Week
of
8/15/97:		 Does a serious pursuit of racial integration necessarily preclude the promotion and celebration of one's ethnic origin?



Name: TD
Email:
Response: We have to realize that no law can force anyone to like us. This brings up the issues of de facto and de jure segregation or exclusion. The fight in the 60s were about both. Many died just so we could eat in a particular "social" establishment like a restaurant. I don't think that many of us care about the social aspect of integration as much as we do the Economic institution. I rather make sure that economically we survive with inclusion.When I say this, I am speaking of inclusion in all aspects of the job sector without a glass ceiling, the banking sector and the education sector. Who really cares if they like us? We cannot change those things and I am not about to complain about that. Freedom isn't complete as of now because racial exclusion is a reality. Without economic inclusion in the mentioned areas, we will remain poor and suffer the consequences of poverty as a people.


Name: Mario Jones
Email: shack@imag.net
Response: I think that the pursuit of racial integration is ridiculous. It's just like I tell my kids, say a group of kids are playing and you want to join in so you try, and find that they don't want to play with you. What do you do? Do you run to their parents and tell on them, so that they are made to play with you? What good is that going to do but give the kids a legitimate reason to dislike you. That is, if they don't already have one. I feel that forcing a person to accept in this manner creats a paradox, it will only force them to deny you with more passion. we have to make our own fun so that they see that it is better and want to join us. We need to take what is ours, keep it and develop it so that others respect it and us.


Name: TuJana Green
Email: TuJana.Green@mci.com
Response: In my opinion, where we have failed is in the terminology of what we want as Blacks/African Americans. We do not require sole integration as much as we require de-segregation. As long as their is no "segregation", there will be no need for integration. I think that is the main point we as Blacks/African Americans are trying to project today. Stop holding back on us and we will not be offended by your actions. But if you segregate...jobs, schools, hospitals, churches, money, housing, stores, neighborhoods, clubs, society,...etc. then you have created an issue that will continually be attacked to gain equality.


Name: B.B. Hubbard
Email: bph@rocketmail.com
Response: Does anyone really want integration? People of all races seem more relaxed mixing with their "own kind". This seems to be a fact of nature that can't simply be legislated out of existence


Name: Malik Abdullah Rahim
Email: Allah Uh Akbar@web.net
Response: I've come to realize that my (Black, African American, or otherwise) people have not taken seriously past historical events ...i.e( slavery, Jim Crowisim, the Middle Passages Holocaust,our role in all of Americas wars) and the end result has always been the same: They dont want nothing to do with us. Why do we keep trying to prove to them (Caucasian-Americans) that we are equal to them when actually we are better than them? Intergrating with them would only make us as weak as they are. We as Africans do many things well, but the proper word to be used in this discussion should be assimilation. We have stopped fighting against them and their hedonistic ways, and have begun to take on some of their evil traits. Our men have no respect for our women, life, or education. Drugs have taken all rational thinking from our minds. Our well to do marry white as soon as the opportunity arises. Our women attain the white collar jobs but lack the knowledge of what role she is playing in their game as it pertains to our people. We have actually taken on their whole Western Culture and have not even looked back. We are becoming decadent in the process, while they are prospering once again in our demise. Allah (SWA) created us all, black and white, we are already intergrated on a worldly scale, but here in America we must unite as one, and clean up our own house before we want to move into a house next to them!


Name: k.leonard
Email: leonard@detroitbest.net
Response: I believe that African-America's ethnic background is "American" although there are social and cultural differences between Caucasians and "Blacks." Most Blacks in this country were born and raised here and have been aculturized in American society. Most speak no other "native tongue" except American English, and will spend most of their lives in this country, society, and economic climate. Most are unfamiliar with or understand African culture and society. Those are the facts. The feeling of some people that they must have some sort of "race pride" is hypocritical whether they are "Black" or "white." They are trying to take credit for something they had no say about or control over; they are trying to take credit for "God's work" or some "accident of birth", whichever you prefer. The greatest goal of integration should be "don't put obstacles in my way, let me go as far and as high as my talent, skill, and ambition will take me." Because some idiots walk around talking about "racial or ethnic pride" doesn't mean that everyone does. It represents a lot of wasted time and energy to me. It is the kind of idiocy that makes Catholics and Protestants in Ireland fight and unending war; the tribes in Africa engage in the same senselessness because of the difference in tribal names; and the Jews and Arabs just love killing each other because of religious differences although they are related by blood historically.


Name: lyndell
Email:
Response: in response to Jamie, how naive you are. race is a key factor in every aspect of life. this world is not and never will be color blind. We, as blacks, have to teach our children to have pride in their race and heritage. Jamie, wake up.


Name: Tarris
Email: tharris@plcmc.lib.nc.us
Response: In order for intergration to work we have to accept and promote the different race identities. In the salad mix of the U.S. population we must learn to appreciate and respect the integrity of the differences of all cultural identities. The blending or assimilation of cultures is too damning. Each culture must celebrates its oneness while rejoicing the humaness of the whole.


Name: Ralph Randall
Email: B1More1@aol.com
Response: Not at all, regardless of the level of integration.


Name: jamie wynacht
Email: jwynacht@stpt.usf.edu
Response: ...slap the contemporary leaders of the civil rights movement upside their head. The late Dr. King hoped for a world that was color blind, a world of human beings who judged themselves by the content of their character. Todays "establishment" advocates color consciousness as the foundation of every decision made. Hold onto your identity absent the trappings of color.


Name: Solomon Landers, Memra Institute
Email: Numberup@worldnet.att.net
Response: No, racial integration signifies respect for racial differences, not obliteration of them. But I would make a distinction between "celebrating" one's ethnic origins and "promoting" them. In my opinion, it's fine to be who you are and to rejoice in this. Black IS beautiful, so let the world know! But "promoting" indicates -- in my judgment-- a bit of hubris in advocating one race over another. That would be wrong (if my definition is right). But just as "loving your neighbor as yourself" means that you do love yourself, so respecting diversity and pursuing integration means that you do love, appreciate, celebrate your own ethnicity as well!


Name: Nnamdi Nzingha
Email:
Response: No, it doesn't One could still be Africentric(or whatever) and be a proponent of integration. It is mutually exclusive but all inclusive.