Doing Away With The Myth of The Individual

[The Nigerian]

One of the biggest problems in Black society today is the belief in the myth of the "rugged individual" and the downplaying of our common Blackness.

You see it manifest in dumb sayings like "We are not a monolith," and "Imma do me."

We need to cut it out. It's killing us in the same way it was used to kill off the Native Americans.

A lot of people don't know this but one of the reasons why Native Americans were so easily conquered by Europeans was that there was little unity amongst the natives in the face of a unified white foe.

Not only are we a monolith in that we share common biology but we also share damn near common culture. Most importantly we share a common destiny. Denial won't change this reality. It will only make our enemies stronger.

What can we do to get people to understand that we are in this together? How can we debunk this "We are not a monolith" myth?

 

[TL15]

I think the idea that we are all "individuals" is slowly changing (emphasis on slowly)...

We are becoming more and more collectively aware recently. Even though we don't have the money or power to create full scale change just yet, you can see through these police cases that more and more people are starting to mobilize through planned demonstrations. Outrage is collective now and there seems to be a growing collective conscious. I usually see blacks standing firm on the same side when it comes to these high profile cases which is a good sign that change is brewing.

All we can do is support each other for now. We need to put people into power locally. Then we need to put our dollars behind those people and we need to vote. Those people need to be young black professionals because the 50-70 year old black people seem too scared to ruffle feathers. We need younger politicians who have dealt with these issues first hand recently.

 

[kp404]

One of the biggest problems in Black society today is the belief in the myth of the "rugged individual" and the downplaying of our common Blackness.

You see it manifest in dumb sayings like "We are not a monolith," and "Imma do me."

We need to cut it out. It's killing us in the same way it was used to kill off the Native Americans.

A lot of people don't know this but one of the reasons why Native Americans were so easily conquered by Europeans was that there was little unity amongst the natives in the face of a unified white foe.

Not only are we a monolith in that we share common biology but we also share damn near common culture. Most importantly we share a common destiny. Denial won't change this reality. It will only make our enemies stronger.

What can we do to get people to understand that we are in this together? How can we debunk this "We are not a monolith" myth?

Both of the bolcded are false. Post evidence of this instead of the real truth, like disease, weaponry, and subversiveness/false accommodation. Don't compare the black experience to the Native American one as it is completely distinct.

Everything else you posted is good, but you are forgetting that this political economy is the problem; it promotes individualism and competition amongst people; that's the basis of capitalism. So address the system to change the mentality of all people in said system.

 

[Primetime21]

Both of the bolcded are false. Post evidence of this instead of the real truth, like disease, weaponry, and subversiveness/false accommodation. Don't compare the black experience to the Native American one as it is completely distinct.

Everything else you posted is good, but you are forgetting that this political economy is the problem; it promotes individualism and competition amongst people; that's the basis of capitalism. So address the system to change the mentality of all people in said system.

You're right in that disease and superior weaponry were big factors in the conquest of the Native Americans but I dont think Nigerian is wrong either in the OP. Based upon what I've studied dissent among differing tribes (or even within the same tribe), along with some Natives willingness to corroborate with Europeans in the conquest of other tribes were factors too. I know this specifically to be true in Peru. To a lesser extent the same thing happened in Africa, warring tribes would go to the Europeans and make them an offer.

 

[kp404]

You're right in that disease and superior weaponry were big factors in the conquest of the Native Americans but I dont think Nigerian is wrong either in the OP. Based upon what I've studied dissent among differing tribes (or even within the same tribe), along with some Natives willingness to corroborate with Europeans in the conquest of other tribes were factors too. I know this specifically to be true in Peru. To a lesser extent the same thing happened in Africa, warring tribes would go to the Europeans and make them an offer.

You're right that in those spaces that did happen, but in America, there were many other major factors that led to the genocide of Native Americans. They did not get into the capitalist mentality before the majority were wiped out. True, there were a few that did try to be accommodationists which led to massacres like at Wounded Knee, but we can't homogenize the genocide of millions of people simply to warring tribes; by saying this, we are positing the majority of the causation on the victims and not the persecutors. That's a dangerous precedent.

 

[Primetime21]

You're right that in those spaces that did happen, but in America, there were many other major factors that led to the genocide of Native Americans. They did not get into the capitalist mentality before the majority were wiped out. True, there were a few that did try to be accommodationists which led to massacres like at Wounded Knee, but we can't homogenize the genocide of millions of people simply to warring tribes; by saying this, we are positing the majority of the causation on the victims and not the persecutors. That's a dangerous precedent.

Thats not what I'm doing at all. We agree on the "why" genocide of Native Americans happened, foreign people bought war, disease, and slavery, to subdue this population. In some cases tribes, civilizations were not unified which made the objective for Europeans easier. Me saying that isnt saying all the native Americans were killed and conquered because they weren't unified, but again, in some cases that dissension was a symptom underneath illness and inferior weaponry

 

[MAKAVELI25]

One of the biggest problems in Black society today is the belief in the myth of the "rugged individual" and the downplaying of our common Blackness.

You see it manifest in dumb sayings like "We are not a monolith," and "Imma do me."

We need to cut it out. It's killing us in the same way it was used to kill off the Native Americans.

A lot of people don't know this but one of the reasons why Native Americans were so easily conquered by Europeans was that there was little unity amongst the natives in the face of a unified white foe.

Not only are we a monolith in that we share common biology but we also share damn near common culture. Most importantly we share a common destiny. Denial won't change this reality. It will only make our enemies stronger.

What can we do to get people to understand that we are in this together? How can we debunk this "We are not a monolith" myth?

The phrase "we're not a monolith" is usually not used in the context of group unity, it's usually used when pointing out that black people don't all share the same opinion on a particular topic

 

[Serious]

The phrase "we're not a monolith" is usually not used in the context of group unity, it's usually used when pointing out that black people don't all share the same opinion on a particular topic

I kinda thought this would be the premise of the thread. Essentially calling out dualities or double standards in terms of black people in America. How black people in America are looked at collectively whereas, when a nonblack person breaks the law, it's not their entire ethnicity/culture / race etc, being put on blast.

 

[The Nigerian]

I think the idea that we are all "individuals" is slowly changing (emphasis on slowly)...

We are becoming more and more collectively aware recently. Even though we don't have the money or power to create full scale change just yet, you can see through these police cases that more and more people are starting to mobilize through planned demonstrations. Outrage is collective now and there seems to be a growing collective conscious. I usually see blacks standing firm on the same side when it comes to these high profile cases which is a good sign that change is brewing.

All we can do is support each other for now. We need to put people into power locally. Then we need to put our dollars behind those people and we need to vote. Those people need to be young black professionals because the 50-70 year old black people seem too scared to ruffle feathers. We need younger politicians who have dealt with these issues first hand recently.

Right. I've noticed this, too.

This "Imma do me" attitude drives me nuts. It's gotta stop. It's the biggest con game they tell you in school.