Senate "Race" Relations (was "U.S. Society and Black Men")

For Black History Month, DeSantis personally announced an art and essay contest. His Education Commmissioner said "Learning about African American achievements is central to learning about Florida and America itself"



Edit: the state's special "Black History Month" website is a testament to minimum effort.

 

Juliet, just post what the article is about, instead of the constant click-baiting.

 

Where?

 

LOL wow. Where do I even start? Oh I know, with actual information about African American history.

The United States Project
Confronting Slavery in America
https://theunitedstatesproject.blogspot.com/2022/06/confronting-slavery-in-america.html

The Origins of Slavery in the British Empire
https://theunitedstatesproject.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-origins-of-slavery-in-british-empire.html

Opposing the African Slave Trade
https://theunitedstatesproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/opposing-african-slave-trade.html

Slave Ships, Slave Rebellions and the Middle Passage
https://theunitedstatesproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/slave-ships-slave-rebellions-and-middle.html

Phillis Wheatley Peters
https://theunitedstatesproject.blogspot.com/2022/11/phillis-wheatley-peters.html

 

Of course. Florida gonna Florida.

 

Just so we’re clear: African American history isn’t just slavery or slavery related topics.

 

@The Jedi in the Pumas no it isn’t, but unfortunately that’s where it starts.

 

I really don't think that meme does a good job. It does what white conservatives often misleadingly accuse "the woke left" of doing, and being unnecessarily polarizing and over-simplifying and villainizing/victimizing.

And African-American history might begin with slavery, but Black History does not.

 

So speaking of Black history, has anyone caught any of this (on PBS--available for streaming right now in addition to the local air dates):



I've seen the first two episodes and have been enjoying them. Really interesting to see the earlier origins of hip hop (with all its varied components--graffiti, breakdancing, rapping, etc.) examined in relation to the preceding context of Black consciousness movements of the 60s and then the specific context of the Bronx/NYC in the 1970s.

Another great recently-made music-related Black history doc is of course Questlove's Summer of Soul film from 2021. I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It weaves together so many elements of larger history in with the concert footage, and Questlove's audio director commentary was as fascinating as the film itself!

 

Personally, I only use the phrase of “people of color” when I’m around liberals who use it. I’m more comfortable saying black and brown when talking about minorities.

It does group everyone who isn’t white into one group while ignoring the tensions between those racial groups in America.

 

Hmm… that definitely feels like a pointless term.

How and why is it preferred?

 

Because people of European descent are a minority in the global population.

 

I think you may have to watch the video to see what I’m saying: I understand the meaning of it, but I was asking Merk why he preferred it.

It seems like a meaningless conflation of many cultures, races, ethnicities. I suppose I could say: what purpose does it serve to group everyone, on earth mind you, not white into a single group?

 

That wasn’t done by us. We have, for centuries now, had to endure social and legal distinctions that did exactly that: lumped everyone non-white into an umbrella inferior class. That has created certain parallel experiences where none had reason to exist prior. In light of that, I don’t find the idea implausible. And I’m certainly not going to get in a huff about recognizing a social reality that someone else spent incredible effort to create.

Is it the only acceptable framing? Of course not. I don’t even use it. But I recognize it’s better and more accurate than “minority groups” for instance.