Well, we went from a period of history like this (when folks like sharecropping black families did everything they could to make sure their kids got an education):
To things like this and this (when black and white Americans came together in love and understanding):
To things like this (when change and challenge destroyed the moral authority and institutional integrity of the black family, and anti-intellectualism and the normalization of violence became the cultural routine):
See Reliapundit's own video montage for an alternative take.
Inspired by Instapundit (which I saw this morning), and Boing Boing.
Thanks to Reliapundit for going beyond nostalgia to hard and necessary cultural analysis.
6 comments:
The scene between Sidney Poitier and his character's father in the film, 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?' is unforgettable.
Black culture has died the same death as that of the black family. 7 in 10 black homes have no full time dad. For this you can thank the ever compassionate Federal welfare system that pays families for splitting up and removing the Dad from the home.
Ever since we took those first socialist steps, the black family and culture has been on the decline.
Thanks Bosch!
Glad to see you commenting, Greywolfe!
great stuff dd.
thanks for the linkage, too.
america is coming back - with a strong and vibrant and positive african-american community that has a positive culture and a strong family.
all we need to do is eradicate leftism.
This post hits hard. This is timely for me. I have been studying African-American history through the Pulitzer award winning non-fiction and National Book Award books for the last year - learning a lot. Trying to assimilate what I can through my own experiences figuring out how we got where we are, and thinking a lot about black culture.
I grew up to contradictions of pre-civil rights era Southern mis-behavior in the segregated 50s vs. military integration- street-wise and young, and yet, sweet, black boxing GIs who were my mentors; the 60s jazz and blues musicians I hung out with, all of us relating to MLK, then, Malcolm X seemed to poison young black minds; living in Berkeley around the aggressive Black Panthers. Still, Sidney Poitier was where I thought it might go –Bill Cosby in the 80s a foil to Richard Pryor, the jokes got funny, but rougher, angrier, and then the likeable Eddie Murphy, filthy language became just crude - I was embarrassed for him.
It seemed to me, when I was teaching, it was the 1990s when classrooms went blue and red, Cripps and bloods, graffiti everywhere– the movie Colors, and NWA- Biggie, Dre and Tupac, making it worse.
It is difficult not to be nostalgic for the dignity of W.E.B. De Bois; the crazy charm of Cassius Clay; class and music of Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Smokey Robinson and Ray Charles - Still, for every 50 cent, there is an Ice Tea that is now on mainstream TV; We had the strange, Tiger Woods eruption, but still have Michael Jordan to look up to.
Then, there’s Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey (regardless of politics), et.al. - there are still plenty of role models out there.
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