“Cultural baggage and the problems it carries - St. Petersburg Times” plus 1 more |
| Cultural baggage and the problems it carries - St. Petersburg Times Posted: Bill Maxwell By Bill Maxwell, Times Correspondent Because my column is syndicated, not a week goes by that someone somewhere in the United States does not e-mail me with a message like this: "You black people need to drop your baggage." Years ago, I stopped reading such words as an insult. Instead, I treat them as an indication of American insensitivity and ignorance regarding black people born and reared in this country. People worldwide have what scholars pejoratively refer to as "cultural baggage," the collection of hard-wired memories, beliefs, sentiments and other traits and patterns that give human beings their basic identities. People are the sum total of their cultural baggage that comes from their complex history, from their customs and traditions, from their experiences with their immediate neighbors, from their treatment in the wider world. Historians Darrett and Anita Rutman contend that our cultural baggage permeates our thinking, speech and behavior without our being aware of the process. Our baggage, which includes our unconscious assumptions, determines in profound ways how we interact with people of other cultures. Although baggage is universal, the baggage of select groups is judged to be superior to others. Some are treated gingerly, even reverently. Others, such as that of blacks born and reared in America, get no respect. As I have said, we African-Americans are constantly admonished to get rid of our baggage, to "get over" our history. I do not know of another group in this country whose history is viewed so cavalierly as being disposable. Paradoxically, many white Southerners, even while channeling the defeated "Forget, Hell!" baggage of their slave-owning forebears, lead the drumbeat in telling the offspring of slaves to "move on" and forget all those generations of being human chattel. Southerners, along with many Republicans nationwide, are not alone in rejecting black traits and patterns as the election of President Barack Obama shows. Many whites voted for Obama precisely because he did not exhibit black traits and patterns — black cultural baggage. Ironically, while legions of whites were encouraging the junior senator from Illinois to run for the White House during 2006, many blacks had not given Obama their support because he had not shown that he was "black enough." Remember that? Hillary Clinton still enjoyed widespread black support. I wrote back then that the Obama phenomenon was not new. Like they had done for Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, whites, along with pundits of all stripes, declared that Obama transcended race. He was that rare black politician who is not seen as a "black leader," a mostly disparaging term ascribed to the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan. Obama did not discomfort white people, having learned that black politicians who do so commit suicide if they run for national office. Colin Powell has been the most forthright black at the national level with regard to race and black cultural baggage. In an Ebony magazine interview nearly a decade ago, he acknowledged that he was hugely successful, in part, because he did not look black, did not sound black and did not act black. In short, he said, he made whites feel comfortable. In his bestselling book, The Audacity of Hope, published before he was a presidential candidate, Obama had a Powell-like moment of introspection. He wrote that "my own upbringing hardly typifies the African-American experience" and that "largely through luck and circumstance, I now occupy a position that insulates me from most of the bumps and bruises that the average black man must endure." While we Americans pride ourselves in having elected our first black president, the reality of that claim is dubious. White voters could support Obama and avoid coming to terms with black history and black experience. They did not have to contemplate the corrosive and residual effects of slavery, lynching and burnings, destruction of black homes by the klan and other white supremacist groups, separate-but-equal public schools, redlining and other horrors of bigotry — all the stuff of our cultural baggage. Obama's election was not an embrace of blackness. As the president wrote: His "own upbringing hardly typifies the African-American experience." [Last modified: Feb 11, 2011 05:47 PM]
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| Cultural happenings around town this weekend (Feb. 11-13) - Examiner Posted: Friday, February 11 Blues at the Crossroads at Symphony Center, 8pm. This concert celebrates the 100th anniversary of Delta blues legend Robert Johnson's birth. Johnson is ranked fifth in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Performers include Big Head Todd and the Monsters, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, Cedric Burnside, and Lightin' Malcolm. Upper balcony and galley seats are still available. Click here for tickets. 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. Cocktails & Clay at Hyde Park Art Center, 7-11pm, $15 suggested donation. Enjoy a live DJ while creating a clay masterpiece during your 45 minute pottery session, then enjoy drinks while you dance or peruse the Center's art galleries. 5020 S. Cornell Ave., Chicago. Saturday, February 12 Smooth Jazz Valentine's Show at DuSable Museum with guitarist Nick Colionne and saxman Paul Taylor. Seats are still available for both the 6pm and 9pm concerts. Click here for tickets. 740 E. 56thPlace, Chicago. Family Days at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 11am-3pm. FREE admission to both the museum and the family day activities for families with children 12 and under. Click here for full list of Saturday's activities. 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. Chicago Winter Dance at Milennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion. FREE one hour dance lesson followed by open dancing. On Saturday, learn to tango with instructors from the American Tango Institute, then dance to the music of Tangata. Session I: lesson 1-2pm; open dancing 2-3:30pm. Session II: lesson 5-6pm; open dancing 6-7:30pm. Sunday, February 13 Second Sunday at Hyde Park Art Center, 1-4pm. FREE admission to an afternoon of art activities and performances for all ages. 5020 S. Cornell Ave., Chicago. Neighborhoods of the World at Navy Pier's Crystal Gardens, 12-5pm. FREE admission to Chicago's newest festival. Celebrate the city's cultural diversity with authentic cuisine, art, folk arts for sale, and live entertainment from more than ½ dozen of Chicago's ethnic communities. This festival continues every Sunday through April 3. Navy Pier's discounted parking continues through February 28. Chicago Winter Dance at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion. FREE one hour dance lesson followed by open dancing. On Sunday, learn to swing dance with instructors from Big City Swing, then dance to the music of The Flat Cats. Session I: lesson 1-2pm; open dancing 2-3:30pm. Session II: lesson 5-6pm; open dancing 6-7:30pm. All Weekend Celebrate Black History Month at DuSable Museum with the exhibit, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits featuring portrait subjects from the African American community from the nineteenth century to today. 740 E. 56thPlace, Chicago. Click here for admission prices and hours. Some of Chicago's museums have free admission on the weekend. Click here for details. My articles can be found by clicking on the "Entertainment/Arts & Exhibits" link on the Chicago home page of examiner.com. If you want to be notified when upcoming cultural events are published, click on "Subscribe" above. You can also follow me on Facebook at the "Chicago Cultural Events" community page. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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