Family Remains Key to Cultural Identity After 18

Mom and dad will be happy.  Even after children turn 18, they still cling to the cultural traditions and learnings from their youth.  Cultural education remains a key facet of parenting.

According to a new study from San Francisco State University,

The formative years don’t stop at 18 according to a new study that found the actions and lifestyle of the family continue to influence whether young adults embrace their ethnicity and take pride in their roots. Published in the Journal of Adolescence, the study of young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 found that those whose families continue to teach them about their ethnic background had a greater sense of ethnic identity.

Individuals whose families actively share cultural customs and traditions with them, celebrating Chinese New Year for example, reported feeling more attached to their ethnic group and spent more time exploring their heritage.

The study surveyed more than 200 adults between the ages of 18-30 from a variety of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. 

While the good news is cultural identity stays with adolescents, values may not:

The study found that the family’s role in communicating cultural practices and traditions had a greater influence on young adults’ exploration of their ethnicity compared with whether they adopted values associated with their ethnic group. “Parents may be effective in prompting their children to find out more about their culture but they can’t necessarily instill the values of their culture,” Juang said.

Black History Month Still Important

We don’t fall into the “post-racial” category.  Black History Month is, and remains, an important reflection on and celebration of African American history and culture.  Newsweek has a web exclusive by Raina Kelley explaining why she isn’t ready to ditch Black History Month:

When did everybody start hating on Black History Month? I have yet to find a person, black or white or anything else, looking forward to the February festivities. At one point, when speaking to a well-known black intellectual about participating in a video NEWSWEEK is putting together, I was stunned by the vehemence of his refusal. It’s not as if I was asking him to march to Birmingham. But I get it. It seems ghettoizing and patronizing to spend one month of every year proving that black history is a holistic part of American history. As Morgan Freeman once famously told Mike Wallace, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month? … Which month is White History Month? … I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” Because today the divisions between black and white are not as cavernous or ugly as they once were. The contributions of famous black Americans, from Frederick Douglass to Oprah Winfrey, are widely known. Martin Luther King Jr. has his own federal holiday. The president of the United States is black. If tens of millions of white people voted for Barack Hussein Obama, the lesson has been learned, right? As if. Despite the election of Obama, African-Americans still live in a culture that is overreliant on stereotype and slow to explore the complexity of racialized issues such as the ghetto or Haiti. So you can complain about Black History Month all you want. But there’s still work to be done. Read the full article.

What say you?  Will you be “celebrating” Black History Month?  Do you still think it’s important?

What is Black Love?

What is Black Love? A simple woman like me would suggest that it is the love between a black man and a black woman. Perhaps that’s why there is such an uproar about Essence’s Black Love Issue with New Orleans Saints player Reggie Bush. For those of us not up on pop culture paparazzi news, the very handsome Reggie Bush is involved with reality TV vixen Kim Kardashian, who is not black.

Black women were offended and slightly miffed (to put it mildly). Me, I was slightly annoyed, but not offended.

The offense?

For some black women, perhaps it was interracial dating overall. I don’t have a foot squarely in that camp.

For others, it was the suggestion that Black Love wasn’t necessarily between a black man and a black woman. You might have my interest on that point.

Over at the Black Youth Project, Tamara makes a key observation…how does one define Black Love? And are black women a part of that equation?:

If we continue to expand the notion of Black Love so that it includes interracial relationships, the concept begins to erode, particularly, for Black women. We are the ones who will be pushed to the margins if the concept is expanded. Men are privileged enough to tell us that we shouldn’t be so concerned about our fading presence in the Black Love equation which simultaneously pushes the idea that we aren’t qualified to be in the equation at all. Where does that leave us?

So are we hung up on a definition or hung up on being removed from the equation?

Haiti on My Mind

Catastrophic doesn’t begin to describe the Haiti earthquake’s devastation on a country already ravaged by poverty.  Haiti is one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, if not the world.  I can’t bear to watch the news footage or see the pictures of destruction without doing something to help.  I encourage you to do so as well.

Help Haiti

Text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.  You can also give to the American Red Cross at 1-800-REDCROSS or redcross.org.

Text “Yele” to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (Wyclef Jean).  It will be charged to your cell phone bill.

CARE can be reached at 1-800-521-CARE or care.org.

Mercy Corp already has emergency teams deployed. Their number 888-256-1900.

UNICEF has a special page set up so you can donate to the children of Haiti at 1-800 for Kids or unicefUSA.org.

Find Family

The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747 (due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording).

