From Dialogue Two of Five on Race: Oppression Defined — “Oppression” Defined
Onitaset Kumat: So we understand both ‘culture’ and ‘Oppression;” shall we venture the combination?
Knobeco: Please.
Onitaset Kumat: So ‘culture’ is a continuity from ancestry, and ‘oppression’ is a means toward moulding, therefore ‘cultural oppression’ is a means toward moulding toward a culture.
Knobeco: So we reason.
Onitaset Kumat: Therefore, we ask, what entails the cultural oppression of the African.
Knobeco: A most valid question.
Onitaset Kumat: And we are put to the question whether an African can be an African in America’s cultural oppression.
Knobeco: Such is very doubtful.
Onitaset Kumat: Then it is arrived upon that the “Cultural Oppression” of the African relates with his not being able to be African in America.
Knobeco: So it seems.
Onitaset Kumat: Seeing this, we understand Cultural Oppression fully.
Knobeco: Yes. The African’s cultural oppression is in him being moulded into a European’s culture.
Onitaset Kumat: True. Moreso, “Cultural Oppression” implies that each person has a culture belonging them, namely that of their ancestry.
Knobeco: Very, very true.
Onitaset Kumat: Thereby, we must assert as an African people, an African culture.
Knobeco: Of course. Without a culture to claim, to claim oppression has no merit.
Onitaset Kumat: More, with this claim of culture, we now acknowledge how the African is oppressed.
Knobeco: Very true.
Onitaset Kumat: Speaking thusly, we see how to target oppression hereafter.
Knobeco: Yes. Cultural Oppression moulds one from their due culture.
Onitaset Kumat: Then before going onward to speaking on “Corruption”–
Knobeco: That sounds interesting.
Onitaset Kumat: We should observe one thing.
Knobeco: What’s that?
Onitaset Kumat: The European is not Culturally Oppressed in a European culture.
Knobeco: So it would seem.
Onitaset Kumat: More, the European woman gets her just desserts when the hatred of man is exacted against her.
Knobeco: Why do you say that?
Onitaset Kumat: Look at what we established. The European’s culture is mysoginistic. Therefore, the European’s ancestry was mysogonistic. That said, if the woman has always been hated in Europe, the hatred is not an oppression, but a just dessert.
Knobeco: So it appears. Odd, no?
Onitaset Kumat: Nope! Not only that, but this then leads us into the next discussion of “Corruption.”
Knobeco: I can hardly wait!
Subscribe; Other posts in this series:
Dialogue One of Five on Race: Culture Defined — “Culture” Defined
Dialogue Two of Five on Race: Oppression Defined — “Oppression” Defined
Dialogue Three of Five on Race [ . . .] — “Cultural Oppression”
Dialogue Four of Five on Race: Corruption Defined — Corruption Defined
Dialogue Five of Five on Race: Race Defined — Spiritual Capital
African Blood Siblings 
[Onitaset Edit: This discussion was moved from the Table of Contents to here.]
This definition, for instance, doesn’t allow for “cultural oppression” seeing how there is no basis to say that a culture is oppressed if being oppressed can be seen as a culture. See what I am saying?
[ I do. ]
Hence why I find it fit to define culture: https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/dialogue-one-of-five-on-race-culture-defined/
In a nutshell:
Then we define a “non-corrupted culture,” or “pure culture” to be “those mannerisms that represent a continuity from ancestor to descendant.”
To make it explicit, have you noticed how African people dress for church differently from European people, though they attend the same churches? For instance–the hats. That has a root in parts of Africa and a reason therefore. This represents culture, since it’s from pre-slavery.
[ I see it OUR music – rhythms and beats. And the way we move and respond to it. I see it in the way we converse with each other. I get what you’re saying.. ]
On the other hand, how we now dress (in the mainstream), has little to do with how our parents dress. This does not represent our culture, but the corruption thereupon.
Let’s discuss – does Africa have one unique culture? Or does Africa have hundreds, or thousands of indigenous cultures?
We should discuss this on my site. But for instance, I put up the film “Crisis in the Congo” and saw the refugees of the genocide there. You should wonder what will become of the priests and the religion when everyone is so dispersed. Even if they invent their own culture–isn’t there a ‘root’ culture? This I call “Originalism” and this is what I say represents the “one unique” culture of Africans.
[ If humans were all Africans at one point, then don’t we all share this same root culture?
