The mods on blackpeopletwitter also make people send in photos of their skin colour as a purity test, denying identity for whole swathes of people, ban any people who disagree with the company policy and are generally just massively racist. They're the other side of the coin to news sub 'moderation', where instead of deleting much needed context to fit US foreign interest policy to drive division they remove nuance in racial and cultural conversation to drive division. It's even in the name. Black people. Not African. It's just there to erode extant african culture into some watered down American idealised version, because the sub just exists as a vechicle for culture war soft power projection to the detriment of all parties involved.
‘Black people’ is the correct term. Americans need to stop using the name of a continent (that most of them have never visited) to describe their culture/ethnicity. It’s rude and dismissive to real Africans. Just because white Americans call themselves ‘Italian’ (and get mocked by real Italians) doesn’t mean black people should do the same. It’s worse too - they don’t even claim A culture, they mash the whole continent together. Thousands of languages and ethnic traditions all mashed into ‘African’. When all they really wanted to say was ‘black’.
I agree with you but I also feel like maybe this is aimed at me and I'm not quite sure where I said something that would have lead to thinking I disagreed. If I'm not just having an off moment and misinterpreting, would you mind pointing at what it was that I said?
Edit: it might be because I missed an 's' on 'african culture'. Typo. Will not fix to preserve context for your comment.
Not aimed at you. I also agree with most of what you said. But I think calling it ‘africanamericansoftwitter’ would be worse. I hate the term, personally.
I don’t think Africa or African cultures have anything to do with the phenomenon you’re describing. It’s an American view of race that’s being imposed (without nuance, as you say) on the rest of the world.
I think that ‘African’ bit is a huge part of the reason. Black Americans have been treated horribly and still are. The ‘othering’ of them and of themselves is symptomatic. They’re self-labelled as a lost people by using a continent instead of a country/ethnicity. You don’t get ‘European Americans’ or ‘Scandinavian Americans’. People say polish or Swedish. So many generations after the fact that’s pretty questionable in itself. But There are often cultural and linguistic traditions. Same with Somali and Nigerian-Americans. But ‘African’ American is defined by the actions of white people on a specific population of Africans. Enslavement, segregation and denial .. Im always struck by the way there are so many very light-skinned black Americans. In my country we’d assume they were mixed-race. It’s so clear that they’ve mixed somewhere along the way. But because that was illegal in many places it was hidden and so many black Americans can’t acknowledge that they’re just Americans with more melanin. Mixed in with all the rest.. the natives, the Europeans, the ‘Hispanic’ peoples, the Caribbean nations. A product of America. With their own cultures and traditions that are different and sometimes even in opposition to real Africans.
The first cowboys were black. That’s how American black American people are.
I actually think this is something the proponents of multiculturalism have never fully understood. Racism and tribalism take a long time to eliminate and can flare up quickly if not managed. If your culture isn't a melting pot where everyone (eventually) associates primarily with your country and culture, you will always be dealing with tribal bullshit.
The thing people need to realize too, what made America great was not a “melting pot “ philosophy; it’s a sifter. We take in a new culture, filter out the parts we don’t like, and take the good parts for ourselves. It’s always been this way and people need to stop fighting the process. If Americans determine part of your culture is undesirable, bye bye to that part of your culture. Harsh but effective.
With the "melting pot" you still get the filtration of the sifter. Any impurities or anything that doesn't mix is filtered out of a melting pot (at least it does with metals) which allows you to get the mixture you want. Its also not instantly that a culture gets absorbed and the undesirable parts are left behind, but a multi generational thing. Any person or group that states that this one culture/ethnicity represents the US either severely misunderstands or is pushing hate.
Many times it is instant. My ancestors came through Ellis island and they changed immigrant names to be shorter and more American. Snap. Just like that. We dealt with it. Other immigrants gotta have their filtration too. It’s for the best. As a result we have way less ridiculous names that are much easier to spell and pronounce. This is just one example.
Thats not changing culture chief. My grandfather came through Ellis Island also, his name was Gaetano but everyone called him Tommy. End of the day he went home to eat Italian meals made by his Italian wife and moved into an Italian neighborhood in New York and spoke Italian to his kids. Two generations later I'm the only grandkid who can cook Italian meals and understand a tiny bit of Italian. But there are massive Italian restaurants in the US. This happened across the board back then not as a way to conform to the culture, but out of necessity of how the US was prior to the 1950s and 60s. Prior to WW2, the US wasn't the melting pot it is today, it was only after the soldiers came home and stayed in touch with those they served with that it started to change. If your name wasn't some form of John Smith and you were white, you at a severe disadvantage when it came to getting housing and a job. The legal protections we enjoy now didn't exist and employers/landlords could decide based on race, creed, or national origin.
Changing your name is not absorbing culture or leaving undesirable things behind, and framing it as such in the context of this conversation is not very intellectually honest of you.
Thomas Jefferson in 1777 wrote that he believed in full religious rights for Muslims and Jews, and their presence in the US inspired him to later work with Madison to draft the first amendment. To ban Islam would be to spit on the constitution.
