Black Culture Discussion Thread

50 years after the Kerner CommissionAfrican Americans are better off in many ways but are still disadvantaged by racial inequality

The year 1968 was a watershed in American history and black America’s ongoing fight for equality. In April of that year, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis and riots broke out in cities around the country. Rising against this tragedy, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 outlawing housing discrimination was signed into law. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a black power salute as they received their medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Arthur Ashe became the first African American to win the U.S. Open singles title, and Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives.

The same year, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission, delivered a report to President Johnson examining the causes of civil unrest in African American communities. The report named “white racism”—leading to “pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing”—as the culprit, and the report’s authors called for a commitment to “the realization of common opportunities for all within a single [racially undivided] society.”1 The Kerner Commission report pulled together a comprehensive array of data to assess the specific economic and social inequities confronting African Americans in 1968.

https://www.epi.org/publication/50-years-after-the-kerner-commission/
 
Same state that today, refused to classify white supremacist and neo-nazis as terrorist groups.

not that the 2 aren't possibly related...but definitely seems likely the fines could have everything to do with the protection for some existing business owners (as well as barber colleges & cosmetology schools?) vs. 'amateur' barbers/beauticians that may not have the cost of running a business with licensed hairstylists or having to pay schools to get licensed...
 
:lol: Bruno ain't appropriating black culture

All I got out of that video was a bunch of people mad that Jay-Z and Kendrick ain't get the grammy.

Let the lil crackhead live, b.

They said no other new jack swing artists won grammy's before him? Boyz 2 men? Bobby brown?

They said prince didn't win grammy of the year? Who did he lose to? Lionel Richie? Right?

He black, ain't he?

C'mon son, the whole convo was filled with favoritism and goal post moving. Of course MJ wouldn't have been that big in the 2018 climate of music. The way we consume music now isn't the same as back then. How old are the people in this video? Even in hip hop, who is out here doing 90's bad boy numbers? DMX numbers? LL Numbers? That was a stupid point to be brought up.

Its like they want him to win the grammy, then say "I haven't earned this, so I'm going to give it to Kendrick, because... Black people said so"

I don't wake up every day, and go into my professional workplace and pay homage to all the white people in silicon valley who made my ******* job possible :lol:
And I'm damn sure not about to give back any of my accolades. Or apologize for winning them in the first place.

You think the little black boy who get a scholarship to harvard is going to apologize to white people? **** no :lol:

They were condemning him of crimes he hasn't even committed. They're HOPING the lil cokehead slips up just to give the a reason to go in on him.

And then, when the hell did Bruno say he was black? When did he embrace black stereotypes? Last time I checked, he sings songs, and music ain't the only aspect of black culture. Is Nelly appropriating white culture by working on country albums and working with country artists? Or is he just a dude from St. Louis who just so happened to not be white? Should white people have a round table discussion on youtube about it?

I haven't seen bruno running around saying "my *****" in his songs, or pronouncing his words with a forced urban accent/tone, hanging with black people that look as if he's paying them for their freindships, and hanging out at black clubs getting into all kinds of **** trying to look like he's something he's not.

Would Bruno be appropriating white culture if he was the lead singer in a rock band? How about if he was a bboy dancing in the bay? Or what about if he was backup singer in a jazz band? Hell naw you wouldn't be pointing him out. Bruno doesn't have a a popular genre to represent his culture. But here he is paying homage to a sound he really liked, and that backfires on him because at the end of the day, you don't look like us. Sound familiar?

I see bruno is getting the sharp edge of the sword, but the half breed from canada who lived primarily with his white mom gets the pass for saying ***** in all his tracks. :lol: **** outta here

At the end of the day, you take a kid with the same racial background as bruno and put him in a linup and have a witness point him out along side some white boys and he still getting the short end of the stick.

So the whole argument they were having is trash. And it really shows how salty/vulnerable we are as a people. Hiphop has become the largest genre of music in america, and it was NOT because of bruno mars. You think hip hop would be as big as it is if ONLY us black people was supporting it?

Just like one dude in the video said, what the hell else do we want from the guy?
 
How Chicago Ticket Debt Sends Black Motorists Into Bankruptcy

By last summer, Laqueanda Reneau felt like she had finally gotten her life on track. A single mother who had gotten pregnant in high school, she supported her family with a series of jobs at coffee shops, restaurants and clothing stores until she landed a position she loved as a community organizer on Chicago’s West Side. At the same time, she was working her way toward a degree in public health at DePaul University.

But one large barrier stood in her way: $6,700 in unpaid tickets, late fines and impound fees.

She had begun racking up the ticket debt five years earlier, in 2012, after a neighbor who saw her riding the bus late at night with her infant son sold her her first car, a used Toyota Camry, for a few hundred dollars. She was grateful for the shorter commute to work but unprepared for the extra costs of owning a car in Chicago.

That year alone, Reneau got 15 tickets, including seven $200 citations for not having a city sticker. Later, she received a dozen tickets for license plate violations on another used car that couldn’t pass emissions testing, a state requirement to renew her plates.