Yet, even pre-colonial Africa was quite different from country to country. Even single African nations displayed a wide array of cultural differences, no? I’ll admit there’s much more that I don’t know than what I think I know.. ]
Matari, I will try to move this conversation to tomorrow’s post “Dialogue Three of Five on Race: Cultural Oppression Defined” since this is my Table of Contents.
However, you asked questions that should have answers.
Precisely. This is why I call us “Originals.” It stands for what it says. Meanwhile I call the European “Occidentals” and the Asians “Orientals,” “Westerners” and “Easterners respectively. Of course it’s “West” and “East” of what? Africa.
Though, truly it’s a bit more complicated than that. “Humans” have a variety, from those mixed with Twa, unmixed with Twa, those mixed with Neanderthals and those unmixed with Neanderthals. There’s probably another variation that we should consider.
This I intend to read up on, but soon I will post one of Dr. Ben’s posts which point out that the Ankh is of ancient Twa origin. We’re talking 400,000 B.C.E. Besides that, the civilization of Kemet came from the beginning of the Nile. This is a very important consideration. Who was in Uganda? Who was in Ethiopia?
Quite. But Pre-Colonial Africa wasn’t Pre-Invaded Africa. For instance, Senegal was Islamic pre-colonialism; however, Islam is a religion dealing with Musta’rabs, not Africans. Just as we in America have different mannerisms from those in Jamaica and those in Jamaica have different mannerisms from those in Trinidad, that does not mean that we are a different people. Maybe more Ashanti went to Jamaica and more Igbo to Trinidad and more Congolese America, maybe. But fundamentally there’s something similar with Africans, falling back to our mixture with the Twa, and fundamentally there’s something similar with Europeans, their mixture with Neanderthals, and this fundamental difference creates, say, Diop’s “Two Cradle Theory” (see Table of Contents) and my statements on “Originalism (Ibid.)”
I’ll see about moving this conversation tomorrow.
Hotep
Onitaset, thank you for excusing my misplacement of my comments.
Yes, I see your point re the cultural oppression of African people in America (and elsewhere). I’m reminded of The Mis-Education of the Negro – Carter G. Woodson. I haven’t read it yet. The title, reinforced by my own empirical observation, is enough..
My concern is that as a group, many of us Africans in America seem to be going backwards. I watch our young people. Pants sagging … blonde colored hair, wigs, weaves and extensions. Young women acting out … and putting out. Babies making and raising babies. Young men over-absorbed in what passes today as music. Jumping from one woman to the next …
Too many of us using degenerative speech patterns as we relate to each other. It’s as if we are sick, stuck and confused. Well, we are… Many have got their priorities (and egos) wrong.
We don’t sacrifice ourselves, or cooperate with each other for the sake of our children!
And then there’s the well known persistent OLD issues that prevent us from communing/functioning in love, trust, interdependence, respect and mutual cooperation.
But yet, in the midst of all of this nonsense there are enough glimmering rays of hope, scattered about, giving life to the realization that all IS NOT yet lost. We’re a strong, resilient never say die people who has overcome crippling odds!
Yes, we’ve come far, but we still have quite an uphill climb – against the *prevailing winds* – ahead of us.
It will require FORTITUDE, TIME and much patience – if we are to prevail.
Hotep
The spam detector mis-labeled this post as “Spam.” Maybe the Europeans figured hopeful talk is in abundance with our community. It was Garvey who said “You must not mistake lip-service and noise for bravery and service.”
However, I know that this is not spam. Nevertheless, that’s about all that I know pertaining to you Matari. I have a new quiz named “Who are you?” Please fill it out and share it: https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/social-quiz-who-are-you/.
My reasoning is that, if you pay attention here, you’ll see that Du Bois referred to our not knowing one another as the tragedy of our age.
—
On the point of your post, we return to the allegory that you liked, on the kidnapped youth (https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/the-allegory-of-the-kidnapped-youth/): how do we judge a kidnapped people? More, look at what you criticize us for. According to whose culture are we critiqued? What’s the standard of your critique?
For instance, you critique that young men go from women to women. But what about going from women to women? Weren’t many of our ancestors polygamous?
Then you critique that young women are having children. What about young women having children? Isn’t fecundity a good quality for a people?
Upon whose standard are you critiquing the African race? What’s sagging to a people who were comfortable naked? Not at all excusing our behaviors, but instead shedding light onto what we observe. Enough Africans have realized that “Ebonics” was the use of English words in an African syntax. What’s “degenerate speech patterns” to a kidnapped people?