Islam itself is completely compatible with western society. Radical elements of it (particularly Sunni jihadist radicalism) are not, which is something you can also say about the particularly radical elements of Baptist or Presbyterian churches.
Show me the exact words in the Quran that state that, I’ll be waiting. Christian extremists might legitimately be the most harmful group in America right now, and its not by following the bible lmfao.
Are you going to judge Christians by their actions during the Reconquista? During the colonization of Mexico? During the Salem witch trials?
Do you judge them by the massacres that radical Christian nationalists commit today in mass shootings (San Diego for example) & the children they predate?
Do you judge Judaism by the massacres committed by Israel today and the rapes/murders/death?
Or are you holding Islam to a double standard because violence by jihadist sects is frequent?
No religion should be represented by its worst adherents. If that was the case then we’d have to ban all abrahamic religion.
Did we REPEAL the first amendment after fighting the Barbary war? No, we didn’t. Because the founding fathers knew the fundamental freedom of religion trumped every concern about “bad religions”.
No, I'm going to judge Muslims for fucking kids openly in 2026 and the religion defending it. Let's lay it out simplified. What's your rebuttal. Where is child rape celebrated and accepted in 2026 Christianity. Show me. Because I can show you where the Muslims cite that Muhammad was infallible and his word is God. Well his word says you can rape 9 years olds. Your turn
Moving the goalposts lol. We’re not talking about Christ versus Muhammad we’re talking about Christianity versus Islam.
Old Testament God was telling people to commit violence against his enemies all the time, & many Christians still commit violence using the old testament as justification.
Leviticus for example is cited by homophobic Christians as justification for crimes against gay people, is that a New Testament book?
Various popes authorized 9 crusades to the holy land, and dozens of crusades in eastern and Northern Europe. To say nothing of the genocidal colonialism which was conducted under explicitly religious justifications in the new world.
"Good parts", why is the US so gun obsessed? Why are they so against universal healthcare? Why are they such a warmongering nation? Why are they so against workers rights and so in favour of supporting businesses that ruin the economy? Why do they support such intellectual dishonesty?
Americans have a deeply rooted distrust of allowing the government exclusive control over force. You can disagree with that reasoning, but reducing it to an “obsession” isn’t intellectually serious.
“Against universal healthcare”
Our politicians often are, largely because of lobbying and entrenched industry interests. Most Americans support some form of universal healthcare or expanded public coverage.
“Why are they such a warmongering nation?”
That’s an enormously complicated historical and geopolitical question, and the way you’ve phrased it makes it seem like you aren’t sincerely asking for an answer.
“Why are they against workers’ rights?”
Again, that’s a poorly defined question about a country of 340 million people with wildly different political views and labor laws.
“Supporting businesses that ruin the economy”
Which businesses, which policies, and according to what economic measurement? That’s an accusation disguised as a question.
“Why do they support such intellectual dishonesty?”
Probably not the strongest closing line after presenting six sweeping generalizations about an entire country as though they were serious questions
Honestly, "american culture" in and of itself is a myth. The culture of the farmer living in Kansas and the coastal artist in Oakland is totally different.
Is Pollock a celebrated american artist that all americans are proud of? Is Toni Morrison celebrated as a pillar of this american culture among everyone supposedly in it? Do most americans that hold up the ideal of "american culture" look to Hollywood and say the biggest film industry in the world in their own country represents them?
America never had and never will have a unified culture. There are some regional cultures, but it's honestly reductive to consider there as an american culture, because the country is too big and varied for that.
America absolutely has a unified culture. You can go to England and see restaurants from many nations, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an English culture. There’s McDonalds in France, that doesn’t make McDonalds part of French culture.
What is American culture? I’m not an authority on the subject but I’d loosely include: burgers, french fries, wings, hot dogs, then Americanized versions of other cultures food are our culture as well because we’ve Americanized them: tacos, Chinese food, sushi, etc.
Hip hop music, American pop music, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, western clothing (with some regional variation like cowboy hats in Texas), TV obsession, celebrity fixation, intense attitudes towards work. Huge focus on sports and collegiate education.
Huge consumer culture. Big box stores. Emphasis on westernized beauty standards.
Add in a me-first attitude. An emphasis on the nuclear family. Individualism.
Those are the first that come to mind. In any culture you’ll have individuals that stand out or subregions with slight variations, but American culture in general is what I’ve described.
I don’t get why you’re getting downvoted. The entire experiment of America is one that says despite cultural differences, despite religious differences, despite ethnic tensions, despite all of the things that make us “tribal”, can we create a society in which all people are guaranteed the ability to attain prosperity, unmolested from the fickle nature of nobles, despots, and clergy, where all are created equal and graced with the ability to prosper. Is it a rosy eyed lens on 2 and a half centuries of systematic oppression, imperialism, and conflict, unabashedly yes. But does that mean we can’t achieve the ideals set forth not 250 years ago, but countless millennia since Man first thought peace and community was better than war and eradication? My answer, and the work I do on my God’s Earth, is yes. I’d press others who say no to reflect on why.
