Black Culture

I don't know why, but one minute I'm not doing much but rolling around in bed and the next thing I know I'm thinking about the Black Culture. Maybe it was because of the BSU meeting today where a professor came in and talked about one of the courses he's teaching in the spring about urban communities, making them better, designing them, and improving the area that we live in. Maybe that struck a chord, or maybe it was Gabby's (a.k.a my ex-wife. lol.) talk about professionalism and how we need to be more professional at our meetings inside of shouting over each other. She raised very good points that seem to combat all the reasons people tried to throw at her. But I started thinking to myself...

What happened to our Black Culture?

I kinda wish I could write a paper on this because I'm feeling all sorts of ways over it and it's really eating at me. I read a novel not to long ago that discussed the transition from generation to generation and the changing of the culture. The novel was entitled "Long Distance Life" by Marita Golden. I suggest you read it. But back to my question and my thoughts.

I feel like my generation and perhaps the one before it as well (thinking about the generation my older sister falls into) doesn't really care about our past and how far we've come as group. We never make a point to reference the struggle of those days unless it's during Black History month. The only struggle we ever make reference to is getting out of the ghetto and making money, which compared to the struggle of our grandparents isn't even a struggle. I feel like music and movies that feature, are directed by, and produced by Black people don't show how we're moving forward and continuing to make history. They all show us just accepting where we are at and not trying to go anywhere unless money is guaranteed in the process. Maybe that thought is wrong, but I feel like unless you wave the aspect of getting rich in front of someone in my generation they're not going to take any incentives to make a change.
It scares me when I think about it in perspective to when we get older and I have children. What kind of world would I be bringing them into, where the people of my generation are just settling?
Hip-hop music was designed to show that we had thoughts and opinions. It was a way of us letting the world know that we weren't stupid and unaware of what is going on. Now the music is all about who has the most money and fame, sex, violence, and drug. Occasionally you'll get the song about their struggle growing up, but nothing in their lyrics speaks much towards empowerment or how we should progress to become better than we are right now.
Honestly, I believe if Barack Obama wasn't running for President, many people in my generation wouldn't even care or bothered to register to vote. They've forgotten just how much of an impact they can make simply because they think they don't have to because it was done already for them.

What happened to the Black Culture?

The Black Culture my parents grew up in, where they watched their parents experience racism, actual racism. Not this culture where my generation simply tosses the word around calling people racist because they say something they didn't like. Accusing people of racist tendencies if they are denied something. It's almost as if my generation is using excuses to get what they want and sadly some people are giving it to them for that main reason. No one wants to be called a racist in this time and age, and if you get called one, you'll do everything to have the person who said it to you take it back. That's what my generation is doing. They are forcing people to give them things they often times don't deserve just by calling them racist.
We also don't have respect for each other. You can't have a culture unless you have respect and I feel like my generation has neither. We don't have respect for each other. We are constantly going after each other in one way or another. We are constantly trying to hold each other back from achieving things and labeling those of us that decide to achieve things. No one wants to be called uppity or bourgeois, yet that's the label given to us that want to have a better life and don't want to settle. No wonder some of us have taken on the label and kept it moving with our nose in the air and not a care in the world to what happens to those who gave us the label.
I feel like my generation has lost respect for all that has come before them. It's sad, but in my mind it's also true.

I just want to know what happened to our Black Culture? Is it still around? Twenty years from now, will be ok with the fact that this is our culture?

I mean, I can say if it wasn't for the black culture we have now, our full figured women probably would never be recognized. Other than that, I can't see anything that my generation has done with our culture to make it a better one.

I think we're settling, forgetting, and disrespecting our rich heritage.

#whatmakesmesad

Oh twitter...you have disrupted our life the way facebook had done a few years prior. You have become increasingly significant in filling us in on the gossip and letting us air our dirty laundry, allowing wondering minds to know everything about us. Oh twitter...how wonderful you are.

While my sentiments might appear that I hate twitter, I have to admit I'm addicted to it. At first everyone thought that Myspace was this big corruption tool, allowing others to peer into our lives, see our photos, and now every detail about our every move. Then Facebook came along and it was increasingly detrimental because now we really knew who everyone was. There was no need for alias, Facebook prided itself on that, even though some of us can't let go of Myspace days and feel the need to throw in an alias as their middle name. No twitter has proven itself to be the most detrimental.
Twitter is like the best of both worlds, in a sense.
You can maintain your alias, but it doesn't take much to find out who the person actually is. We have a picture to identify the person with and when you look at their profile, in the top corner is there name. (People can go really Myspace and fabricate one, but most people don't). Twitter is even more amazing since celebrities all over are tweeting. So now the realms of what was once private and a guessing game for the mind no longer exists.
Celebrities post their every move and thought, regular people post their every move and thought, and now we have entered the world of no return. To make matters worst, you can even have your tweets tracked, so people can find out where they came from. How crazy is that in the post days of being told as a child not to give out any of your information to strangers?
Now, that's not the only crazy thing about the twitter, but I believe there is no age limit on who can join (as if that ever stopped those underage).*
Twitter, as I was saying before, is truly the best of both worlds. We can send each other private messages, known as direct messages, we can hold conversations with each other and leave public messages, called replies, we can encourage people to engage with each other on a topic, referred to as trending topics, we can post what someone else wrote, acknowledged as retweeting (RT) and soo much more.

Now, before I continue...I AM NOT BASHING TWITTER. As I think I stated before, I'm an avid user. I really enjoy the challenge of expressing myself in 140 characters or less. I enjoy reading about what other people are doing or thinking. And I enjoy being able to read convos and thoughts that were once upon a time off limits to me.
I'm just worried about the consequences of all of this.
If you think about it, nothing is private anymore. No thoughts, actions, or opinions. But at the same time, I guess it's a good thing. If it wasn't for trending topics, I'm pretty sure most of us who don't watch the news would be so active participants in discussing our opinions on it, even if some of those opinions are those of complete ignorance.

So, I guess my point is...what will we come up with next?

*note: I can't remember if Twitter has an age requirement for users, so don't take my word on that part, but I think my point is clear.