Originally posted by moot
LEADPIG, I don't mean to cop out, but there's no doubt to me that there's a corelation between appearance and personality. Color of skin, local environment etc do play a part in the evolution of culture because culture is just the mosaic of all its authoring people.
E.G. You wouldn't find (given large enough sample of parallel universes) white europeans' culture and folklore etc perfectly matching that of africans, no matter how many times you rolled the dice.
I think a person's personality determines their appearance, i.e. the way they dress and such. I don't think their appearance, race or otherwise determines their personality. Local environment plays a huge part in culture, while i think color of skin plays hardly any at all, if at all. You seem to be making the assumption of all because a certain group with a certain skin color is most often seen acting in such a way. In reality the color has nothing to do with it, it's just that society and nature has made us group together either because of where we live, or because of the fact that man's shallow eye can't see past color and it causes us to seperate ourselves. When we seperate ourselves, local traditions and cultures are born. Why does it seem like race or color is a deciding factor? It's because man decides to seperate himself along such inconsequential borders, and doesn't realize it, and then
thinks race is the reason.
Ever see a black fellow from Britain talk and you can't tell the difference from the whitest white guy from the U.K. around. Or hear a white guy raised in Africa, and have the blackest, black African accent around. It's not the race, it's how we see ourselves, seperate ourselves, and develop our cultures because of this.
You ought to see me lol. I don't like rap, don't talk in ebonics, don't wear baggy pants, and don't blame "The man". lol
I'm almost the opposite, although i was raised around, all black people, till about 14 or 15, in a very urban, ghetto environment, amidst drive by shootings, and friends in jail. What i had, was most important, parents that cared, a good home, a way to get out, (grandparents had a big home in the country). Most kids i knew had none of this. They were like th folks in the New Orleans flood, which is why i understood it.
I remember going to a friends house to ask if he could stay over the night. I went into the house (apartment in the projects) with him to ask and was confronted with about 7 brothers and sisters all wild in a house with no mom or dad. Mom was on crack, dad was in jail. Poverty like you wouldn't believe, hardly no furniture, house was dark, and low on everything. I asked if it was ok, the oldest sister said fine, (she's about 17 and running the house).
Why was everyone poor in the house? A number of reasons. One is, their mom and dad came from a house that was born in the 50's and 60's, mass discrimination, no rights, lynchings, a black man could get killed and the police thought it was a joke, ok bad time, not their fault, America was just screwed up. Go back another generation, your in the 20's and 30's, oh boy that's even worse, go back again, it's the 1800's even worse. Then it's mom was a freed slave, and their parents were born into slavery. So these people were born into a bad situation not of their own doing, and what does that cause? A lack of hope, no hope you have failure, crime, it's not good. Was all that those people's fault? No. Alot of it was America's fault and all the reprecussions that it's affinity for slavery and racism caused, and were're still seeing those effects
today. That's one of the things the flood in New Orleans exposed. It's not all of America's fault, it's just getting so people who came from that background can get outta that mess. But after America sucker kicks you in the balls that hard, it's gonna be hard to get up.
