[Scott M.]

The answer is no. Knowing one's heritage is a fact that most white Americans can and do take for granted. Is it our televisions? Our families? Our schools? Russell Banks lamented recently (Harpers Magazine, June 2000, p. 83) that Americans as a whole know little about what he calls the African Diaspora, the phenomenon of the African migration and assimilation into post-Civil War America. This 'Creole-American' story is 'the one we all share, regardless of how we label ourselves on the left side of the hyphen.' We live in a country dominated by European ideals: free markets and gold medals and prescription drugs and Hollywood, and maybe that's why I spent most of my formative years learning about the War of the Roses and not any time at all on Timbuktu. I feel schools should teach about our collective origin, as Americans, in Africa. I don't want to feel that because I am white I cannot be proud of this heritage, which affects me every day.

Just as whites like to think minorities should know what the House of Tudors was, because descendants of that people wrote our Declaration of Independence, so too, do I wish I could have learned about my shared culture in Africa. The history of blacks is not African-American history, it's American History. With knowledge, we beget ignorance and hatred.

User Detail :  

Name : Scott M., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 24, City : Humacao, PR, State : NA Country : United States, Occupation : engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Scott M.]

Blacks have historically been on the cutting edge of Western Music. I think the bottom line is history rewards liberals and radicals - eg the most famous American Presidents have always been reformers (Lincoln, Kennedy), not defenders of the status quo (Rutherford Hayes? Zachary Taylor?) African-American culture historically has been more receptive to liberal values because of their status in American culture as a repressed minority. This being said, money drives popular American capitalist culture. White people drive American popular culture for precisely the reason that they are the majority and control the most money. Here in Puerto Rico, Mark Anthony and Ricky Martin and other Hispanic artists are overwhelmingly popular. So are white artists, but not to the same degree. Bizarre factoid: The only white artist I ever saw on TRY (PR music television) was Cypress Hill.

User Detail :  

Name : Scott M., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 24, City : Humacao, PR, State : NA Country : United States, Occupation : engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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