What does it mean to be Black

[Hiero]

What does it mean to be Black? Is it a ethnicity in the USA? Is it a internationalist ethnicity? Is it a international political movement? Does it refer to other people who have black skin (Ingenous Australians, Polynesians, Melenesians)? Are all non-white people Black? Malcolm X stated that the Irish are the Black people of the White race, is this to be taken literal? Or does the term Black have many meanings?

These are just question I was thinking about in regards to a discussion I had the other day.

[MrDoom]

It's a skin pigment.

[Leo]

It's a skin pigment.

:lol: Quoted for truth

[More Fire for the People]

Black has a literal meaning of a dark skin pigmentation and the consciousness of being Black. Africans, Afro-Americans, and some Asiatic groups have very dark skin and could be considered 'Black'. But Black consciousness is the realisation of racial oppression because of your ethnicity. Native Americans, Asians, biracial people, and even the Irish can have Black consciousness.

[rouchambeau]

Malcolm X stated that the Irish are the Black people of the White race, is this to be taken literal?
Terms like "white" are sometimes used to describe someone who is benefiting from the racial hierarchy. For a while, the Irish were on a similar level as that of the Native Americans by the British and WASPs. In this case it is used to describe the Irish as a people without the privilege of being thought of as part of the oppressing race.


It's a skin pigment.
I hope you mean that blackness should be thought of only as a skin color, and not that black people arn't oppressed anymore.

[Phugebrins]

"Irish are the Black people of the White race"
Did anyone else read this and thing "Irish is the new Black"?

[MrDoom]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 06:05 PM

It's a skin pigment.
I hope you mean that blackness should be thought of only as a skin color, and not that black people arn't oppressed anymore.
Of course. The majority of the world is oppressed, whether black, white, yellow, red, tan, or green.

[Janus]

Perhaps this would be better in Science and Environment?

[Mujer Libre]

Originally posted by [email protected] 28 2006, 03:46 AM
Perhaps this would be better in Science and Environment?
I think in the original context of te question this belongs more in Politics, because it's an issue about the political identity of Blackness, rather than 'race' as such.

[Janus]

The discussion right now seems to concern sociology more than politics.

[ComradeOm]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 03:01 PM
Malcolm X stated that the Irish are the Black people of the White race, is this to be taken literal?
The troubles confronting of Irish immigrants in Britain (and Catholics in the North) have been noted by such diverse figures as Karl Marx and Elvis Costello. For many years there was open discrimination in the UK that can be directly compared to that in the US. The most obvious example of course being the infamous "No Coloured, No Irish, No Dogs" signs. Its also worth noting that the Northern Irish Civil Rights movement was directly inspired by events in the US.

And no, the statement is not literal. We are not black :dry:

[Iseult]

I've always understood it to mean ones skin is darker - nothing more & nothing less.

[C_Rasmussen]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 01:12 PM
"Irish are the Black people of the White race"
Did anyone else read this and thing "Irish is the new Black"?
Um how are the Irish discriminated against like the blacks were/still are? o_O

[Ricardo]

They aren't anymore, and i don't know if they were back in the 60's, but in the 1800's when they first immigrated over to America, they were dicriminated against and i heard somewhere that they were paid less then Black people and many times were refused jobs, but i doubt to the extent Black people were.

[Xiao Banfa]

Rouchambeau, why do you have the Syrian National Socialist Party symbol on your avatar?

Is their some third-positionist thought pollution going on? :D

[rouchambeau]

Rouchambeau, why do you have the Syrian National Socialist Party symbol on your avatar?

Is their some third-positionist thought pollution going on?


Hahaha. No, man. It's to make fun of the people who support Hezballah(sp?) on the grounds that they are anti-Israel.

[ichneumon]

Black is a culture. Look at Condaleeza Rice - is she Black? Hell, no - she White, she just real dark skinned.

:D

For me: geographical origin and culture are two separate things. one can easily be afragenic and "white". white is the oppresor, black is everyone else. look at their logic: a white woman can have a black baby, but a black woman can't have a white baby. what the hell is up with that? and what is this "white" shit? are europeans milk colored? if you match paint to eurogens skin tone and paint it on a wall, what color is that? why doesn't english have a word for that colors? it's FUBAR. sometimes, when language is trapping you in badthink, you just have to chuck it out and start over.

i use a different system to think about these things, but saying such stuff aloud makes one sound goofy. nevertheless, consider:

geographic origin: prefixes (n-,w-,e-,s-,cen-), roots (-afra-, -euro-, -asia- ( or -eurasia-), -india-, -ameri-, -austra-, cosmo-), suffix (-gens=of origin). thus: afragens, a person of african origin, nafragens, a north african, cenasiagens, easiagens, etc

i'm a Green American eurogens. so what? what color is my skin? off-white.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Originally posted by C_Rasmussen+Aug 28 2006, 05:53 PM--> (C_Rasmussen @ Aug 28 2006, 05:53 PM)
[email protected] 27 2006, 01:12 PM
"Irish are the Black people of the White race"
Did anyone else read this and thing "Irish is the new Black"?
Um how are the Irish discriminated against like the blacks were/still are? o_O [/b]
Maybe that should read "The Irish are the 'blacks' of England"

that's what we call a metaphor, however
it doesn't mean that Irish people are literally black

[Vargha Poralli]

i read that coloring our skin is caused because of a pigment it produces called melanin which acts as a natural sunscreen . In places where suns rays tarvel shorter like equatoril africa s america south asia the presence of that pigment is very heavy to protect people of those places from strong u-v rays while people in temperate and colder regions where sun rays rays travel longer the presence of that pigment is very much restricted bcos it is not much needed.lacking of that pigment causes albinism in human beings.

so it is proved that alll those racist ideas are real stupid ideas that have arised in human minds

[TheGreaterOne]

the distance that the rays travel doesnt make any difference. its the angle at which they meet the earth that makes them stronger.