Cultural Development for African American Youth in Philly, and elsewhere

"In fact, even our five "senses" are culturally-defined. That is, Our perceptions, regarding what we feel, taste, hear, smell, and see, are determined by our cultural experiences."

Dear friends,

The history of humankind is the revelation of lots of stories about generational activities, among particular groups. It is not a chronology of the tales of either “great” individuals or “great” events. Additionally, because we are social beings, our existence is based upon two conditions. They are: 1) A cooperative effort to co-exist. 2) Shared responsibility to engage in activities that are regulated by specific rules which allow the continuation of the particular group for hundreds or even thousands of years. The aforementioned generational activities are more commonly referred to as “culture".

In Our society, culture is a word that is often used to refer to the higher achievements of a particular group - like painting and music. However, it (culture) involves everything that We do. Therefore, it even has a physiological significance. This is easily identifiable by recognizing the actual mental and motor reflexes that are initiated when a European American (so-called white person) who is sitting in a car pushes down the lock button as an African American approaches the vicinity of the former’s vehicle.

The notion of the initiating of both mental and motor reflexes also explains the cultural differences in the way that people draw, dance, sing, and so forth. In fact, even Our five "senses" are culturally-defined. That is, our perceptions, regarding what We feel, taste, hear, smell, and see, are determined by Our cultural experiences. We live in a racist culture (where racism, is defined as it was first used to mean White Supremacy)

Additionally, our culture determines the manner in which we transmit and share both behavior and ideas to present and future generations. However, the first thing that we must understand about culture is that it is largely tied to a people's resources. That is, social status and income as well as materials to produce what people need or desire determine how, why and through what medium folks can express themselves as a distinct group.

African American culture has contributed quite positively, and in a large way, to the development of the United States of America. However, the legacy of chattel slavery that was bestowed upon us by both European American enslavers and their, albeit fewer, African American counterparts has left our culture in shambles. Worse yet, much of the problem of the lack of community amongst us is based upon cultural habits that are made all too obvious by the sense of disenfranchisement that many of our youth both feel and display.

Now, there’s an African proverb that goes, " To live together is to have a common fate." In other words, as a community, in the grand scheme of things, as it were, we need each other, regardless of whatever extent that we are physically-able or whatever social differences that we have - like gender and age. But if people, in any specific community, share a common fate, then it only seems fair that all parties involved should have a voice in their destinies. Unfortunately, for all of America’s "brave words" of "freedom and democracy", when do our children ever experience either of these lofty ideals, particularly, democracy?

Worse yet, while the quintessence of "democracy" is non-violent conflict resolution, in terms of the self-destructive deeds of our youth that were just mentioned, our responses to anti-social behavior by said young people are often expressed with violence, destructiveness, counter-productiveness, and mean-spiritedness, and, therefore, quite undemocratic, aside from being totally useless. For example, more police to monitor and/or dominate them, " zero tolerance" in schools, and harsher sentences for youthful offenders may feel good to some, but not even those punishments or "more jobs" will change the present circumstances. As a matter of fact, if either punishment or reward changed behavior, then there would not be such high recidivism rates in the prisons or so many lottery winners who end up broke in short time.

We must convince our young (and allow them) to not only share in controlling their own destinies, but, as well, to prepare for the generations that will follow them. That is all about what culture is.

One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus