I didn't grow up in "the ghetto." I did have a single mother, and we were struggling financially, but I don't believe these two things define my African-ness in America. I used to feel anger whenever a "black movie" began with gangsta rap and shots of the ghetto, as if African-American identity and experience are solely defined by so called hip-hop culture. In addition, when taking abuse into account, we should make more observations based on the law of averages rather than on the outliers.
Not that we should blame everything on abuse but we should note the significant role it has played in dimming future expectations as well as causing those who were oppressed to imitate their oppressors-something we see in Israel after centuries of being oppressed by a "Christian" Western Civilization. In addition to abuse, the lack of optimism due to diminishing opportunities can also play a significant role in forming self-destructive attitudes that can permeate a culture. In addition, if you check out Chris Hedges' "Days Of Destruction, Days Of Revolt," you will see some linkage between our past and even present abusive treatment of the Indians and their current dreadful plight. If we look at the hard working puritans, we see that many of them repeated the abuse and religious intolerance they suffered while in England. In addition, we might also want to ask whether those who migrated to America from the Highlands, Midlands, and Northern Ireland were abused as well to see if there is some correlation between that abuse and ol-redneck values that came over on the boats. We do know when studying child abuse that abuse can lead to future abuse or a chain of abuse. And we need to ask how much of the self-destructive and lack of self-control attitudes seen in some inner city subcultures are due not just to the absorption of the dominant culture but of the experience of being oppressed. Testimony to this can be seen the PBS video on the Freedom Riders-a video to show to conservative Christians who believe that activism achieves nothing.
In other words, we need to give abuse its proper due with respect to today's subculturesĮven in the beliefs of those Blacks who believed in hard work and delayed gratification, feelings of inferiority and even impotence in the presence of Whites were common until and maybe even through the Civil Rights movement of the 60s. Within the different White subcultures from the old South were the themes of oppression and domination. I'm not sure that the divide is as simple and bipolar as you have put it here though what you have written merits consideration.
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