Being black in the USA is ,in and of itself, not enough to bind us together as a nation, even though we catch hell and are discriminated against because we are black.

I have heard others speak of the state American Blacks in comparison to other ethnics groups, such as Hispanics or Asians. What is not ever pointed out is that those ethnic groups are bound by, not just their color, but by cultural, religion and sociological mores that transcend geography.

As many blacks as you may have in America, you may also have as many different mores, traditions and cultural and religious values, most often, lacks in the US mirror, in their thoughts and ideologies, that which whites have taught through their example or by their manipulation of facts, what is relevant and important.

We, as a people, have fully adopted the Stockholm Syndrome. We have been here so long, suffering under the oppression of the majority society that we have become, in most cases, just as they are to a degree. We speak with their language, (IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD), and therefore we think in the same conceptual framework as they do.

I personally know Black people, who, when hearing their thoughts, could easily be mistaken for white if their color was not so obvious, and even then I have been prone to be mistaken about their true identity. The one thing that the hurricane should have brought home to blacks are those points that you have outlined in your article.

In my opinion, it will take some things equally as devastating as that hurricane for Blacks to see the need to find and hold on to those values that bind us beyond color. I don't know if that is possible, given the many years that we have been cutoff from our true heritage, and the depth to which we have been remade in the character, if not the image of white people. And some of us are desperately trying to achieve their image also.

If we, as a people, can some how reconnect to our true heritage, I think we will be on that road that leads to the type of thinking you speak of.

© September 2005 By Afromerica