The Truth about Being Black in America

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Effects of Slavery

African Americans or Black decedents of Slaves are one of two groups of unique minorities in the United States of America–the other being the American Aborigine or Native American.

The peculiarity of African Americans has nothing to do with the origin of this minority constituting about 13 to 15 percent of the US population–even though the origins of this group in general is myopic–or the physical characteristics that identify Blacks.

What distinguishes the Blacks of America from other groups who immigrated to the United States of America? Blacks did not enter the US by choice. Every other group of America can reverence the memory of pioneer ancestors who traveled bravely across the ocean or the plains willing to forge a new life and build something unique–putting aside old culture and adapting to new. Other heritages that made the US great gave up their language to become Americans.

Irish immigrants spread across Pennsylvania and Italians dominated New York creating new American versions of the old country. What of the African?

The fact that African Americans are called African at all is an indication of the limited explanation of this group’s history. The nationalities of Black American ancestors are a mystery for the great majority of the group. Slavery stripped this group of the choice to decide to merge with American culture. Slaves were cattle to the slavers, and treated as such.

There would be no Walimi Americans or Bangelima Americans, just African because the tribes and nations were intermixed preventing camaraderie through language. There would be no melting pot of exotic names because the tribes people were renamed and branded as nonhuman and soulless.

There would be no unique motherland identity. There would be no mingling of heritages other than the rape of tribes-women and breeding of tribes-people to make them bigger and stronger.

What is Black Heritage in America? Slavery. No identity other than a vast continent and no heritage other than what the slavers provided their ancestors and what little enslaved forebears etched out of the residue of similarities they could put together following the emancipation up until the Civil Rights Movement.

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Second Class Heritage

Following slavery, there existed about 20 years of prosperity for the newly free people of color before the new form of slavery became social law–racism. The social idea that any person of mixed slave ancestry constituted a Colored person created a singular class of people regardless of differing ethnic identity, Black–no matter the color of skin.

This concept survived from slavery where it was used to prevent mixed race people from claiming freedom based on European heritage or gaining a foothold after slavery as a more preferred class–though that occurred anyway.

After many generations of slavery and second-class citizenship, the sociological impact on this group created a people with no past to glorify as other Americans and little reason to love a country that did not guarantee constitutional rights. Generation X may be the first group of Blacks that actually experienced a more level social experience since slavery.

The psychosocial impact on African American cultural developed into what I call Collective Social Regard or CSR. No matter where a Black person originates in the country and above all political and social ties race is the definition of this group. CSR is based in the humanistic approach of Carl Rogers, specifically unconditional positive regard in reference to the client-center approach to therapy. Black Americans in general may not accept the action of those claiming Black heritage; however, this group tends to regard others within the group, owning the fellow members racial sameness without accepting necessarily the individuality. This provides a default group of identity for all Black Americans.

CSR is the perspective of African American social interaction derived from a shared ethnic experience based on heritage and race. Black people accept other Black people regarding them as brothers or sisters–due to the cattle like breeding during slavery–no matter the percentage of tribal ancestry. All an individual needs is to claim African heritage to be included as Black.

During slavery the slaver could trade away slave offspring at-will creating the need among these mixed tribes-people to form non-genetic connections of familial relationships that continue in Black tradition presently where many Blacks consider relatives removed by many degrees of separation or family friends close kin. .

Generally Blacks have not integrated into the main stream culture because most stand out due to physical differences and subjective distrust of Whites due to past dealings as a group–viewing attacks on any Black person irrespective of circumstance as evidence that there exists some institutionalized conspiracy that targets minorities secretly while publicly assuring equal protection and felicity under the law.

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As a community of Blacks without a specific African cultural heritage beyond slavery and having to depend on MOSTLY each other socially for many years until recently, it must purge the idea of Black against White.

It must not disregard the shared heritage as the descendants of slaves and second class citizens with attempts to convert to the majority culture and pretend color does not matter.

White America is a choice purposely forged with the benefit of continuity of culture from homelands. Blacks have no choice but to accept the ambiguity of connections to Africa and the reality of livestock-like breeding in America.

The breeding of American slaves allows for the exploration of promiscuity among present-day Blacks and a possible connection between high percentages of single mothers with large families due to father absenteeism The suggestion that there may be a link is only that, a suggestion based on little evidence and no facts–more a philosophical reasoning than a sociologically assumption.

Many descendants of American slaves are attributed stereotypical physical characteristics of tall, large muscular men and thick wide-hipped women. At one point in history, the description could describe the humans slavers used to breed the other slaves. There may be some connection to the assumption that Blacks excel at sports at a higher rate than not.

This would also justify the stereotype that American slaves’ descendants are inherently intellectually inferior–a premise that most would not accept in modern psychology. No scientific justification for such a view is forthcoming, but culturally the idea was considered and is slowly diminishing along with the physical stereotypes.

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Racial Disparity: Why can’t Blacks Just Get Over it?

Because of the cultural effects of slavery and persecution for many generations in any given situation, a Black individual must cycle through introspection that few other groups tend to consider.

For instance, a White man may experience a bad day at work and speak rudely to a Black store clerk who may think, “Did that person behave curtly because I am Black?” Because of the implication of his or her culture handed down from generations of oppressed Black people, those thoughts flash through the minds of many Blacks and are filed away by rationalization.

The same applies to women–especially minority women who must add to the mental reflection the question of their gender.

This introspection is applicable to anyone that does not identify with the majority culture completely including homosexuals, obscure religious groups, etc, but mostly for Blacks because Black culture is uniquely tied to America since that group is alone being forced to the states and forced to give up culture.

This all translates that as a group, Blacks think that the prisons are full of Black men and women because Blacks have no choice but to fight through the American system even if they have a more level playing field in today’s society.

it means, Obama is the president because “THEY”(WHITE PEOPLE) want Blacks to stop using the excuse that Blacks cannot get ahead in society because of racism–the hidden kind, conspiracy.

Blacks who think differently may deny heritage, or are denying heritage unawares–hurting themselves by disassociating with the social aspects of most African American culture. Whites do not need a race to identify with, but Blacks seem to need race collectively and not individually–to account for those of whose cultural experience has allowed them to adjust to mainstream American society, which is growing number.

Not enough time has passed since the Civil Rights Movement. Possibly, in three to five generations Blacks will think about race as do most Caucasians –meaning race does not define their heritage. Yet, it is also intriguing that a entire ethnic group of Americans exist whose only identity stems from American origins, a uniquely American creation.

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Moving Beyond The Past

It is not the purpose of this article to persuade Americans of African heritage to forget the struggles of the American slave. Contrarily, Black Americans must remember and embrace the shared American heritage of struggle. All Americans have struggled to some degree for the right to be in America. The United States of America is culturally diverse with groups that successfully etched a place in the American landscape. Whether the struggle began with a fight for equality or a fight for independence, all Americans share the same single trait to persevere until the work has completed and the situation controlled.

American descendants of the African slave are distinguished as captives and slaves in the nation, but share the glory of overcoming with other groups. Granted, the descendants of slaves may have a greater deal to overcome because of the oppressive past; however, such a past does not constitute a handicap. The determination of the change-makers of the past has diffused in the genetic core of all Americans. As diverse as America is, it is the common heritage that makes it great, and not the diversity alone.


One thought on “The Truth about Being Black in America

    A Different Perspective | beenetworknews said:
    May 3, 2013 at 2:01 am

    […] The Truth about Being Black in America ( […]

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