In time I want to review and critique the website you put up: “Race Traitors.” That will be my commitment.
Please commit to answering my quiz, Matari.
Tell me also the “Old” issue. I may not understand you.
Also, you advise “Fortitude, time and patience.” Why? That would be good to know.
Hotep Sibling
Edit: Apparently this went into spam, too.
Howdy Sir,
Have I a comment in moderation?
If not, it got vaporized..
Onitaset,
I appreciate your interest in knowing who I am.
I think I can better express who I am in the manner you’ll see below.
I wrote this shortly after our last dialog. You mentioned something about beginning/starting an organization – and as I thought about that, the following thoughts came to me.
*LET’S “GROW UP” TOWARDS THE SUN*
lets honor the most high in our deeds and behaviors
lets leave all child-like mentalities be
lets pull our pants up
stop calling one another derogatory (degenerative) names ;
hoes
niggers
bitches
dogs
pimps
mother-f*ckers
s/he tryna be white
etc..
lets be men
when we become men our women may become ladies (warming up to us) and less angry
lets become reliable and trustworthy
let our words be backed up by actions
let not profit be our motivation
let doing the right thing/service be our motivation
lets respect and value our elders
lets not mimic whiteness
lets cooperate, respect and love one another with dignity, grace and understanding
let us heal our minds and hearts
lets invest ourselves in developing our young
lets control our sexual urges rather than have our sexual urges control us
lets not abort our own as a means of birth control
lets worship our creator by living life according to the instructions we receive
lets do to others only what you’d want others to do to you
lets always do the right thing
lets never mistreat anyone
lets forgive those who repent of their wrong doings
lets resist doing evil for evil done to us
lets keep our streets and neighborhoods clean and orderly
lets be smarter consumers by using and investing our money wisely
let our occupation be in service to others
lets be always willing to teach only good things
lets grow our minds in a positive direction
lets be wise as a serpent but gentle as a newborn
lets reclaim our destiny, legacy and inheritance
lets be what the creator intended
lets not value superficial things
lets help those who need the most help
lets not give negativity a voice
lets only mimic that which is good
lets not be defensive – thats the creators job
lets put and keep our egos/pride down
lets keep our dignity and heads held high
lets never be greedy
lets save a portion for drought or for a rainy season
lets put ourselves out for others so others might put themselves out for us
lets be patient with ourselves and one another
lets be honest in all of our doings
lets encourage, uplift and support those who are trying to do good
lets treat our bodies correctly
lets control our appetites instead of permitting our appetites to control us
imagine what we could attain as a people with mutual love respect, showing up and keeping ones word
LETS LEARN TO TRUST ONE ANOTHER – somehow, someway…
I am and I am not Afro-centric. No, I’m not confused. I’m complex, yet quite simple. I’m just another human. Sometimes a very tired weary and wary human. I instinctively know that man has messed things up. Life should be much easier than it is – for most. I envy the so-called primitive/uncivilized societies/cultures that enjoy(ed) a well ordered and simply structured way of life… governance.
I believe that the Creator wants us (ALL MANKIND) to have REAL life.
No war, no hatred, no conflict, no envy, no jealousy, no competition.
Yes COOPERATION.
Yes PEACE.
Yes HARMONY.
Yes LOVE.
How he intends to get us there to this place of true life – I do not know. What I do know is – THIS ain’t it.
I wish you Peace & Love Brother Onitaset!
PS — You’ve asked some legit questions re whose standards do I judge some of those critiques I mentioned in my last post. I don’t know if I’ll get around to answering all of them – but I’ll attempt answering ONE here/now.
Re: babies having babies – I simply say this. A parent who’s 30 and older has/or should have more knowledge, understanding (wisdom) and resources to properly raise/train their child than a parent who is 12 -18.
PPS – I attempted to enter the above comments into the quiz format, but got ERRORS correctly indicating that I didn’t fill out ALL of the required fields – so I’m placing it here.
But this is your house, so please free to move or delete as you see fit. : )
Sibling Matari,
Hotep. I thank you for your commentary. Your writings remind me of the hope that our race has; for your ideas repeat our ancestry, but also our corruption.
First, let me tell you of Brother G. He writes the Memnon series. He wrote it after much study into our history.
Separately, on my site, I highlight the words of “The Philosopher King.” This I do out of respect for our ancestors. It is in understanding “The Philosopher King,” I believe, that we can truly understand ourselves.
