Dec 30, 2021·edited Dec 30, 2021Liked by Charles Ekokotu
What Vincent said about the US having tribal tensions versus the narrow caricature called "race" and "racism" is correct.
He is also correct that there is tribal tension between ADOS and non ADOS. I don't think it is over physical characteristics. I think it is over culture and ethnicity. This is why foreign people of African ancestry are treated better by non ADOS Americans.
"My theory is that “White Americans” as an ethnic group in the context of the US, have issues with “African Americans” as another ethnic group occupying the same space as them and the reverse is true as well."
I also think it is important to recognize that this extends to non ADOS in general (African immigrants, Asians, Latinos, people of caucasian ancestry) It is misleading to characterize it as a "white" vs. African American issue.
Glad to have found your work. Unfortunately a new tribalism is being imposed in the US in which the smallest schoolchildren are being taught that ethnic/racial identity is a person’s most significant characteristic and it defines one’s role in society. It is inescapable. And dangerous.
You say if racism was stamped out tensions would remain. human relationships are multi-causal. We wouldn't know about them without race involved over here. The reality is that race is still a central problem in the US that has yet to be "stamped out"!
And the fact is that you have no true knowledge of what the US would be without racism. What you've written is speculative at best. Not that tribalism wouldn't occur, it your presenting it as the key to our racial relationships.
Your may be correct. Then again, you may be incorrect...what happens in the interim? It's like you're standing at the end of a long race to hand our water. For too many the water will have come, too late.
What you've described has not been my experience in the 78 years since I've been born in Albany, NY. Tribalism is the wrong label based on your description. That would mean that the Nigerian man killed by his white girlfriend was a tribal murder? Black Americans aren't fighting with whites for capitalisms meager spoils. If they are, they've never been winning much and still haven't. You've not put your finger on the depth of the black/white relationships in the US.
This article is practical and reflects much of my feelings.
In his insightful book "The Righteous Mind" Johnathan Haidt lays out the legitimate differences in degrees of innate values between the political left and political right in our nation. No race or ethnicity applies or need apply. But it all boils down to trust or distrust in each group's political and social intentions.
Values differences matter "big-time" but {IF} the political and economic intentions are more shared than not, different groups live cooperatively and meld together. There is too much success for this in our nation to deny it. I think Charles is saying by casting off the "race" term, we also cast off a past, outdated degree of thought and attitude that once existed.
There is no real "race" difference in the world - only culture and a few genes that reveal ancestral lineage - which means nothing. In time past, we all came from Africa. We just took different routes on our ancestral journey.
Having said that, , there is a political movement in the world and the nation to distort and divide the American people and discredit the American Creed using academia and the main-stream media. It is time to throw off that label and address any cultural, social, economic and political differences society bears in its reality. The truth is hard enough to address. We don't need false and useless ideas like race superiority. What are those truths?
Please leave a comment, tell me what I did or did not get right.
Throw in cultural affinity into the tribal idea and I think you have hit the nail on the head.
What Vincent said about the US having tribal tensions versus the narrow caricature called "race" and "racism" is correct.
He is also correct that there is tribal tension between ADOS and non ADOS. I don't think it is over physical characteristics. I think it is over culture and ethnicity. This is why foreign people of African ancestry are treated better by non ADOS Americans.
"My theory is that “White Americans” as an ethnic group in the context of the US, have issues with “African Americans” as another ethnic group occupying the same space as them and the reverse is true as well."
I also think it is important to recognize that this extends to non ADOS in general (African immigrants, Asians, Latinos, people of caucasian ancestry) It is misleading to characterize it as a "white" vs. African American issue.
[Disagree that "whiteness" exists.]
Glad to have found your work. Unfortunately a new tribalism is being imposed in the US in which the smallest schoolchildren are being taught that ethnic/racial identity is a person’s most significant characteristic and it defines one’s role in society. It is inescapable. And dangerous.
You say if racism was stamped out tensions would remain. human relationships are multi-causal. We wouldn't know about them without race involved over here. The reality is that race is still a central problem in the US that has yet to be "stamped out"!
And the fact is that you have no true knowledge of what the US would be without racism. What you've written is speculative at best. Not that tribalism wouldn't occur, it your presenting it as the key to our racial relationships.
Your may be correct. Then again, you may be incorrect...what happens in the interim? It's like you're standing at the end of a long race to hand our water. For too many the water will have come, too late.
What you've described has not been my experience in the 78 years since I've been born in Albany, NY. Tribalism is the wrong label based on your description. That would mean that the Nigerian man killed by his white girlfriend was a tribal murder? Black Americans aren't fighting with whites for capitalisms meager spoils. If they are, they've never been winning much and still haven't. You've not put your finger on the depth of the black/white relationships in the US.
This article is practical and reflects much of my feelings.
In his insightful book "The Righteous Mind" Johnathan Haidt lays out the legitimate differences in degrees of innate values between the political left and political right in our nation. No race or ethnicity applies or need apply. But it all boils down to trust or distrust in each group's political and social intentions.
Values differences matter "big-time" but {IF} the political and economic intentions are more shared than not, different groups live cooperatively and meld together. There is too much success for this in our nation to deny it. I think Charles is saying by casting off the "race" term, we also cast off a past, outdated degree of thought and attitude that once existed.
There is no real "race" difference in the world - only culture and a few genes that reveal ancestral lineage - which means nothing. In time past, we all came from Africa. We just took different routes on our ancestral journey.
Having said that, , there is a political movement in the world and the nation to distort and divide the American people and discredit the American Creed using academia and the main-stream media. It is time to throw off that label and address any cultural, social, economic and political differences society bears in its reality. The truth is hard enough to address. We don't need false and useless ideas like race superiority. What are those truths?