Black Culture And Black History

Black Culture and Black History;Do They Come as a Package?

Clinton Collins, is an African- American who feels that black history is not being appreciated as much as it should be. In his commentary, "Love it and Leave it," he elucidates america's stance on black culture and history. He analyzes that white people have continued to adopt the black culture yet they pay no attention to where the culture came from or who gave rise to it. He points out the corruption that was initiated by America's founding fathers, who claimed equality among all men yet felt a need to supress a black male with the potential of leading an uprising that could be a problem to their unscrupulous system. However, we can deduce that the writer is not paranoid towards white people as he is married to a white woman and he instills the same value to his biracial sons. Last but not least, we can see that the writer and his son both have difficulties being black men in a community that can't handle the black history yet are drawn to the black people's culture.

As an African-American, i fully agree with his veiwpoint. it is crystal clear how white people have easily adopted the black culture yet don't know the history.A good example would be one of my very close white friends. The other day, while we were chatting,i asked him when black history month was and he replied, " isn't that in july or something?." this came as a suprise as he is very fond of the black culture and is even married to an African-American. It is very dissapointing and very offending how black history is not well taught in american schools.i strongly feel that it should be emphasized in the school curriculum more than just on ferbruary because it is an important part of american history.

In the beginning of his commentary, Clinton maintains that as much as white people are mesmerized by the black culture,they pay little to no respect to black history. He quotes Paul Mooney,who appeared on one of the recurring parts ("Ask a Black Dude,") in the African-American Dave Chappelle's show,where someone asked him about the opinionated strut men of color have. He retorted that men of color have a style that displays confidence in themselves thus making them the most emulated people. He adds the following witty remark:

Everyone wants to be a nigga, but nobody wants to be a nigga. Wry as it may sound, in my opinion, it is a perfect explanation for the overall point of the writer. He calls a spade a spade,and not a big spoon. I feel that he is very accurate in saying,that white people have taken advantage of our speech,and music,(only to mention a few),yet the very same people know little or nothing about the founders who brought the culture to life. To me,this spells out the title, as they love the culture but they leave the history.

Today, racial discrimination has become one of the most controversial topics in our society.The truth is,black culture is more imitated than any other culture in america. The writer gives a good example on how hip-hop is the style of music that prevails today. He adds how young white hip-hop enthusiasts admire the black hip-hop artists yet know minimal to no information on their history.As upseting as it is,this issue becomes clear every February when black history is recognized and then it it not broached until the following year owing to the sensitivity of the issiue.

It seems to me that the writer wrote his commentary for two reasons;directly,to express his perspective and approach to racial discrimination and indirectly,to spark a fire on a subject that usually ends up being swept under the rug,because no one really wants to talk about it.He gives an example of how black history is celebrated on the shortest month of the year (February),and once it is over,it is forgotten and not mentioned until the following year. As much as I agree with the writer on the latter point, I disagree with his implications that February was chosen to commemorate black history due to it's briefness. After a little research, i found out that Harvard proffesor Carter Godwin Woodson, initiated "Negro history week" which later became Black history month. In my opinion,he should know better than to write remarks that may imply his lack of knowledge on such an important issue as the Black history month.

On the contrary, he contntinues to wonder how despite