To tie it together, Brother G wrote on the ten blameless codes of the Ethiopians. I think that you would appreciate this wisdom. To my knowledge, the Philosopher King wrapped up all ten codes into one.
Here are the ten codes, I’ll make a future post correlating the two on 2/14:
You would notice that I cite the 9th code in my “Grievances” post.
As far as organization is concerned, I will to organize us under the Philosopher King’s wisdom that embodies these ten codes and more. But essentially we are kindred spirits–willing to organize under maxims. Hotep.
As to babies having babies, I read that we traditionally had children shortly after puberty. But there’s more to this than meets the eyes. The Sisterhoods in Africa are tremendous. Women from different families moved in with other women after their marriages. It’s not the same as in America where we mimic the European woman who has no Sisterhood. Any person, 30 or 13, raising a child alone is not doing it in our way and is bound to have a difficulty. This again, Sibling, is not our standard.
Finally, when I say ‘corruption’ I mean with your hopefulness for humanity. More and more I am learning that racism is ancient and for a reason of an inequality on a higher level.
Personally, I think that the greatest trick of White people’s, is that we pursue to be his ‘equal.’
Tell me–why should we pursue to be equally represented in the sciences if that was our invention?
But now we go into another territory of discussion.
By the way, this is not my house. It’s as much yours as mine.
Hotep
“..we are kindred spirits–willing to organize under maxims.”
My desire is to encourage, uplift and challenge ALL humans to be the best they can be (and to receive the same ..)
Onitaset, if it were within my power to effect a planetary shift/change, there would be no enmity among men. There would be no us versus them, and there would be no “this” group, or “that” group, or three groups. We would ALL be one people in the Supreme Being. His/Her people, with each soul reflecting the endless traits of the Creator’s perfect nature/Spirit/character.
The spirit of the 10 codes very much resembles the thoughts I shared with you.
Thanks for sharing them.
Matari, there are three groups. There’s no way around this. To say otherwise is to deny a separate ancestry and thus a separate culture.
What you describe in a hopefulness toward other people amounts to an outreach program that will necessarily be disastrous. Sankofa, Matari. Look back, Matari.
It is this understanding that will move us forward. It is a cultural imperialism to tell the European to remove himself from his ancestry. And it’s a wasted errand to attempt so.
Here’s an allegory to this effect:
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/the-allegory-of-the-pitied-child/
In short, it describes the Moors. They sought to civilize the European people. For their effort, all of Latin America speaks either Portuguese or Spanish. For their effort, all of North America speaks English or Spanish. For their effort, most indigenous Americans are dead. And for their effort, your continent’s languages are in danger; it’s people stolen and violated.
You must look into yourself whether you and an enslaver are kindred spirits. Then wonder further why you should tell the European, who has never stopped enslaving even himself, that he should bring his behavior to your standard.
It’s a nerve of yours to think as much. Your problem is not that he is cruel: he is cruel. Your problem is that he is cruel to you and others who are not cruel. Remember that.
Matari, please think on what cultural oppression is. It would be culturally oppressive to deny the European his culture–his ancestral behavior. That’s the reality of cultural oppression.
HTP
More, Matari.
There’s a reality worth confronting. Ethics means something different across cultures and thereby across races (Not exactly. There is only one code of ethics, but the code relies upon ‘spirit’ which varies.)
For instance, a maternal Sisterhood (a fellowship based around motherhood), my newest inspiration, would be traditional for Africans, but foreign to Europeans. Though you may list a million vices that can be amended in our community. The “Maternal Sisterhood” falls into place only in the African tradition, not in the European tradition.
To make it more obvious. Your babies raising babies is not absurd in our traditions. However, it’s terrible in this culture. (Clearly, this is “Individualism” versus “Collectivism.” Europeans are deeply “Individualist” while Africans are deeply “Collectivist.”)*
For you then Matari, you, like the rest of us, need to return to your culture. Your mission to improve this foreign culture will never bring you back to your culture. Clearer, if you want women to raise children at 30 rather than 13, that will never lead you into a culture where women raise children in a maternal sisterhood. And in fact, it’s this lack of a maternal sisterhood, that will always make our children victims to organized “White Supremacy” and “racism.”**
* For longer than White people so much as knew us they were individualist and whenever we tried to change them they punished us. In addition, efforts to change them make us more individualist or doesn’t help us become collectivist. Your goal should be to make us collectivist. Then things will be in place.
