Pieces of the Puzzle:
Putting Black Culture Together
By Terrance Shawn McGill
/ was thinking about Black culture. With the
generational and social gaps within the Black
community, I have come up with a theory on
Black culture. It is still in the developmental
stage, so if it has holes in it, bear with me:
The idea of Black culture has been kicked around for
some time now. I believe that Black culture has been in an incu
bation process as far as history, language, values and ideals are
concerned. However, due to this constant evolution of Black cul
ture, most Black Americans find themselves trying to keep up
with the times. This is nothing new. We all try to keep up on the
latest fad and ideas, but due to the low exposure of the changes
in Black culture by the media and other informational outlets.
Blacks have had a harder time keeping up. Some have even gone
as far to say that they are trying to “discover their culture. They
feel that the holes created by this low exposure are sufficient
enough to halt their progression so much that they need to go
back and retrace the steps along the path of Black history and
culture. More often than not, they go back to the past. But it is
not yesterday where they go back to, or a week ago, or a year
ago. They tend to go back centuries ago.
True, the majority of the struggles that Blacks have
gone through are related (directly and indirecUy) to slavery (bla
tant and institutional), reconstruction, and the Reagan years.
Now this is not a comprehensive list, but you get the gist.
But anyway, they tend to get caught up looking in the
past, and all the while, they get further and further behind with
the times. They end up in a cyclic pattern. They are trying to fig
ure out what they have missed; then they try to catch up. They
then realize that they have missed some more, and they try to
keep up and the cycle continues. To put it another way, it s like
missing a day of class, then missing another day to catch up
what you missed on the first day, and then missing another and
another and so on.
I have been keeping up with the changes by pressing
on, not letting those gaps hinder me from keeping my eyes on
the greater prize, that is the evolving essence of Black Culture. I
decided that some of the gaps were trivial and/or irrelevant when
observing Black culture. Yet in my omissions, 1 have noticed
that Black culture has been split in four different ways:
1) Pan-African Ideologists
2) Modem Black Americans
3) Euro-American Emulists
4) The Hip-Hop Nation
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First, there is the Pan-African Ideologists, an Afro-cen
tric group that is very grounded in the motherland. They have
adopted different African cultures. They emulate the values,
dress, and in some ways seem to have a strong direct link to
Africa. Their views are more secular, looking at Black culture
globally rather than just nationally.
Second, the Modem Black Americans, who focus on
the American aspect. They seem to be the most grounded in the
stmggles of Black Americans, however, they are also conscious
of other cultures as well. Furthermore, they have a communistic
outlook when it comes to other Black people, wherein they have
a sense of obligation to the Black community.
Third is the Euro-American Emulists, these people tend
to look at European-Americans as the modicum of success. They
figure that they (Euro-Americans) are successful so they can
adapt their styles so that they too might have success. These
people believe in bootstrapism, conservatism and capitalism.
They believe that if they got theirs so should everyone else, with
no handouts, no reparations.
Fourth, there is Hip-Hop Nation, which consists mainly
of the next generation of Black Americans. Stefan Greenlee, the
leader of the hip hop rap group Sankofa, states “[Hip-Hop] is the
unofficial symbol of the Black youth of the times. If you look at
hip-hop it is forever changing. From the old school rhymes to
the back to Africa phase, to the West Coast “gansta” rap to the
hard core phase we are now in. Hip-hop values and ideas have
been intertwined with the music that has been produced therein.
As the values and ideas of youth changes so too does the music.
In other words, hip hop has always been a reflection of the youth
of that time which simply goes along with the meaning of hip.”
Most Blacks that are stuck trying to “discover” their
heritage tend to fall into one of the four categories. It is O.K. to
identify with one of the four Generally people are more inclined
to lean in one particular direction rather than straddling the
fences. But the problem with identifying with one particular cat
egory is that they accept that category to be Black culture, and
disregard the other 3.
In actuality. Black culture is the sum of the parts, not
just one category but all four categories. Given the relatively
young age of Black American History (200-t- years), it is con
stantly maturing into new forms. People tend to get stuck on the
gaps because they do not embrace all four categories. The end
result is that they do not understand their history, their culture,
and ultimately themselves.
I welcome responses and criticism. I look forward to
your comments.
The Black Ink