This is the quote we’re working with,
Where does he say that the blackness of African cultures made them superior?
The nuance is in comparing (certain) African cultures to (certain) non-African cultures of the same time period, which is what I’m pretty sure Sharpton’s point was.
Don’t infer what is not implied!
CMC fnord!
If he meant “African cultures of certain period” who was the “We” referring to?
The same “we” that’s used when white folks talk about “European” and “Western” culture.
(While I’m reasonable certain that Sharpton might be able to name African empires on a par with the Greeks most people wouldn’t have a clue about that part of African history and Sharpton sure wasn’t giving a history lesson.)
CMC fnord!
Current or “of certain period” way back?
Without context, I can’t tell for certain. But I intuitively guess that the first paragraph is in response to the idea that white culture is superior, and not a claim of black superiority.
The second paragraph is more problematic, but could still be okay in context. Were there racist white people trying to push black people away? Then it’s fine. If it was just that white people were doing better, and Sharpton added the racism angle, then it does start to feel like supremacy.
But there’s the added aspect that it’s okay for an oppressed minority to get together and defend their own against a majority., but it’s not okay for a majority to get together and attack a minority. The NAACP is not racist, but the NAAWP would be.
He specifically said “white folks was in caves…we”
He drew a clear dichotomy between all white people and the ambiguous “we” which, in context, could only have meant black people.
Just reverse “whites” with “blacks” and turn Sharpton into a white person and you know it would be immediately called racist white supremacy.
Don’t infer nuance that isn’t there.
No doubt Sharpton was trying to salvage some pride on behalf of his group that had been relegated to 2nd class status for so long, vs trying to relegate the other group back into 2nd class status.
Some of Terr’s statements here seem to imply to me that he believes that racism is generally no longer a significant problem to modern African Americans. Terr, is this so?
This gets to the heart of the matter. James Brown can sing, “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” and it’s viewed by most people as fairly innocuous. If some Southern country music star sang “I’m White and I’m Proud,” it would be a “thing.” Some people see this as an intolerable double standard–political correctness taken so far as to turn full-circle into reverse racism. That view of things requires totally ignoring historical and contemporary social context.
As indelicate as Sharpton’s expressions of black pride may be (especially as they’re intermixed with anti-gay bigotry) you have to believe that there are only two modalities of expression–namely, “racist” or “not racist”–to fit his ideology into the same category as David Duke’s, which holds that black people are scarcely better than animals and that society would be better off without them. My quite old grandfather says stuff that’s actually pretty racist, but those mildly racist comments do not put him in the company of “strong form” white supremacists. Saying otherwise would draw a false equivalency. Exactly what right-wing commentators (most recently[Newt Gingrich)](I remember certain sophomoric types in college thinking themselves very clever for pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in there being a Black Student Association or an Asian Alliance but no corresponding club for whites.) and posters like Terr and Stringbean are doing vis-a-vis Al Sharpton/Jeremiah Wright in the matter of Steve Scalise.