Umm, Rev. Jackson, that microphone is still on

No, I didn't say blacks.
All groups who do it drive me nuts.

 

Seriously, markvid- not stirring shit here; I'm genuinely curious. Why do you let it drive you nuts? How is it hurting you?

 

Because why should it matter to me that I must know you're African, Italian, German, etc.? We divide ourselves into too many groups, it's too elitist. I used to work closely with a black man, did I ever introduce him as my black friend? No, I always just introduced him as my friend, period.

 

OK. I get your point and agree that sometimes, people focus on ethnicity when it's irrelevant. However, I encourage you not to be annoyed with the way others define themselves. Unless they're getting all up in your grille and demanding that you pay tribute to their culture, it really isn't your concern.

 

And you tell him there's no way Johnny Fontane gets that part, I don't care how many dago wop guinea goombas come through that door.

Actually, I'm German-Irish.

Well, then, listen here, my Kraut-Mick friend!

 

I understand what you mean, but from where I come from, there is too much of it.

 

And where I'm from, there are three ethnicities- "white," black" and "messakin." I think it's great when I go to a big town in the Northeast or Upper Midwest and can experience "ethnic" neighborhoods. I think a lot of our attitudes about this sort of thing comes from our cultural context.

 

The only ethnicity that matters in this country is green, not black or white or "olive" (as Italians were called) or "red" (as Native Americans were referred to) or "yellow" (you know, Asians?) If you're making under $X a year, regardless of race, you're getting fucked in the ass with wage taxes, property taxes, school taxes, social security taxes, sales tax, high gas and food costs, etc. One of these days people will wake up to this reality and knock it the fuck off.

 

True, the inequalities in this country are based not on race, but class.

 

Pallsiter, you beat me to it. BYM2, you have a point. As a nation, we're obsessed with race...not ethnicity, really, but race. And collectively, we have more or less no understanding of the class system. Strange that a nation so focused on material wealth should be oblivious to class, but we manage to pull it off.

As a side note, the reason I like to make a distinction between ethnicity and race is that the former is real and the latter is a social construct...as evidenced by the various definitions of "white" over the centuries.

 

Jesse Jr. has been trying to distance himself (or at least his political career) from his father for years. He's also been very pragmatic as a politician. Most importantly, he's got his eye on Obama's Senate seat, if not a position within the adminstration. Jesse Jr. is well aware that having the name "Jesse Jackson" can be an enormous hindrance for himself.

Plus, there's getting over the whole issue about that surprise stepsibling.

 

I'll answer for me -- because for some reason we are the only country on the planet who is not allowed to be proud of our culture, less we be accused of being arrogant or ugo-American.

And unfortunately Chee, blacks in the ghetto's in places like Detroit and New York City have far more in common with the Bubba's in the tobbaco fields in the hills of Alabama than they do with Africans, I mean the ones who live in places like Nigeria and Ethiopia.

You know why? Because they are Americans, born and raised and cultured here in the American culture, which is far more uniform than most people would like to believe it is.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage and lineage.

But I have to laugh every time I walk into the mall and see some chick who was born and raised right up the street sporting some African garb, as if she's walking the streets of Nairobi while she is sipping from a Starbucks cup and eating a Chick-Fil-A sandwhich.

My favorite story ever, however, was this militant guy I went to college kid, one of these who insisted he keep his hair "natural" like they do in the motherland. I am dating myself, but he wore the Africa medallion and the black power shirts and the whole nine yards.

Of course, the most hilarious discussion we ever had was when one of my other friends, who was an exchange student, born and raised in Egypt and very light complected, like an Italian, was dating a black chick. Oh militant one was going on about how she should be with a good "brother, a straight up African-American male...." I then kindly pointed out that being as he was an Egyptian born and raised, he is far more African than my friend could ever hope to be, which prompted the predictable response of "Egypt ain't in Africa......"

In other words, my experience has been most people running around spouting off about the "motherland" are just as ignorant about what goes on in Africa as the white hillbillies they claim to have nothing in common with, why?

Because they are Americans......