific Ocean from Ocean Beach in San Francisco, or watching it break over Mount Hood is a treat and a treasure. I recently drove from Portland to Utah and back to meet my partner?s family. I hadn?t been through Idaho in over 20 years and had never been through northern Utah. There were stretches of I-84 that, if not for the road, there would be nothing but beautiful desolation. Scrub and dirt set against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains.. I am not saying that only in America can you get sights such as those. There are other places with sights as magnificent as those here. But they are not this land.

America is lovable for what her people strive to be, what they try to make the government be with the Constitution as their guide and the land that sustains them in their endeavor. I hope that in this discussion that we are having nationally, we can begin to truly grasp that one form of love of America is that which you would have with a long and intimate friend, where you see their flaws, call them out on those flaws when they are being destructive to self or others and love them all the more for the struggle to get beyond those flaws. That?s how I love America.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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I would like to add that putting the rights of a minority up to popular vote is almost always a bad idea. In fact, I cannot think of a single case in American history where that has turned out well. Does anyone seriously believe that had it been put to a popular vote that blacks would have the right to vote in, say, Alabama in 1960? I would hope no one here is that naive.

Also, Ms Shannon flat out lied when she said that this bill would require affirmative action style policies in hiring. I'm amazed she didn't get hammered for htat.

Cheers
lf

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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