What Does It Mean to Be Black?

[zay_24]

Relate to The Chronic

 

[fiat_money]

To have recent (as in post "early dispersal") Sub-Saharan African ancestry.

 

[Idiopathic Joker]

I'm a nigga

She's a nigga

He's a nigga

We's some niggas

Don't you wanna be a nigga too???

 

[Arya Tsaddiq]

Being "Black" basically means a lack of self identity. Thats why our ethnic identity has been reduced to being labeled by our actual skin color.

 

[jsnowpro]

Something I've been thinking about for a minute.

What does it mean to be labeled Black?

Most people in the world identify themselves with their nation. I'm Mexican, I'm Nigerian, I'm Indian, I'm Australian. Even Africans identify with nation: I'm Ghanian, Somalian, Moroccan, Ugandan, etc... Why is it common that we identify ourselves with this one color? Most Black people I know range anywhere from really light skinned to very dark. The color range of 'Black' people could fill a whole box of Crayola 64 with Dro being on the bottom right hand side all the way at the end.

I got a lot of thoughts on it, but I wanna hear what what de bredren think about the matter.

You're looking too deep into it .. it's just another label. & most Africans don't identify with their 'countries'. they identify with their tribes / clans /

 

[7figz]

Just a color of skin.

Then you have black people who are from particular regions - as in Black American, Black Britain, etc...

 

[32DaysOfInfiniti]

It means mental slavery was successful.

 

[Mr.Player]

Being black is like being any other culture really where people and all people do good&bad thing smart&dumb shit...now there is a difference between black&a nigga...the word nigga has changed now anybody can be a nigga...theres white,mexican&indian niggas....niggas are people who decide 2b ignorant on purpose refusing 2 try and achieve greatness yet there always ready 2do or endorse something dumb or crazy thats destructive 2 themselves or someone else but no matter who or what color u are we all have our nigga moments.....although black people are still the only ones who can say nigga...damn im all of topic i think i just made a thread within a thread INCEPTION lol

 

[Amotekun]

I think with all the range of colors of Black people the term has more to do with social and economic status denoted by African ancestry than anything else.

I mean Black is often used in juxtaposition to White and it's usually in America or Britain or anyplace predominantly European where Blacks make up a minority to whites.

I know most of you heard the whole look up black in a dictionary and you see it's affiliated with everything negative while on the opposite side white is affiliated with everything good and pure.

If you took the average White and Black person, we don't resemble these labels. White people often are pink or red in hue and Black people due to interracial breeding range anywhere from fair skin to deep dark brown to wesley snipes.

However the range of colors Europeans are treated as the personification of white while African people are treated and regarded as the personification of black.

I think language plays an important part. While being robbed of our native tongues from whatever tribe we come from, we were forced to learn an oppressor's language and to also to be defined within this language.

if we look in an African dictionary do the words black and white carry the same connotations as in an English dictionary?

 

[SneakDZA]

Being "Black" basically means a lack of self identity. Thats why our ethnic identity has been reduced to being labeled by our actual skin color.

i wish i could click both cosign and nosign to this shit.

 

[FroHawke]

Truthfully, no disrespect....but I'm kind of tired of these race-related self-reflective type threads....

 

[Amotekun]

Truthfully, no disrespect....but I'm kind of tired of these race-related self-reflective type threads....

So why did you come in?

 

[Kushington]

Is this thread about ethnic identification, or the characteristics ascribed to color?

Cause you all over the place with this shit nigga.

 

[Amotekun]

I'm not all over the place but there is a realization that people who self identify ascribe characteristics to their ethnicity.

As black people we have been robbed of our native ethnicity and prescribed numerous identities by our oppressors all with the single commonality of us possessing inherently negative traits.

So what does it mean to be Black? How did we get this identity and what does it mean what are the characteristics of black?

 

[Kushington]

They call us black because the color black essentially stands for the worst of everything. It doesnt have to do with our actual skin color, thats why whites call themselves white, cause in english it stands for the best of everything

American/Western society/English language did/does everything it can to associate everything negative it possibly could to blackness and being black, and that includes words and their connotations

There is a book listing every racist word and their origins, Wicked Words: Poisoned Minds

 

[Amotekun]

@kushington

So if we accept that identity are we then subconsciously taking on the negative traits as well? Are we complicit in our own degradation?

 

[Kushington]

@kushington

So if we accept that identity are we then subconsciously taking on the negative traits as well? Are we complicit in our own degradation?

Yep.

 

[Bully_Pulpit]

goat sig PE, i fuks wit some philosoraptor, but to answer your question I really dont know, I just am

 

[Amotekun]

@kushington

So if we accept that identity are we then subconsciously taking on the negative traits as well? Are we complicit in our own degradation?

Yep.

Then common sense dictates that if we want to change our condition we must first reject the labels that frame us.

Black is out. African American doesn't work because it still has white identification in it.

What do we call ourselves? African? It seems too broad. Maybe we can decide what to call ourselves if we learn what and who our ancestors were? Who are the people whose blood still flows through us?

 

[Kushington]

@kushington

So if we accept that identity are we then subconsciously taking on the negative traits as well? Are we complicit in our own degradation?

Yep.

Then common sense dictates that if we want to change our condition we must first reject the labels that frame us.

Black is out. African American doesn't work because it still has white identification in it.

What do we call ourselves? African? It seems too broad. Maybe we can decide what to call ourselves if we learn what and who our ancestors were? Who are the people whose blood still flows through us?

I dont necessarily see white identification when we consider ourselves american. We are just as american, if not more so, than white americans. Being labeled "African" Americans marginalizes us and is another subconscious reminder of our "different" status in america, especially since this country has done everything it possibly could to remove any remnants of our african culture.

I honestly dont know what we should be labeled, ideally, we shouldnt have a label at all.