So quite the sprited discussion occured on Facebook between a few friends of mine (White men) in regards to Caribana and violence. I was pretty disturbed to read the comments and wanted to retort so I figured the blog would be the best way.
Now, these guys are cultured, well traveled and I consider them friends and good dudes, but all of that doesn't exclude them from being victim to White Supremacist ideology and it manifests itself in the form of Paternalistic White Supremacy.
"White paternalism is the belief that whites know what is best for people of other races, viewing them pretty much as overgrown children. It is racist since it assumes that whites know better than other races."
Now I hate discussions about race and terms like "Blacks", "Whites", etc...and can't wait till we're just all considered people. Race is a social construct and in order to move past theese concepts, we have to have these discussions. This'll be a series of blog posts, touching on each issue. Let's get to it!
BLACK AMERICAN CULTURAL PATHOLOGY & THE POPULARITY OF GANGSTA RAP
"what other weekend is Toronto inundated with, and im gunna get in big trouble for saying this, predominantly black Americans......with all the hip hop culture and guns they bring ??? NONE ! you know im the least racist person there is, love guns and have been listening to hip hop since the days of grand master !!! THE CULTURE HAS CHANGED. Its all about bling, money bitches and how you are seen to be a bad ass......its bullshit, it's the truth and no one can deny it !~!"
A bothersome part of this discussion and where the paternalism most easily manifests itself is in the critique of Black American "culture" which is really just a dog whistle for "Black Americans" by White men who are from Canada and probably don't have an understanding of what "Black American" culture is outside of a few friends and most likely what they see in the media...the same media that comes up with gems like this.
Now, the key issue isn't that they're "white", but that they are arguing from ignorance and discrediting people who ya know...have the lived experience as if they are morally and culturally superior. Paternalism.
"Cmon lets call it like it is......THERES ALWAYS SHOOTINGS AT CARIBANA...... Its fucking rediculous that theres nothing to be done about Americans flooding into toronto with the HIP HOP GUN CULTURE. They ruin it for everyone else there for a good time."
You can't discuss "Black American culture" and hiphop's "violence" without critiquing the overall culture of America. "Black American culture" didn't happen in a vacuum.
First of all, those people aren't "Blacks". They are AFRICANS. From various ethnicities, countries, tribes, cultures and languages. They didn't become "Blacks" until they got to America. At which point iconoclasm and cultural genocide were used to strip them of who they were / are and replaced with who White Supremacists told them they were...which is "Blacks".
What is so generally referred to as "Black American culture" is really just American culture. The language, the religious beliefs, the beauty standards, etc are all direct results of cultural colonialism.
The pathologies that are part of that culture are symptomatic of the larger culture as a whole. The violence, misogyny, etc that play out in "Black communities" play out everywhere else in America to varying degrees...but it's easier to say it's only "their" problem, because we live in a colour coded world where the "rightness" of Whiteness is the default setting and it's really easy to point your finger at those "degenerate" negroes than address the root cause.
The people that champion these "cultural" arguments are really just unwittingly parroting the soft approach to systemic racism (abstract racism) that Lee Atwater talked about in this video.
I'll leave you with this quote from W.E.B Dubois from almost 100 years ago...tell me if it sounds familiar.
"The land that disfranchises its citizens and calls itself a democracy lies and knows it lies. IT ENCOURAGES IGNORANCE. It has never really tried to educate the Negro. A dominant minority does not want Negroes educated. It wants servants, dogs, whores and monkeys. And when this land allows a reactionary group by its stolen political power to force as many black folk into these categories as it possibly can, it cries in contemptible hypocrisy: "They threaten us with degeneracy; they cannot be educated."...especially when they come here for Caribana! ;)
KB