Follow for More Information on Twitter

• @wyclef
• @dipnote

More About Haiti

Although Haiti averages about 325 people per square kilometer, its population is concentrated most heavily in urban areas, coastal plains, and valleys. About 95% of Haitians are of African descent. The rest of the population is mostly of mixed Caucasian-African ancestry. A few are of European or Levantine heritage. Sixty percent of the population lives in rural areas.

French is one of two official languages, but it is spoken fluently by only about 10% of the people. All Haitians speak Creole, the country’s other official language. English and Spanish are increasingly used as second languages among the young and in the business sector.

The dominant religion is Roman Catholicism. Increasing numbers of Haitians have converted to Protestantism through the work of missionaries active throughout the country. Much of the population also practices voudou (voodoo), recognized by the government as a religion in April 2003. Haitians tend to see no conflict in these African-rooted beliefs coexisting with Christian faith.

Although public education is free, the cost is still quite high for Haitian families who must pay for uniforms, textbooks, supplies, and other inputs. Due to weak state provision of education services, private and parochial schools account for approximately 90% of primary schools, and only 65% of primary school-aged children are actually enrolled. At the secondary level, the figure drops to around 20%. Less than 35% of those who enter will complete primary school. Though Haitians place a high value on education, few can afford to send their children to secondary school and primary school enrollment is dropping due to economic factors. Remittances sent by Haitians living abroad are important in paying educational costs.

Large-scale emigration, principally to the U.S.–but also to Canada, the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and other Caribbean neighbors, and France–has created what Haitians refer to as the Eleventh Department or the Diaspora. About one of every eight Haitians lives abroad. (U.S. State Department Background Notes)

Sites We Like: BlackYouthProject.com

What: The Black Youth Project, recently featured on ABC News,  is a national research project out of the University of Chicago that examines the attitudes, resources, and culture of African American youth ages 15 to 25, exploring how these factors and others influence their decision-making, norms, and behavior in critical domains such as sex, health, and politics.

Why:  The Black Youth Project provides not just a bunch of research facts on black youth, it also provides a platform for black youth to blog, vent, and connect on the unique issues they face.  The BYP also provides research summaries coupled with a database of rap lyrics (given research shows African American youth listen to hip hop everyday), curriculum for educators based on BYP’s research findings, and a new comprehensive database on black youth in the news.

Suggest a website or blog to “Sites We Like”

McWhorter: What To Get a Black Person For Christmas

Always thought-provoking, John McWhorter provides his recommendations on what Blacks need this Christmas:  Bill Cosby’s State of Emergency CD.

So very “2004” by now – the days when the kickoff question for an interview on black issues was whether you agreed with the views of Bill Cosby. What was interesting was how many black people actually did – those who had a major problem with Cosby’s new tack were mainly a writerly contingent, itchy to see someone so prominent arguing against the tacit but potent assumption that there needs to be a second Civil Rights revolution.

This crowd have never had a satisfactory riposte to what’s on the paperback of Cosby and Alvin Poussaint’s book Come On People: “When you have people tell you, ‘You can’t get up, you’re a victim,’ that’s when you know that it’s the devil you’re hearing, no one else.” Yet what with certain other race-related events having taken the stage since 2004, one would be pardoned for supposing that Cosby’s no-nonsense speeches were yesterday’s news and that now he’s just sitting at home. By no means – it turns out Cornel West isn’t the only black authority figure of a certain age making rap CDs.

McWhorter goes on to provide greater insight into Cosby’s foray into hip hop music.  Cosby is not out to go platinum or top the charts, but inspire and provoke conversations in communities large and small on doing the right thing.

Now that’s something worth celebrating. 

And certainly much more inspiring than the New York Times’ Of Color Holiday Gift Guide (h/t One Brown Girl).

Nobel Peace Prize: Obama’s No King?

Though no one in the media punditocracy found fault in President Obama’s acceptance speech in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, author and pastor Byron Williams, writing in The Huffington Post, makes clear that President Obama shares little with the two African Americans receiving the prize before him, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Bunche:

For those who own mementos from the 2009 presidential inauguration such as key rings, bumper stickers and buttons depicting the images of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama as a way to illustrate that the civil right icon’s “dream” has been fulfilled, now would be the appropriate time to discard them into the ash pile of irrelevance.

Any doubt you may have had was put to rest by the president himself. Last Thursday, President Barack Obama became the third African-American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, joining King and Ralph Bunche. Here is where the similarities end.

