[nickchris]

No problem, just my experience. :-)

[nickchris]

Oh yes, people thought she was a snob. LOL Very proper.

[Sleeplvr]

There is a rift between blacks from other countries and this country. Unless you are black you probably won't see this or understand it. As black people we dance around it... You have to keep in the back of your mind where someone is from and their culture.

Here's a link to a story about it from the Black in America series.
Continental divide separates Africans, African-Americans - CNN.com


I live in Atlanta and there are a lot of immigrants here. Black americans have good relationships with some and very strained with others. As manni said too often Ghetto is tagged as a culture for AA's.

I found out my stepson had been telling people that I'm Panamanian. He lives with his mom who is CC... apparently he thought being just AA wasn't enough. He's also told us that we don't act like black people. What do black people act like? Is it behavior, culture, race or socioeconomic conditions? I think a lot of people are confused by those issues.

[millie58]

So true, sleeplvr!! And there are people who think AA culture is hip hop! and there are Caribbeans and Africans who look down on AA's because of slavery (or so I'm told)!! go figure!!

[BeckC]

Originally Posted by manni28

Sam ( if I may):

I get it about culture thats why I said if the OP associates AA culture with "ghetto" ( which it is not, because ghetto is a sub-culture just like trailer park trash is a sub-culture for white folks), then she needs to associate herself with upper and middle class black AA people. My parents are AA and I was raised in a nearly all white middle-class neighborhood in Miami, Fl. My parents made sure that my sister and knew about Black history and they made sure that we socialize with other middle and upper middle-class blacks.

-Manni

P.S. I am very familiar with the Latin American experience, I grew up in Miami, Fl which is the gateway to Latin America. I went to school with people from South and Central America as well as people from the Caribbean and America.

WHOA! When did I say that I associate AA culture with the ghetto or that I've never socialized with "middle or upper class blacks"? I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding you, but it sounds like you are making wild assumptions and putting words in my mouth.

Perhaps I was unclear in my original post. The point I was trying to make was that if a person is born to parents of two (or more) different races, then their racial/cultural experience growing up may be different than that of a person that grew up with a family of only one culture or race.

For the record I wasn't just talking about AA families, but since you brought it up, I'll use it as my example. Two families, one CC, one AA are from the same part of town as you put it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but regardless of economic class, the AA family is going to have some experiences and perhaps traditions that are different from the CC family and pretty exclusive to AA people or other non-white people, and vise-versa. If a child is raised in both of those families then their experience may be different than a child who was raised in an all AA family or all CC family. And by identifying as biracial instead of just AA or just CC then perhaps they are simply acknowledging their unique experience instead of making a racial statement.

[nickchris]

Amen on the American Blacks and the hood/ghetto culture fits all. So not true.

I transcends both the Caribbean and AA issue.. lol
It goes both ways. Teasing the new immigrants, the disdain towards the AAs. I always thought it was silly, why because we are all viewed as what.. Black.

[nickchris]

I guess I do not get the difference with the culture, cc, and aa couple example. Most have certain commonalities that cause them to meet, fall in love and get married. As AAs Dh and I have turkey at Thanksgiving, we do not celebrate Kwanzaa. General American culture..
I think the commonality would bring about a child who is like their parents, and their surroundings. That surrounding factor would be the neighborhood, town/city and so on.
Biracial is different as in their dna component.. A Black child raised in the burbs, has a similar experience as a biracial child raised in the burbs.

Originally Posted by BeckC

Perhaps I was unclear in my original post. The point I was trying to make was that if a person is born to parents of two (or more) different races, then their racial/cultural experience growing up may be different than that of a person that grew up with a family of only one culture or race.

For the record I wasn't just talking about AA families, but since you brought it up, I'll use it as my example. Two families, one CC, one AA are from the same part of town as you put it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but regardless of economic class, the AA family is going to have some experiences and perhaps traditions that are different from the CC family and pretty exclusive to AA people or other non-white people, and vise-versa. If a child is raised in both of those families then their experience may be different than a child who was raised in an all AA family or all CC family. And by identifying as biracial instead of just AA or just CC then perhaps they are simply acknowledging their unique experience instead of making a racial statement.

[sbaglio]

And by identifying as biracial instead of just AA or just CC then perhaps they are simply acknowledging their unique experience instead of making a racial statement.

I would trade all my discussion on this topic for just this sentence alone, as it is what I've been trying to say ad nauseum.

[BeckC]

Originally Posted by nickchris

I guess I do not get the difference with the culture, cc, and aa couple example. Most have certain commonalities that cause them to meet, fall in love and get married. As AAs Dh and I have turkey at Thanksgiving, we do not celebrate Kwanzaa. General American culture..
I think the commonality would bring about a child who is like their parents, and their surroundings. That surrounding factor would be the neighborhood, town/city and so on.

Really? So a middle class black family growing up in a suburban area will have exactly the same racial experiences as their middle class white neighbors? Why then I guess I can just raise my future black child the same as I would a white child and not acknowledge that there's a difference at all then.

[nickchris]

BeckC you are separating the biracial experience, yet adding in the Black experience. I need some clarification here.

Originally Posted by BeckC

Really? So a middle class black family growing up in a suburban area will have exactly the same racial experiences as their middle class white neighbors? Why then I guess I can just raise my future black child the same as I would a white child and not acknowledge that there's a difference at all then.

[Sleeplvr]

BeckC

You started out with the multicultural vs multiracial difference. Now you are saying racial not culture. See the confusion? Any way around it you are seeking to put the child in a different or special category. KWIM?

[BeckC]

Originally Posted by nickchris

BeckC you are separating the biracial experience, yet adding in the Black experience. I need some clarification here.

I'm not sure what you mean. My point was that a biracial child will have BOTH experiences - with BOTH his black family and his white family. And that while racially he may not be different looks wise or genetics wise from the majority of AA people, "culturally" his experience may be different from a person growing up with an all AA family.

[nickchris]

Once again. An American biracial (AA/CC) child from the "burbs" will have a similar experience as a White or Black child from the "burbs". There was a recent thread about the Black culture how do you define it. Most were in agreement there.

[Sleeplvr]

This is where the disconnect comes on the forums. Biracial by definition does not necessarily identify who your parents are which is how you are using the term. Biracial means of two races but the two races are combined at any point in your family history. You are using a very narrow definition of the term.

[BeckC]

Originally Posted by Sleeplvr

BeckC

You started out with the multicultural vs multiracial difference. Now you are saying racial not culture. See the confusion? Any way around it you are seeking to put the child in a different or special category. KWIM?

I'm not trying to put the child in a different category. I don't have any problem with people self-identifying however they want to. But, perhaps the child, based on their experiences of having two families of two different races and/or cultures, feels different and that he would like to acknowledge his unique experience as someone of both cultures.

I agree that the fact that the child is AA/CC doesn't make much of a difference racially if his phenotype and genotype are the same as most AA people. But his experience as someone from both cultures would be different than an AA person with an identical admixture (please correct me if I'm using that word improperly) who grew up in an all AA family.

If this hypothetical person wants to identify as black it makes sense to me since that's how the world sees him and that's how he'll be treated. But it also makes sense to me if he feels that his identity is more complicated than just black or white and wants to identify as being from both backgrounds.