“Those tickets have followed me until this freaking day,” said Reneau, who is 25.

Because of the unpaid tickets, the city garnished her state tax refunds. Her car was impounded and she couldn’t pay for its release. Her driver’s license was suspended. Unable to come up with $1,000 to enter a city payment plan, Reneau did what thousands of Chicago drivers do each year: She turned to Chapter 13 bankruptcy and its promise of debt forgiveness.

https://features.propublica.org/driven-into-debt/chicago-ticket-debt-bankruptcy/
 
The Story Behind the Viral Photo of a Teacher in Ghana Showing Students Windows on a Blackboard
teaching-microsoft-ghana.jpg


https://qz.com/1217879/a-ghana-teacher-shows-microsoft-windows-on-a-blackboard-is-a-viral-sensation/
He got computers now! https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/africa/ghanaian-ict-teacher-donations-intl/index.html
 
It isn't that we can't figure out how to monetize our music, it's that we cling to authenticity to the point where we chastise others for not being authentic enough in their appreciation/performance of Black art, and in the process we kill our own ability to profit off it.

Every time I have ordered fried rice, there isn't a Chinese dude who screamed through the door of the restaurant that the food I'm buying is not 100% real Chinese food and cussed out the chef for serving me anything less than "real" Chinese food; they are too happy to see my money go in their pockets and use it to increase their consumer base.

When Black/African/Caribbean artists try to appeal to the purchasing power of 270 million American consumers by adapting their sound to their ears, the remaining 50 million Black folks call them "sellouts." When a Justin Timberlake shows up, does the same thing, and make the money Black artists should have, we complain that he's making money off our art, as we conveniently forget that we saw little value in supporting those who tried to widen the appeal for our music.

Cultures that thrive maintain authenticity at their core, without walling themselves off from the outside world and its influences. Cultures that don't do that stagnate and die off, as we can see in the number of languages (language being one of the most significant identifiers of a particular culture) that go extinct because nobody cares to use them.

how are we not saying the same thing?

lets use your words:

“we conveniently forget that we saw little value in supporting those who tried to widen the appeal for our music.”


if we understood how to monetize our own culture, wouldnt we SEE the value in supporting it?
 
:lol: Bruno ain't appropriating black culture

All I got out of that video was a bunch of people mad that Jay-Z and Kendrick ain't get the grammy.

Let the lil crackhead live, b.

They said no other new jack swing artists won grammy's before him? Boyz 2 men? Bobby brown?

They said prince didn't win grammy of the year? Who did he lose to? Lionel Richie? Right?

He black, ain't he?

C'mon son, the whole convo was filled with favoritism and goal post moving. Of course MJ wouldn't have been that big in the 2018 climate of music. The way we consume music now isn't the same as back then. How old are the people in this video? Even in hip hop, who is out here doing 90's bad boy numbers? DMX numbers? LL Numbers? That was a stupid point to be brought up.

Its like they want him to win the grammy, then say "I haven't earned this, so I'm going to give it to Kendrick, because... Black people said so"

I don't wake up every day, and go into my professional workplace and pay homage to all the white people in silicon valley who made my ****ing job possible :lol:
And I'm damn sure not about to give back any of my accolades. Or apologize for winning them in the first place.

You think the little black boy who get a scholarship to harvard is going to apologize to white people? **** no :lol:

They were condemning him of crimes he hasn't even committed. They're HOPING the lil cokehead slips up just to give the a reason to go in on him.

And then, when the hell did Bruno say he was black? When did he embrace black stereotypes? Last time I checked, he sings songs, and music ain't the only aspect of black culture. Is Nelly appropriating white culture by working on country albums and working with country artists? Or is he just a dude from St. Louis who just so happened to not be white? Should white people have a round table discussion on youtube about it?

I haven't seen bruno running around saying "my *****" in his songs, or pronouncing his words with a forced urban accent/tone, hanging with black people that look as if he's paying them for their freindships, and hanging out at black clubs getting into all kinds of **** trying to look like he's something he's not.

Would Bruno be appropriating white culture if he was the lead singer in a rock band? How about if he was a bboy dancing in the bay? Or what about if he was backup singer in a jazz band? Hell naw you wouldn't be pointing him out. Bruno doesn't have a a popular genre to represent his culture. But here he is paying homage to a sound he really liked, and that backfires on him because at the end of the day, you don't look like us. Sound familiar?

I see bruno is getting the sharp edge of the sword, but the half breed from canada who lived primarily with his white mom gets the pass for saying ***** in all his tracks. :lol: **** outta here

At the end of the day, you take a kid with the same racial background as bruno and put him in a linup and have a witness point him out along side some white boys and he still getting the short end of the stick.

So the whole argument they were having is trash. And it really shows how salty/vulnerable we are as a people. Hiphop has become the largest genre of music in america, and it was NOT because of bruno mars. You think hip hop would be as big as it is if ONLY us black people was supporting it?

Just like one dude in the video said, what the hell else do we want from the guy?

This post is filled with all sorts of ignorance

Of course they're upset black musicians haven't gotten their just do. You should be too!

