Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : CYBERIAN GULAG + other thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ztect who wrote (21)	1/24/1999 4:30:00 PM
From: ztect	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193

CONVERSATIONS ON RACE........and the BLUES.......and ebonics??? K........ On Ebonics, my own emphasis on the transient or fluid aspects of the vocabulary of Ebonics made me overlook the history of the syntax in which these changing words were being place. Because Ebonic's words always seem to be "fresh" or new, I didn't recognize that the structures were old and multigenerational. My lack of knowledge of this history begets larger issues which I'll discuss below. Last Thursday night, I listened to Angela Davis's discussion of her new book at the nearby Borders Books. Davis spoke about how some of the earliest blues singers were women, and discussed the blues or "devil's" music's context, content and importance to both the times in which this music was made and now.. Davis talked about how the blues provided an alternative sense of community to the Black churches for liberated slaves. A community where issues could be addressed that weren't appropriate for a house of God like sexuality and relationships. She reminded the listeners that during slavery that contemporary notions of family and community weren't available for slaves. She added that slaves couldn't even choose their own partners and cited the breeding businesses in States like Delaware that bred slaves like race horses to get the best physical traits for work and labor. By citing this history, she placed the Blues in context and demonstrated the importance of this music because of its provision of a forum to discuss issues that couldn't and hadn't been discussed before or elsewhere and are still being discussed constructively and destructively in contemporary music. Davis also noted how the 13th Amendment and its abolition of slavery left a loop hole for Southern politicians and landowners to keep blacks enslaved. This loop hole was the forced labor of prisoners, and how this loop hole was used to wrongly imprison former slaves and then lease these prisoners back to their former masters. She stated that this loop hole helped to structure the contemporary penal system in which nearly 32 percent of black men are incarcerated. Davis made a number of other interesting comments and observations which space and time don't permit me from discussing here. My lack of knowledge and awareness of these aspects of black history that Davis discussed (and many other aspects she didn't discuss) should make you painfully aware of why I limited my thoughts on Ebonics to a contemporary setting rather than look at Ebonics in the context of Black American's culture. Unfortunately my limitations (a polite euphemism for my ignorance) don't only pertains to discussions on the structure of language. The lasting repercussions of slavery on the structures of family, education and community of black Americans aren't discussed in such a way as to make many white Americans cognizant of the roots of many of the conflicts between many members of the black and white communities. as well as many of the problems of lower economically classed black Americans. This discussion on the lasting ramifications of slavery hasn't or can't occur until an awareness and conscience is raised through an honest inclusion of black history in our educational system. Only by including more lessons on the less glorious aspects of American History like slavery and the genocide of indigenous peoples can Americans develop the critical capacities to honestly deal with the ramifications of our historic mistakes. However, rather than have such a catharsis, current education and discussion seems more intent upon perpetuating denial. Our societal conscience is like that of an alcoholic that doesn't admit he has a problem. Like an alcoholic, our societal problems, especially pertaining to race, are passed down from generation to generation. Recognition that your father was alcoholic or racist, and that your great grandfather was also an alcoholic or a slave or slave owner, is the first step in making you aware that you have a problem you can't continue to deny. So, again the importance of an inclusive history is paramount. Also, like with an alcoholic, interventions are needed to make the alcoholic focus on his problems.