Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?

Gary Strand (gary@ncar.ucar.edu)
24 Apr 1995 17:42:31 GMT

ls> Lane Singer
gs> Gary Strand

gs> There is no such thing as a single African culture, or one African custom,
or a single African language. Since these Africans main commonality was
only their continent of origin, I wouldn't expect them to unify round a
chunk of crust.

ls> Most African slaves were kidnapped from west Africa. There is every reason
to believe that they shared a great deal in common, culturally, prior to
having their culture, their language, their religion and their very iden-
tities scoured away in order to make them the better to dominate and en-
slave.

So, West Africans belonged to some sort of large social group (empire, king-
dom, whatever) and those in charge didn't mind having a good many of their
number taken away? That's odd, unless those in power wanted those taken to
be taken, and helped and/or profited in the kidnapping.

ls> There is not a single group of immigrants to this country about whom this
can be said.

Well, not quite. Many immigrants were forced to change after coming to the
US - adopting English as their language, changing their names (sometimes
without knowing that it had been changed) and so on. Certainly most of 1st-
generation immigrants' children and grandchildren adopted "American" ways.
For example, me.

ls> It is their very culture, the sanctity of their identities, that have nur-
tured the Jews, the Chinese, the Vietnamese and more, in establishing
themselves prior to assimilation, a =voluntary= assimilation, in American
life and culture.

"Voluntary"? Yes, many immigrants were not kidnapped and brought to the US
against their will. Most were made unwelcome where they were, so they left.
What "choice" is there between staying and being persecuted for your lang-
uage, religion, culture, &c, or taking a chance and leaving to come to the
US? Don't forget that some of the Pilgrims left because of religious per-
secution.

--

Gary Strand                   WWW: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cscor/gary/gary.html

strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu         PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 (303) 497-1336

Opinions stated here are mine alone and are not those of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF