Wow. Always intriguing, sometimes provocative writing, Cobb. On multiple levels race in America -- visceral and intellectual -- is interesting. I've been part of a large and complicated black family in the Pacific Northwest going on 40 years - I guess I'm in for the long haul - everything seems interesting - past present future. I'm getting old, I've lived all over the world, especially in Latin America. Something I sense about all America - North South and Central & Mexico - I sense it like a harmonic note, a low mysterious note that you can barely hear - I hear it from the slave narratives, through WEB Dubois Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, MLK, Jr. even from wobbly tops like Cornel West; I hear it when watching entertainment pros like Nat King Cole addressing white America along with Spanish America in the 1950s; it whispers "You are Black." Latin Americans deny this by pretending the African continent doesn't exist and looking down on the Indian parts of their countries (sometimes 60% of the country); but you look at any crowd or audience of Latin Americans and you know damn well that great grandpa and great grandma were not sitting around playing checkers; turn on the music, those hips aren't white; sorry Latin Americans, you're Black. North America is different; we couldn't just go to confession and be forgiven for having 5 Indian mistresses and 5 black mistresses and 5 white mistresses and 45 illegitimate kids (say 10 Hail Marys and put the kids in the city register). We're Puritans after all. Pure. Maybe after a 5 year war that killed 3/4 million young men, 150 years of post war turmoil, maybe, maybe we begin to realize that we are not pillars of cement; that we are warm blooded human beings, mixed; we flow into each other; if we can't love each other, let's at least be kind, let's at least admire each other, after all, we've all been here since the beginning ...
Guys like Samael get pissy that you don't fit in the box they have in their head that says "black" on it, and that you won't conform to their notion of blackness.
Wow. Always intriguing, sometimes provocative writing, Cobb. On multiple levels race in America -- visceral and intellectual -- is interesting. I've been part of a large and complicated black family in the Pacific Northwest going on 40 years - I guess I'm in for the long haul - everything seems interesting - past present future. I'm getting old, I've lived all over the world, especially in Latin America. Something I sense about all America - North South and Central & Mexico - I sense it like a harmonic note, a low mysterious note that you can barely hear - I hear it from the slave narratives, through WEB Dubois Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, MLK, Jr. even from wobbly tops like Cornel West; I hear it when watching entertainment pros like Nat King Cole addressing white America along with Spanish America in the 1950s; it whispers "You are Black." Latin Americans deny this by pretending the African continent doesn't exist and looking down on the Indian parts of their countries (sometimes 60% of the country); but you look at any crowd or audience of Latin Americans and you know damn well that great grandpa and great grandma were not sitting around playing checkers; turn on the music, those hips aren't white; sorry Latin Americans, you're Black. North America is different; we couldn't just go to confession and be forgiven for having 5 Indian mistresses and 5 black mistresses and 5 white mistresses and 45 illegitimate kids (say 10 Hail Marys and put the kids in the city register). We're Puritans after all. Pure. Maybe after a 5 year war that killed 3/4 million young men, 150 years of post war turmoil, maybe, maybe we begin to realize that we are not pillars of cement; that we are warm blooded human beings, mixed; we flow into each other; if we can't love each other, let's at least be kind, let's at least admire each other, after all, we've all been here since the beginning ...
Now see this sounds like anthropology. Damn. I'm going to have to dip my toe in that ocean.
Guys like Samael get pissy that you don't fit in the box they have in their head that says "black" on it, and that you won't conform to their notion of blackness.