Denmark Vesey: Introduction To The Rejection of Plantation Identity Conditioning & Adv Self Definition • DV University • Fall 2010 • Professor Dr. Pink

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Introduction To The Rejection of Plantation Identity Conditioning & Adv Self Definition • DV University • Fall 2010 • Professor Dr. Pink

Pink said...

What makes you think that people are turned off by things that are African? Personally I just think it's disingenuous for me to define myself in relation to a place I've never been and an entire continent when I can't even narrow down a particular region because I have no clue. I don't think there's anything wrong with people who feel that connection defining themselves as such, but I don't. I would love to visit certain parts at some point but if and when I do, I'll be just that: a visitor. No one there is going to regard me as one of them and I wouldn't know enough about their culture to feel "at home". I'm proud of anything that contributed to my genes but I'm too far removed to actually consider myself African.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Very reasoned position, and completely absent the usual rejection of African heritage that too often encumbers the "I don't consider myself African" mindset.

No one should be compelled to define themselves purely on the basis of heritage or hometown. Everyone eventually must define themselves in terms of their particular relationship to the world.

Stay sharp sista.; Aug 30, 2010, 11:41:00 PM
Dr. Love said...: You are not as removed as you may think....I was fortunate to live with Africans as regular people... not this romanticized "Kunta Kinte" bullshit....I know African brothers from the very region he and the "folks"claimed he was from and they never heard of this family.. you may feel like a visitor at first...but trust me you will see so many similarities and explanations for our present day behavior it is "frightening" but in a good way... I went from learning abut traditional culture to teaching native Afrikans about their own culture....All Africans can't drum or dance, my neighbor was from Nigeria and she had never seen an elephant until she went to the zoo in America....I never heard anything about Africa in my fathers household and I was the first one to even mention an African connection to my family... who after thinking I had lost my mind... ended up naming my nephews, nieces African names and taking their "first look" at their Roots accept it or not...they continued their plantation ways because the brainwashin has been deep...but at least this "TARZAN" image was changed. Most black families ae so interested in connecting with the ( I got Indian in my family) they have trouble figuring out who they are..I felt absolutely "O" from performing wih Native Americans...but cried like a baby...when I performed with and saw African artists perform .... I apologize because I am speaking from an artists' perspective ( I play percussion, piano, sing, dance,act, and teach) so people see things from a different view...Richard Pryor went to Africa and came back saying he would never use the word "niggah" again...Morgan Freeman said he felt like a visitor...I strongly recommend researching Katherine Dunham...Visit Africa.. the South Americas...Australia..New Zealand..and let me know what you feel...go in the COMMUNITY... struggle with the language and learn to communicate with people of the same hue and see exactly where you should feel like a visitor!Remember you SPEAK and THINK in the language of the very people who have enslaved you....; Aug 31, 2010, 12:00:00 AM

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