You need to pay attention. They're are specially referencing album of the year not just a Grammy win.

No he isn't black that's the point!

They made a valid point that there were black artists who created great ORIGINAL works of music that were overshadowed by an album full of ripping off sounds from the 90's.

You need to separate your regular day job from someone who creates art for a living. He's blatantly ripped off parts of black music and repackaged it the same way Elvis did. The bigger issue is how the others before him aren't recognized, but here comes this non black and he's one of the greatest ever similar to Eminem who's elevated way past his talent level In my opinion. Most of his albums have been gimmicks, sub par, lacking any depth, and average.

You sounds ignorant for thinking the only way imitate black people is to say n***a or use slang while talking as if we aren't educated enough to speak any other way. You bought into the stereotype which is sad within itself.

It would be no different if it was jazz. Black people created jazz and it too was stolen by Anglo Saxon's. As far as rock and boy bands, this is a discussion on black culture so it doesn't really apply. This is part of a bigger issue that White America continues to steal, borrow, appropriate our culture without giving us our just do. Bruno Mars has benefited from this as much anyone intentionally or unintentionally (which I find hard to believe)

Hip hop wasn't created so it would be accepted by white people. Hip hop was created to be a voice of our culture and just like anything else white America wanted to be a part of something not their own. The art form was influced by Jazz and Blues two genres created by blacks. You fatal mental flaw is thinking we want to be ACCEPTED by white America instead of being RESPECTED by white America.

As far as Drake he's definitely 50% black and unlike Bruno Mars has direct connection to his heritage. People think because you send out a few tweets supporting blacks you somehow get a pass to use the culture how you see fit *****!
 
Meet the Woman Running the Largest Black-Owned Airline In the Bahamas

Sherrexia “Rexy” Rolle, is the 29-year-old Vice President of Operations and General Counsel for Bahamas-based Western Air. The aviation company was founded by Rolle’s parents, Rex and Shandrice Rolle, in 2001, but their daughter has been successful in keeping the family firm on the path to success. The business has since expanded, thanks to Rexy, and boasts a net worth of more than $90 million

Rolle-300x212.jpg
 
This post is filled with all sorts of ignorance

Of course they're upset black musicians haven't gotten their just do. You should be too!

You need to pay attention. They're are specially referencing album of the year not just a Grammy win.

No he isn't black that's the point!

They made a valid point that there were black artists who created great ORIGINAL works of music that were overshadowed by an album full of ripping off sounds from the 90's.

You need to separate your regular day job from someone who creates art for a living. He's blatantly ripped off parts of black music and repackaged it the same way Elvis did. The bigger issue is how the others before him aren't recognized, but here comes this non black and he's one of the greatest ever similar to Eminem who's elevated way past his talent level In my opinion. Most of his albums have been gimmicks, sub par, lacking any depth, and average.

You sounds ignorant for thinking the only way imitate black people is to say n***a or use slang while talking as if we aren't educated enough to speak any other way. You bought into the stereotype which is sad within itself.

It would be no different if it was jazz. Black people created jazz and it too was stolen by Anglo Saxon's. As far as rock and boy bands, this is a discussion on black culture so it doesn't really apply. This is part of a bigger issue that White America continues to steal, borrow, appropriate our culture without giving us our just do. Bruno Mars has benefited from this as much anyone intentionally or unintentionally (which I find hard to believe)

Hip hop wasn't created so it would be accepted by white people. Hip hop was created to be a voice of our culture and just like anything else white America wanted to be a part of something not their own. The art form was influced by Jazz and Blues two genres created by blacks. You fatal mental flaw is thinking we want to be ACCEPTED by white America instead of being RESPECTED by white America.

As far as Drake he's definitely 50% black and unlike Bruno Mars has direct connection to his heritage. People think because you send out a few tweets supporting blacks you somehow get a pass to use the culture how you see fit *****!
Let me ask you a simple question.

Would they have been mad if he won album of the year and there were no black performers also up for the award?

Like I said before, their comparison to Prince was trash because Lionel Ritchie won album of the year before.

And I’m a designer, my day job IS to create for a living. Original work. We do win awards for design. And as a black man in the field, I do take my work personally and seriously just like a music artist would. So my points and analogies are coming from experience. This isn’t something I’m making up for the sake of an argument.


And my point wasn’t that the only way to be ignorant is to say *****. My point was, he isn’t doing ANYTHING outside of singing the type of music he was influenced by growing up. What you want him to do, only sing Filipino music? So he can’t sing black music and be successful because he isn’t black?

You do realize that’s racist, don’t you?

If Beyoncé were to come out today with a country album and it sells a million records and won a country music award for album of the year it would be considered “black girl magic”. But because Bruno mars is making music influenced with black heritage, it’s an issue.

Cmon bruh.
 
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how are we not saying the same thing?

lets use your words:

we conveniently forget that we saw little value in supporting those who tried to widen the appeal for our music.”


if we understood how to monetize our own culture, wouldnt we SEE the value in supporting it?

That "we" stands for Black audiences, not content creators. As soon as artists start getting mainstream recognition, accusations of selling out start flying around.
 
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