2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I'm Black. Old Blacks have failed us. It's time for Young Blacks to make our stand on Super Tuesday [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)but just with what you will treat as something else. As I jew I get it... I absolutely get it. But you see, that OP that you do not like... is not unlike a lot of the stuff younger African American leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement are saying in my local streets. One of them actually said that he was tired of getting told that he needed to keep his mouth shut about what the kids thought about their elders when whites were around. And for the record, he does not.
This conversation is also happening among Jews by the way. It is breaking along the same age demographics for the most part, and it involves something else. I don't go into that here, because quite brutally honest, I do not like the wars here. But I have had that discussion on facebook, where ironically you can have it, Not on DU though.
We both know that the AA community is far from monolithic. The we don't discuss these things in white spaces, or call our elders to task in white spaces is one way that this necessary pretense of unity is maintained. Just like with my Jewish community, and trust me, it is not united either. African Americans are starting to have that conversation and it coming, from the kids locally... the fact that politics has completely failed them... all they got to show for supporting Dems is mass incarceration and many of those young people are seriously taking a look at the republican party. They speak in far more revolutionary terms at times by the way than just the vote or who to vote for, or if it is even worth it. It is almost as if the Black Panthers (the one Hoover imagined, not the real ones) were back.
So I get it, and I admit it, most people here do not understand it, because majority communities do not need safe spaces, but this is one hell of a change election and it is also starting to change the dynamics within communities,
Oh and chew on this one. On Saturday Rev Al Sharpton was here. I posted the story, which included the full tape, except ten seconds, tom had to restart it when it stopped recording. I notice you guys seem not to even acknowledge that was posted here, or the fact that I post a lot of what happens in minority communities here, but you did not call one of your allies on disparaging Al Sharpton, the way you would call me either. I find that transparent. But I digress
As we were waiting a kid, not older than ten, who was brought to this by his elders, actually asked who is this old guy? So we told him, the kid addressed a bunch of reporters waiting, so we did. And a few others, my husband heard then in the sanctuary asking the same question from their parents. Nppe, except for Shane Harris's son, most kids were not wearing suit and tie either, so this was not a complaint about bring forced to dress in Sunday best to listen to this guy they have never heard about. They simply have never heard of him.. So that tells me that just like my community is already having that issue with a whole different matter, memory is starting to fade in yours as well.
Coming from me I also expect you to fully ignore it. It is just an observation, But what John posted, that younger AA are angry at their elders, is real. How large is that group... well it's like asking me how large is the group of American Jews (hardly a monolithic community either), are having issues about Israel... I have a better idea on that one, but not a good idea. For multiple complex reasons I am not that plugged into my community that deeply.