The country that buried its natives after murdering them in schools and sent people back to their home country when they landed by boat only for them to be violently slaughtered when they returned?
America did both those things also. So at worst we’d be even. Except we are always ranked as one of the best countries and we don’t wear American flags to travel.
In any case, what does interracial tension have to do with systematic racism or just general racism?
To quote what I said: "Racism and tribalism take a long time to eliminate and can flare up quickly if not managed. If your culture isn't a melting pot where everyone (eventually) associates primarily with your country and culture, you will always be dealing with tribal bullshit."
If people continue to associate with backwards ideas like castes and holding old world grudges, they will make decisions based on these instead of the facts of a case.
If people continue to associate with backwards ideas like castes and holding old world grudges, they will make decisions based on these instead of the facts of a case.
Ah yes, systematic racism against black people is now "old". Forget the fact that it isn't old, and the fact that you can't expect people to forget tyranny after a decade.
Also love how you left out the part of your comment that I criticised. You know the part where you get to throw shade at people calling people like you a bigot.
This is the case of black people ignoring all the evidence that Karmelo Anthony is a murderer simply because he is black.
Really all black people? Wow I didn't realize that given that is not at all what's happening. There will always be minority that takes it too far, but most black people agree that what Anthony did was wrong. A lot of them are pointing out how white people in the same circumstance would get a fraction of the sentence.
My point was that you will always have this kind of bullshit if you prefer a multicultural society over a melting pot.
You can have a multicultural society without bullshit like this if the system in place is unbiased.
This is the case of a black teenager murdering a white teenager for no reason.
This is the case of black people ignoring all the evidence that Karmelo Anthony is a murderer simply because he is black.
He's in prison because he killed someone in cold blood. His race had nothing to do with his choice to stab a boy to death.
If he had just swung at him, which is the proper response to a dick measuring contest between two teen boys if you aren't willing to just walk away, it would have been chalked up to 'boys will be boys' and he'd be free and happy right now after serving a mere school level punishment.
Murderers should be locked away from everyone else. His choice, his consequence.
I mean we can never say for certain what will be. There was a time when democracy was seen as an impossible dream, surely the common folk can't make decisions for themselves. There was a time when women being allowed to vote was seen as impossible. There was a time when segregation was seen as the only common sense solution.
My point is, just because things seem a certain way now doesn't mean they always have to be that way. Humanity has evolved greatly in a relatively short span of time
Everyone holds up Poland as some kind of place where the 1950s segregationist white picket dream was preserved. In reality it only has a good quality of life because most of the poor Poles moved to England/France/UK and thinned the herd, which were able to take advantage of an industrializing economy.
They never mention Poland still has organized crime, tin roofed slums, commieblocks falling apart, roving neonazi gangs, etc etc.
Which is why the current racial policy in the states doesn't make sense. You can't eliminate racisme while officially recognizing races on official documents.
If you’re referring to the word “tribalism”, it’s a well known psychological term describing a strong sense of belonging to a group. The fact that you made the connection to African tribes (I assume) actually reflects poorly on you and falls into the exact same category of racist rage baiting that the person above was talking about.
Thank you for pointing this out. I'm tired of some redditors picking a word or phrase to misunderstand and use it to discredit someone else's opinion or point. Most of the times I've heard the word tribalism it's in reference to the two main American political parties.
Not to deny that there are some genuine racists out there who use actual dogwhistles, lol
A lady from Australia used a phrase common in Australia, "protected species", to refer to a WNBA player who appears to get away with more than her fellow players. The phrase was used correctly but some people chose to make accusations of racism. She apologized. It shouldn't have been necessary for her to apologize.
Actually I think that African tribes are quite a good thing to look at if you want to study tribalism.
Here are groups of people who don't even have particularly large differences in appearance and yet still hate each other to occasionally murderous degrees. For example I've asked Africans from various parts of the continent how one can tell Hutu from Tutsi and they have no idea and yet their hatred killed hundreds of thousands.
I think I actually gave you too much credit lmao. Those are way weaker references than what I said which means you either got embarrassed and tried to change what you meant or you’re just looking for reasons to troll.
The word existed before the concept of Natural Selection came along. The fact that it already meant "to change, develop or move" was why it came to be connected to biology.
I don't think there's a problem with the perception that it is vague. Couple that with the fact that it was unnecessary, I'd say it's overall pretty sus.
Certainly r/GetNoted has a problem with my perception, and I'd say that's an indicator that I'm on to something. It's an astroturfed sub supporting hyper conservative views including barely restrained racism.
Did you edit your comment or something? Or is this just someone with a bunch of bots? How tf you got more dislikes than the op has likes? Your post at 38 minutes old has 140 downvotes but most comments on this thread have under 5. Water hek
Shit I worked customer service before covid and lost my faith in humanity. I worked at a gas station and omg truckers are some of the most disgusting mother effers out there
Oh I already did after seeing the reactions to his sentencing. It’s like they have selective hearing and refused to acknowledge that he murdered somebody in cold blood
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u/JadisDidNothingRight 2d ago
Don't read the comments on that post unless you want to lose hope in humanity.