A. Yogi's or other cultural wisdoms Yogi example... look at the wisdom the Indian children consume. Are African Americans getting this?
B. Reconnect with ancestoral heritage... physically or by internet: This may seem minimal, but I found for myself great enrichment connecting with past... disconnected life in Europe.
C. Adopt cultural changes: Example: * Chinese gift money on "new years" to children. * Japanese/Korean very disciplined and respectful of teachers/elders * Build wealth, pass on wealth
D. reparations * Payment of $, apologies... possibly annual apologies until grievances resolved.
E. Establish 2 parent households, strong family units. Improve nutrition within families and communities. Enacting discipline to hold to established values.
Exposure and stufy of wisdom from cultures. ex. Yogi's
Reconnect with wise ancestors in Africa or other regions
Adoption of cultural changes
Reparations and apologies from society at large for past wrongs
Improve health of family units, two parent households, improve food quality
Other
Select gender and age to cast your vote:
Please select your age
African Americans what would have most benefited your life to create positive outcome?
I liked that yogi and loved what he had to say. I agree 100%.
I also agree with the black man.
Both of your 'A' and 'B' choices are about gaining knowledge and wisdom by expanding your horizons.
I'm not sure about 'C'. I agree 100% with apologies but not reparations. Instead of reparations, I think it's more important to correct the wrongs and, in some cases, provide assistance. That's different from handing out money to everyone of a certain race, culture, gender or religion.
As individuals and a nation, how 'bout if we just stop oppressing people? What if we stopped laying siege to other countries with "sanctions" that cause poverty, misery and death? What if we stopped trying to force people to adopt our culture and ideologies? What if we stopped plundering other people's resources, including human labor?
Who could disagree with 'E'?
Regarding 'C', I support cultural evolution. Change is inevitable. It's up to us to promote positive change. I loved the social revolution of the 1960s when, guided by love of liberty, people rose up to end racial segregation, to end a war of imperialism, to support women's rights, and end oppression of gays and lesbians. Those were positive aspirations and they harmed no one.
Progress in the USA has been the result of citizens insisting on positive change. Negative changes have been brought about by financial elites. Unfortunately, the way financial elites succeed is by gaining public support through lies, distortions, dishonest narratives, control of information. They promote "progressivism" or "conservative values" when it is convenient in achieving their self-interested goals. Elites are not ideological, they're just ambitious and greedy. They just create ideological fantasies in order to influence morons. "For God, Queen and country" is an example.
I don't revere traditional values. Some are good and some are bad. I make up my own mind about what's right and wrong. I'm not influenced by consensus or tradition. I'm influenced by logic and common sense. I'm willing to call truth to power and buck the system.
As I said, some traditional values make total sense, but some are totally fucked up. Slavery and racial segregation was fucked up. The oppression of women and the exploitation of laborers was fucked up. I would argue that usury is fucked up. Authoritarianism is fucked up.
Talking about tradition, how does "the western religion" benefit indigenous cultures? Is it just another form of colonialism? Are 1700 or 4000 year old western religious traditions the best for everybody?
Going back to the words of the yogi and your question about African Americans, I have an anecdote about a personal hero.
I got my first guitar in 1965 at age 11. My dad was the lead machinist for a large aerospace company. An engineer he worked with offered to give me some lessons.
The tall, slender man with a cool goatee and nice suit turned out to be black. I had never met a black person even though there were some famous entertainment celebrities and social activists.
I quickly realized that this elegant, patient, kind, soft spoken man was far more cosmopolitan and sophisticated than my parents.
He wasn't just a guitarist. He was a master flamenco guitarist and I'm sure he could play jazz like a fiend, as well as any guitar style. He had been to Spain twice to study his craft. And, like I said, he was also an aerospace engineer.
*** He had grown up during segregation and, yet, accomplished all that. ***
1965 was the height of the civil rights struggle. The Watt's riots were happening not far away. Yet, this kind, generous man drove to our white neighborhood to give me guitar lessons. Whether he knew it or not, he served as a emissary from the black community. He became a role model.
My point is, he didn't sit around saying "Poor me." He didn't have a chip on his shoulder. He pursued life, passion and fulfillment despite any challenges.
a good read. short answer, where there is failure, need a change. Ideally our country and culture would be about enabling people to be free to live a good full life. I unfortunately didn't get good feedback to the question... maybe people don't know... I see benefits to cultures I'm being exposed to, that I suspect a lot of kids don't have.
I couldn't agree more about exposure to other cultures. I had many interactions with people from other cultures when I was a motor vehicle field appraiser/adjuster in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas for 20 years. I've also done some traveling, but only to Mexico and Europe. I met the most wonderful people. And where would we be without ethnic food? LOL
I am hosting French visitors. I must say their approach to dining is superior to my simplistic lame style of American "crame it in" fast. A slow meander through wonderful flavors of alcohols, salad, bread, etc.. flavors! yes... I think one of the greates of benefits, would be to expose kids to the finer aspects of other cultures. I'm not opposed to getting them a bit sloshed on pear alcohol in school... hehe... at the moment.
Does that fall under "reparations" (D)? Would you consider incentives to do so such as monetary payment for relocation, ease of multi nationality, incentives for travel, marketing? that could be by govt or crowd funding, not forced taxation/inflation.
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