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Race and culture
Bring back segregation!
Sometimes I think Martin Luther King got assassinated before he was able to complete his thought: We shall overcome…and then chill with our own kind, in small little groups by ourselves, despite our newfound civil rights. And believe it or not, this black man is down: Bring on segregation 2.0. Holla!
In New York, races and ethnic types already separate themselves, if informally, as multiculti as we think we are. The disparate groups—blacks at the Village Underground on Sundays, whites on the Upper East Side, period—are reflective of how freedom is understood differently than it was back in the day. In King’s time, the problem with different water fountains for different colors wasn’t just the separation, but the fact that blacks often drank from the outhouse. It was humiliating. Now that we have the same plumbing, and a little respect, a water fountain for black people would be awesome! I bet Martin would rather hang out with the boys, rapping about The Wire and Common’s latest album, rather than dish on My Chemical Romance and Flight of the Conchords.
In other words, our choices have a cultural history to them, and only those who share it can truly feel connected. At the end of the day, a Michael Vick or a Barry Bonds should come home to a black community that is more likely to understand their choices than a white one (and maybe Don Imus and Michael Richards should go home to white Klansmen). To that point, if black people come off as lazy, it may be because we have a history where our work wasn’t an investment in our future. Some days I just want to get my “Kill Whitey” on and blast only underground hip-hop and hard-core Amiri Baraka. And when in that zone, my Caucasian friends hang around at their own peril.
Self-segregation reminds me of high school: In class, the teachers would make sure we shared experiences and worked together, only to see their dream of integration quashed when we got to the lunchroom. In my school, the little cluster for black people was called Little Africa.
New York is nothing but a big high-school lunchroom. So I propose we make it official: Why not same-race subway cars? Every time I see one of my people snap at some poor unsuspecting white person, or some white person clutch their handbag when a black dude’s doing nothing, I think, We could all be better off if we had some room to ourselves.
Check out more from Patrice Evans at theassimilatednegro.com.
Time Out New York / Issue 621 : Aug 23–29, 2007
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Wow. I don't really know anything else this guy has done, but I see almost no possibility that this is not satire. Look at the picture for crying out loud - no way that's a serious take. It worked well for me, I read it as I read the onion, but I guess he needed to make his recommendations even more absurd than they already are for people to see the satire. He points out problems that people who think they are beyond racism still cling to in an accessible manner, which is what satire does.
Good idea then maybe all the blanquitos can stop moving into Bushwick.
Mr. Assimilated, You said: "Some days I just want to get my “Kill Whitey” on and blast only underground hip-hop and hard-core Amiri Baraka. And when in that zone, my Caucasian friends hang around at their own peril." With this statement, you accidentally, and quite poetically, put forth what is truly beautiful and unique about America.
I live in London & reading this issue reminded me that although black people in the UK don't have the financial or political clout that Afro-Americans have, at least we're less socially polarised. This country isn't big enough for us not to go out with ( date) each other, marry each other, live next to each other & so on. Sure, some of our interactions are superficial and black people are rarely seen in rural Britain and don't get me started on the class thing, which is almost more important than race here, but we weren't slaves here (within living memory) and I think that makes all the difference in the world. Sorry, you Americans are scary people.
I liked the idea of segregating this guy away of the rest of the NYC community. He made a big mistake about his threats against whites, maybe too late for him. I am white and I love black people. If you're still a walking corps Mr, I live in Harlem and ready to rap with ya.
The consept is simple,All Fermions(Leptons,Quarks)and Bosons(w/s Nuclear Force,Gravity,Electromagnetism,Scalar Electrostatic Potential,Instantaneous Dipole Induced Dipole Forces) are influenced by UL,VH Frequencies.Following this line of logic,All Biological,Chemical Materials are governed by The Law of Quantum Acoustics,expressed through MC3=E3. Looking from the viewpoint of 300 billion light years to Earth...you are ALL THE SAME...HUMANS...ONE PLANET...ONE RACE. YOU NEED AS A SPECIES...TO GROW UP.Nunc Dimmittus servum tuum...Africanus SPQR...Pax.
I used to read this guy's blog. Jesus Christ, he is a real fracking idiot. I don't understand why he still gets any attention.
Help NYC is becoming LA !
You're a goofball. Unless you look at people as individuals, then you only perpetuate the hate. Martin woiuld be embarrassed by your comments, maybe you should read more of the texts and less inot your faulty imagination.
I really hope this article was satirical. Segregation helps no one. But things are going to change drastically in this century. The United States, due to immigration, will become a much more multicultural, and multiracial, place. What's the future? Will we all be fighting each other or will we try to make the effort to live with each other?
It's scary to hear a fellow brother use the same arguments for segregation that brought about Jim Crow laws in the first place. Sure, a whole generation of black people suffered beatings, lynchings, assassinations and all kinds of other heinous things just to get rid of it. But you seem to take a short-sighted view that we're all better off with our own kind, rather than see it for what it really is - symbolic of the inequality, especially economically, and racism that has persisted because so many people have forgotten that the struggle didn't end with Dr. King and Malcom X. The fact that people still distrust one another and fall back into ethic cliques is a sign that we have a lot of work to do to.
The idea of any type of segregation scares me to be honest. I'm from British Columbia (how multicultural can a name be?) where we've had our share of racism in the past but now try to focus more on building the culture we want to live in and present to the world. So overall, I guess the real question is what sort of reality do you want to live in? If you really want it, you will build it, if not then you won't. This is not to say that all cultures/ethnicities should be thrown into a blender and puréed into some new monoculture, by all means we need to preserve where we came from, but it needs to be the building blocks to a solid society, where everyone has something positive to contribute, which strengthens those around us, as opposed to some glob that just slides along without purpose.