** New Thesis.
It is not this ‘worship’ of our ancestry and ‘culture’ that lead most “occidentals” to think and act the way they do. You’ve got to get away from this us and them stuff, I know it exists, but it will continue to as long as you come at it this way. I really like what you have here, but every time I see some text saying ‘us’, it disgusts me. We are products of our environment, and if one were to read only what you have on your site, they would develop a definite adversarial view of the world. The humans on this planet are evolving mentally, and you will be left in the dust if you do not acknowledge this. Again, i will admit i am rather ignorant compared to you, but if you are not considering your audience, then you too are ignorant. I am and will continue to learn and consider other views. I hope you do as well.
Respectfully,
-Paul S
Brother Paul,
You write that “it will continue to as long as you come at it this way.” Do you think that when you were in Primary School and your teacher lied to you concerning, say, Abraham Lincoln, that it was because of your actions? I.e. Do you think that you were late to class so that’s why your teacher decided to lie to you?
Of course not. Why do you believe that your victimization is a reaction when you fully understand that your ancestors were stolen from Africa and reduced to slavery for 400 years? Do you realize that by the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution Slavery is the common punishment for crime to this day? As in, do you realize that today young Africans are still being stolen from their homes and enslaved–oftentimes on fallacious but profitable charges?
I understand, you want to make peace, but do you realize that everywhere you go in America, you walk on the land of a people who tried to make peace with the same people you believe have changed–the same people who enslave you to this day? Do you realize all of this? Do you realize that your home is on the land where young boys and girls jumped around and played, now buried beneath the earth or burned in a nearby pile. Do you see this?
Brother I want you to look at a few articles, one on the Congo, one on Pedophilia and one on Prisons. Afterward, tell me what I should do about these things and let me know whether I am to blame for these things.
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/crisis-in-the-congo/
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/europe-pedophilia-and-re-organization/
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/why-do-black-youth-go-to-prison/
That video angered and saddened me at the same time. But that only brings to light the message i was trying to convey; my concern was not with your message (even though I whole hardily disagree with any drawing of lines) but with the effectiveness of your message. We are free to perceive and believe as we will, as you will, but if gains are to be made in this ‘war’ you/we need to appeal to those not currently on your side, occidentals included. Not because it is the right thing to do, or because they deserve it, but because you must to win! My comment was a question of strategy, not validity.
Respectfully,
-Paul S
Paul S,
I realize that you have an admirable intelligence. Please review the “Four Kinds of Africans” and even read the “General Rules of Warfare.”
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/an-address-to-the-four-kinds-of-negroes/
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/general-rules-of-warfare/
Though you are intelligent, you write certain errors.
For example, “though I whole hardily disagree with any drawing of lines.” No battle can be won without the drawing of lines. Here’s one rule, “He is overcome with difficulty, who knows how to recognize his forces and those of the enemy.” The implication is one is overcome easily who does not know how to draw the lines, no?
Secondly, you write, “if gains are to be made in this ‘war’ you/we need to appeal to those not currently on your side, occidentals included.” The trouble here is your Philosophy of Dependence. Ida B. Wells wrote beautifully on self-help. In particular, “The appeal to the white man’s pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.”
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/self-help-by-ida-b-wells-barnett/
On the above issue, you ignore any sort of aim. For instance, do you want to spread Prosperity? For if this were your aim and you studied the problem you’d realize that your enemies use their Prosperity to Impoverish you. You saw the video of the Congo. You saw the Pedophiles. In other words, “What benefits the enemy, harms you; and what benefits you, harm the enemy.” But you ask, why do they need to be enemies and the reason is in this dialogue, the different CULTURE demands it. Understand the NATURE of the European and you’ll see why we’re in a quarrel.
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/directory/abs/lore/races/occidentals/
Don’t make the mistake of believing that I have thought little on the matter. I understand “Responsibility.” Read on “Responsibility.”
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/what-is-responsibility/
Or even reread the KMT Self-Knowledge Proverbs,
” When the governing class isn’t chosen for quality it is chosen for material wealth: this always means
decadence, the lowest stage a society can reach.”
https://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/kmt-self-knowledge-and-cosmic-wisdom-quotations/
When you understand that Proverb, as well as the European’s nature, you will see that we’re living in the worst of times because of the European. For you to ask for the assistance of those who reduced society to it’s lowest stage is irresponsible to say the least. What is you goal? Unity in decadence?