ravi wrote:
>
> . . . .the question is whether
> america can appropriate black culture and contributions as its
> own, isnt it? it is true that black culture influenced america
> in the long run, but only so through its presence as the
> "other", isnt it? if that be the case, then how valid is it
> for america today to appropriate these contributions as
> "american", since they were not, at the time they were made?
Herod, in Auden's _Christmas Oratorio_: ". . . .I've tried to be good. I brush my teeth every night. I haven't had sex for a month. I object. I'm a liberal. I want everyone to be happy. I wish I had never been born."
If there is one thing (there isn't just one of course) which separates white American liberals from those who take politics seriously it is the anguished belief that we can proceed directly to "Black and White together." The readiness to claim "black" for "American" reflects that wistful longing. We're just all americans here. But as the Scholastics recognized long ago: Distinguer pour unir.
Carrol
>
> i have a lot of "if"s in the above that i hope readers will
> notice, since i want to make clear that i do not have a
> thorough enough knowledge of black or american history to make
> statements out of these questions,
>
> --ravi