Thread: Obama's Church
View Single Post
  #25 (permalink)  
Old 03-02-2007, 12:37 PM
JavaBlack's Avatar
JavaBlack JavaBlack is offline
Site Moderator
Guru
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Michigan
Age: 29
Posts: 17,215
usa us michigan
JavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond reputeJavaBlack has a reputation beyond repute
Credits: 116,950
Default ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by DuH2";p=&quot View Post
No amount of collegic thinking or dialetic mumblygook gets away from the fact that ANY white canidate a member of ANY chruch with such a white centric philosophy would be (*)(*)(*)(*)ed as a racist.
Not true. There is an amount of collegiate thinking that will do it. There is a concept of statuses. All people have them and they take varying degrees of importance to each individual.

Majority status is in a way a lack of status. This offers the benefit of no categorization other than that based on individual qualities... but it makes it harder to understand what the people not in the majority are made to feel like. Minorities are, even in the days where racism is thought to be in the past, often treated as aliens by those in the majority. They are seen for their status (race, religion, nationality, whatever) while their white peers are not. They are constantly made aware of their status and if nothing else share that with their "community". Whites have no community. Aside from those who were either raised in a setting where they felt as a minority or those who are desperate for a grouping, whites generally will not consider being "white" an important part of their being and do not fraternize with people on the basis of "whiteness" (at least not consciously). Whiteness is in many ways, in our culture, a lack of race.

Then we get to the other side. Over years of segregation and discrimination, blacks created a culture that is in part like the wider American culture, but in part not. Much of it is based on community and kinship and helping each other in need. The final product which remains even after the end of segregation and the easing of racial differences, is a subculture that is unique. What can it be called other than "black" culture.
Strangely, this culture has a lot in common with other subcultures, but sees itself as different. This is due to years of segregation, both legislated and de facto.
So in the end it is not much different from when rural evangelicals talk about defending their values. They have a narrow view of what constitutes "black" culture... but one maindifference is that evangelicals are fully convinced their values are those of all America due to the predomination of majority-status folk. The "black" community knows it is a minority and does not see itself as representing the values of all.

So while the non-raced evangelicals exaggerate the similarity of all Americans... the "black" churches like this exaggerate the hostility of American culture toward their values. Not much different from typical fundamentalist churches historically...

So in short, yes, a white in a white-centric church would be scary to us. Why? Because "white culture", if such a thing exists is based on having no race. Any white person in a healthy mental state is obliveous to color when it comes to "culture" and "values". We do not have a community. And we recognize, as do minorities, that those whites who start pushing such a community have it out for other races.
The minorities with "communities" might be seen as having a self-defeating and even delusional sentiment toward a race-based culture. But so long as it is simply used as they are coming from the standpoint of being a minority rather than the majority, it is at least understandable. Their status is a larger part of their life, even though we can only hope in the long run it will not be. That was MLK's dream after all... but note beside that he did group together a community of blacks to fight for equal rights. So as backward as it may seem, sometimes things like this work out.

When the concept of a "Black community" is as pointless to blacks as the idea of a "white community" is to whites, we'll know society has finally gotten somewhere. But we're not there yet.
__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside
Reply With Quote