Aspergers and (dislike of) black culture?

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I think I feel out of place in black Western culture because it is dominated by three pretty dogmatic religions, Christianity, Rastafarian (a Christian offshoot like Mormonism) and Islam, and as an agnostic I'm afraid I'd be viewed as best as an infidel, at worst, cursed. I'm fascinated by animism though, because I was exposed to Native American beliefs on my mother's side and Shinto on my father's-and although I know that animists aren't automatically noble angels (Liberia, Southern Sudan etc) I feel more open to that side of black culture and that of the basically secular Harlem Renaissance. I also feel very out of place with my mother's (white) relatives because they are all born again Christians who are trying to raise their children in a "Christian Bubble." while I'm quite tempted to slip them some Sabbath and Slayer just to be contrary.

I've always like Blaq culture. One of the biggest reasons is that it emphasizes being direct and straightforward(keepin it real, yo)rather than being pretense and passive-aggression. Black people seldom play the kind of sly, catty social games that many urban middle class white people do unless they happen to be gay. I've always preferred macho cultures to more effete cultures. If you don't have social skills and you're a guy, you can make up for it by being hyper-aggressive, confrontational, and even physically violent.

As someone deeply interested in pre-modern civilizations, and the emergence of civilization, I am familiar with all these. I do think there is a lack of knowledge about them.

West Africa I find particularly interesting because of the advanced metallurgy and smithing that was present there. Not just Mali but also some of the smaller kingdoms and tribes in the area.

People also have this idea that tribal groups are necessarily primitive. This is not so. Most of Iron Age Europe was tribal - but the Romans were borrowing technology from them. This fellow, for instance, is swathed head to toe in tribal technology:



The spatha comes from the Celts, originally a cavalry weapon. If he was wearing a gladius instead, it would come from the Celts too. The pilum is a crossbreed of Italic and Celtiberian technology. The chainmail comes from the Cisalpine Gauls. The bossed oblong shield is of uncertain origin but was first used among Celtic and Germanic groups. The helmet I think is not Imperial Gallic, but a later design - yet it evolved from Imperial Gallic helmets, also a Gaul innovation. Trousers are Gaulish/Celtic.

About the only things he's wearing that are entirely native to Rome are the dagger and the shoes.

I dont have a dislike for Black culture I love the Jazz Blues and Mo Town as well as the Jaimacan reagae culture. It is the gangsta Rap I dont like perhaps the fact it teaches the younger generation to be violent not care about anyone get into drugs and treat their fella sistas like hoes. Also keeping alive the N word as well. I truly do not like that part because honestly I think that is a detriment to the African American community it is also what is killing the Black culture all together and is upholding the bad image of the African American community.

No you can't. Not every black family is dysfunctional and lets their sons act that way. That's a stereotype. You do realise that gangsta rap isn't an accurate reflection how black people really behave?

I like reggae too, but it has a dark side celebrating violence and Bible sanctioned homophobia. I haven't listened to it in some time though, and most of what I googled dated from around 2006 so I don't know if the situation has improved or not.

I look at tribal West African art and I can't believe for minute that they were primitive.

Indeed, I tend to equate primitive with foragers or hunter-gatherers with no food production whatsoever, whereas most West Africans in the historical period were either agricultural or pastoral. Of course, as rock and cave paintings have shown, even foragers can produce beautiful works of art.

African civilizations are some of the most underrated in history. Other than Egypt and Carthage, at least

I agree with puddingmouse on this. One can be confident, bold, strong and assertive without being unnecessarily macho (sexist?), aggressive or violent. Guess which is likely to get one further in life, on the job, in business, with the opposite sex, and so on and so forth? It's rather lazy to think that being aggressive is ever a good idea, when it tends to put people off. I see it as a defense mechanism, a way of putting a shell around oneself so as not to let anyone near, as a bluff to cover up one's fear. It's not attractive to anyone except perhaps to fellow bluffers. To me that doesn't constitute culture at all, but the death of culture.

Last edited by SpiritBlooms on 30 May 2012, 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There are two issues raised by the OP: blacks as people that you go to school with or work with or live among.

The other is black culture in the media.

For an aspie your own little class/ethnic sliver of society and its own little subculture is daunting and scary enough to deal with.

So dealing with people of a different class/race with a different slang and so forth is even more daunting and scary. But in the end- people are people. Culture is not the issue.

In the media and in the arts/entertainment field -thats another issue.

Nobody has to love any kind of top forty music by artists of any skin color.
And if you hate gangsta rap ( its heyday was the nineties- its already a bit passee) thats fine. No reason to feel guilty.

You dont have to watch BET.

But beyond that the issue of "black culture" is meaningless.

Take music for example.

Black music is not one thing.
Its many things

The more time depth you look at the more you cant seperate one race's music-culture from another.

Hendrix is a god to white metalheads. Though ive met many individual blacks who also idolize Hendrix Hendrix was never a staple on Black radio-not in his own time- and not in our time.
You dont look for Hendrix on black radio.
In his own time he was branded as a "psychedelic uncle tom" for sounding too white.

He was considered by blacks to be "too white" because he sounded too much like Clapton and Kieth Richards etc.

These white guitar idols who influenced Hendrix got their own playing styles by... ripping off the masters of the American blues guitar. These being the delta, Memphis, and Chicago bluesmen like Muddy Waters and BB King, Albert King, and Freddy King. All of whom were African American- though of an older generation than Jimi Hendrix.

So if you're a young black today who studies hendrix you're considered a geeky oddball by your fellow blacks because you're into a black guy who sounds "white" because he was influenced by white guys who were themselves influenced by black guys.

Just one example of the many paradoxes of talking about "the culture" of any racial group.

The list goes on.

Banjo, as an instrument, is associated with bluegrass and Nashville county music making it as White an instrument as it gets.

But it was invented by Black Slaves in the Eighteenth centurey and its been recently traced to its prototype in Africa- a particular plucked instrument by a particular tribe in Senegal.

The pedal steel guitar- and its signature metalic whine is also associated with country music. The sound just screams "country" to american listeners. And for that reason no American R+B performer will touch a pedal steel with a ten foot pole.

But one day in the seventies King Sunny Ade- the biggest music star in Nigeria- heard one and loved the sound. And now pedal steel guitars are hugely popular in Nigerian R+B and reggae based pop music.

Cartago was a semitic city. The spoke and wrote the same language as the Phonecians.

ruveyn

True. Although it was a multicultural one and included native North African ethnic elements. But you're right, the predominant culture and the elites were Levantine in origin.

Umm, I think it's the norm if the most violent cities in the USA all have significant black populations and if 72% of all black American children are born out of wedlock. A dirty little secret your sociology professor won't tell you is children without fathers compose of the vast majority of criminals

I do get saddened at the seeming 'push' toward social conformity that it creates - IMHO its even been more constraining than what white culture has had.

That said though, that's one of the reasons - aside from really liking her creative mind and where she's coming from - that I find myself being a big Santigold fan. In a lot of ways she's been doing proper damage to that 'lid'.

Think of it this way - before we had the 'You're allowed to sing/rap/write about three things only: doves, spinners, and ice grils' mentality shoved down the commercial throat of African American music - we had jazz legends. In detroit you had guys ignoring that - Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Carl Graig, - the creaters of what we call 'techno' (I just about used to piss my pants when people would make shmucky remarks like "Whaa? Blacqkk people make teckno?" - roflmao they practically invented it jackass).