Bunche was awarded the prize in 1950 for his successful mediation of a series of cease fire agreements between the new nation of Israel and four Arab neighbors — Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. King was awarded the prize in 1964 for his commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience in response to often-violent Jim Crow segregation.

Obama’s award was a derivative prize. Like the highly speculative financial instruments that were used to invest in high-risk mortgage securities, the Nobel committee placed a side bet on what they believe Obama could do at some future date, more so than what he has actually accomplished.

Too harsh?

No Black Prince for Disney’s Tiana?

Black women across America gave a collective “It’s about time” when Disney announced pre-production on a film featuring a black princess.

Disney has traveled a long road to move from its early caricatures of lazy, big-lipped, bug-eyed, zoot-suited blacks to Princess Tiana, an energetic, smart and in-charge heroine. But as the national release of The Princess and the Frog approaches, I join those who are disappointed that Disney chose not to give their first black princess a black prince.

Surely at some point in the brainstorming sessions, someone had to question the wisdom of Naveen, Tiana’s white love interest. The existence of interracial relationships on the screen does not offend me. The nonexistence of healthy, positive, inspiring black relationships offends me.

To object to a black princess and a white prince in Obama’s post-racial America upsets the sensibilities of some, and simply does not make sense to others. But pointing to the Obamas as proof that America has ample examples of black families and black love is as silly as it was to point to the Huxtables 20 years ago.

The unfortunate reality is that the big and small screens paint more pictures of black dysfunctional relationships than images of black couples falling and staying in healthy love. The Princess and the Frog is an excellent opportunity for the Mouse to add to the healthy images.

Much has been made of the improved self-esteem and personal empowerment that will come to black girls who now have a princess in their own image. To that point, black boys desperately need images of a dashing, courageous, smart black prince as much as black girls need images of a charming, courageous, smart black princess.

And yes, despite our displeasure at not having a black prince, my mama, my sister and I are breaking the bank this Christmas to buy my 2-year-old niece all manner of Princess Tiana merchandise. I suppose beggars can’t be choosy, after all.

Deana Bass is managing partner of CS Corporate, a public affairs firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, Del. Her occasional blog can be found here.  You can also find Ms. Bass on Facebook and Twitter.

Black in the Age of Obama: Things Have Not Gotten Better

Some say things have gotten worse.  But, the belief that President Obama’s election was going to turn the page on race relations, rekindle a renewed sense of purpose in black men, inspire personal responsibility, stop kids from getting killed in senseless street violence, and have world leaders singing Kumbaya was overly simplistic and exaggerated to begin with. 

It’s not as if I blame the President for not solving all of these social ills.  It’s that I never expected him to do so in the first place.

And much of this is not in his job description.

But a campaign centered on hope has created a harsh reality for those who believed Obama would “teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony.”

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow remarks on the impact of Obama presidency on black America one year in:

So far, it’s been mixed. Blacks are living a tale of two Americas — one of the ascension of the first black president with the cultural capital that accrues; the other of a collapsing quality of life and amplified racial tensions, while supporting a president who is loath to even acknowledge their pain, let alone commiserate in it.

To be sure, Blow recites the usual – though no less depressing- economic and social data on the plight of black America: high foreclosure rates, higher unemployment, and less food security. 

Even still, black Americans have incredible pride and hope in our new President and continue to give him above 90 percent approval ratings.

Do you think this will ever change? 

Of note, Blow also reviews the year in black men transgressions in the public space.  Get your fill here.

Unconscious Side of Racism

I stumbled upon Race Talk, the recently relaunched blog and online magazine of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.  The site features articles by authors, advocates, social justice leaders, and journalists on gender and equity issues in the US and globally.

Of note, an article by contributor John A. Powell on understanding the unconscious side of racism. 

Powell begins by referencing a New York Times story reporting that even educated blacks may suffer racial discrimination in the job market. 

According to Powell:

 When these stories appear – and it indeed is a good thing that they do appear – there is always an element of surprise and a dearth of information on what, if anything, can or should be done as a result.

Powell goes on to describe the unconscious mind and racism:

Some of this confusion would go away if we had a more sophisticated understanding of race.  We mainly talk about race and racial discrimination in terms of explicit, conscious attitudes; in this domain there is much to suggest we have made progress.  But this is far from the whole story.  Race occupies many domains, not just what is in our explicit, conscious mind.  There are two other important areas on which to focus.  One is what is in our unconscious mind, also referred to as implicit mind.  The second is the effect of our institutional and cultural interactions in our society.  Continue Reading.

We look forward to reading more from Race Talk.

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