White power and privilege by shifting the basis of power away from Euro-American social norms. This is why Black male culture can be a source of conflict in the United States. At different places in the world and different points in human history, this kind of tension has been resolved through isolation, cultural oppression, war, and genocide. People of African descent in the U.S. have distinct socio-political and cultural experiences that have created unique social realities for them (Kambon, 1992). These distinctions bring them into conflict with dominant social norms. Culture is of central importance to a people’s well-being. Thus, culture can be a target or an object of warfare and conflict in global and local contests for power. According to Cummings (2008), the objective of cultural warfare is to disrupt a people’s stability by displacing their cultural nucleus at three levels: the individual, collective cultural consciousness, and raison d’etre. At the individual level, the sense of self is replaced by the need for external validation and approval. A people’s collective consciousness is attacked through efforts to replace their cultural point of reference with the cultural heritage of another population. Their raison d’etre is attacked by efforts to ensure that their vital needs are provided for by outside institutions. Once a group’s cultural reference point is replaced, new behavior is used to perpetuate foreign values like a virus using its host to spread itself.
Cummings (2008) does not believe that a people’s culture can be completely replaced, although efforts to do so can cause disruption. According to Cummings, once a dominant group has imposed its cultural center on a population, that population will evaluate its own thoughts, behaviors, and expressions based on the dominant group’s cultural standards. The inconsistency between their own expressions and the dominant group’s standards will cause distress and destabilize them. According to Hilliard (1995), due to cultural oppression, African Americans have tended to accept certain dichotomies, such as (1) equating European culture with technology and African culture with the rejection of technology; (2) equating modernity with cultural progress and African and African American culture with regression or retrogression; (3) equating European culture with wealth and African and African American culture with poverty; (4) equating education with acquiring European cultural norms and African and African American culture with lack of education; (5) equating Black self-determination and pride with the hatred of others; (6) equating religion with European interpretations of Christianity and not African and African American religious forms, and; (7) generally failing to study and get to know African and African American culture. According to Hilliard, this is a kind of cultural genocide which is in some ways the ultimate tool for eliminating a people because, unlike physical genocide, its goals remain hidden.
Cultural Liberty
Globalization has been accompanied by increased trade between countries and the subsequent growth of economies. Many people across the world have enjoyed the benefits of globalization in the forms of increased access to information, increased access to goods, ease of movement, and ease of communication, etc. But people sometimes face a common dilemma. They want these benefits and their freedoms, and they also want to be able to choose their cultural identities without sacrificing their freedom and opportunity (UNDP, 2004). This book explores how Black males have resolved this dilemma. One part of the resolution is a concept called cultural liberty. Cultural liberty is about allowing people to choose their cultural identities, without being excluded from other lifestyle choices and opportunities, ←4 | 5→such as educational, health, and job opportunities (UNDP, 2004). Exclusion can happen via lack of recognizing the holidays of underrepresented populations or punishing their style of dress. In short, people want to express themselves culturally—to practice their religion, speak their languages, and celebrate their ethnic heritages without punishment and diminished opportunity (UNDP, 2004). When cultures are repressed, the consequences can include religious persecutions, ethnic cleansing, and institutional racism (UNDP, 2004).
Conservative, xenophobic political approaches attempt to forge national unity by forcing assimilation without choice. Respecting cultural differences can allow countries to benefit from the knowledge and skills of people who have diverse values and beliefs. Some countries have supported cultural diversity by giving tax breaks and subsidies to cultural industries. For example, Hungary diverts 6% of all television receipts to promote domestic films. This helps to preserve their unique culturally influenced filmmaking (instead of being enveloped by the U.S. film industry and the overwhelming global exposure to Western culture).
What will African Americans and Black men in particular do to preserve their cultural liberty? On a more domestic level, for example, African American music is generally accepted as a rich cultural tradition with African roots and evolution in the American context. It benefits society by enhancing African American cultural freedom, increasing the cultural options of all people, and enhancing the cultural landscape of the U.S. and the world. However, African American cultural liberty is suppressed in other ways, including discrimination against ethnic-sounding names, style of dress, and dialects and languages. Moreover, African Americans experience institutional racism. For example, their ethnic experiences and historical contributions are often excluded or diminished in public education curricula. Groups can be economically privileged and culturally marginalized.
Members of cultural groups should also be free to make choices that may divert from traditions as well. For example, some cultural traditions involve limiting the freedom of women to make their own cultural choices. Some members of underrepresented groups attempt to resolve cultural oppression by assimilating to the dominant culture. However, this is, in many cases, a result of suppressed cultural liberty. People should be able to make the cultural choices they want, even if those choices identify with the dominant culture. But, because power and wealth are unequally distributed in societies, groups with less income, wealth, and political influence choose to identify with the dominant culture because they have been forced to make the choice between their cultural heritage/identity and political and economic opportunity. Vulnerable populations are coerced to adopt dominant culture—and often don’t recognize what is occurring—because they are groomed in environments surrounded by the culture of dominant groups.
Cultural Revolution
Ani (1994) attributes the success of anti-colonial projects to the use culture as a weapon. Similarly, Sutherland (1997) argues that for people of African descent, whose culture has been attacked, cultural nationalism is a prerequisite for liberation. Some argue that cultural liberation goes beyond traditional Western notions of advancement. From this perspective, the belief that cultural suppression and exploitation can be solved by economic and political freedom is erroneous. For example, the Catalans in Spain and the Quebecois in Canada enjoy the same political and economic statuses and political freedoms as the majority, yet they suffer cultural marginalization because their languages and cultural traditions are marginalized by their central governments (UNDP, 2004). According to Hilliard (1995), people of African descent must engage in cultural replenishment by embracing African identity through cultural elements such as African and African American rituals, symbols, rites of passage, holidays, etc. Pan Africanist or Black Nationalist perspectives recognize that although Black people should have the cultural liberty to make choices about their identities, they often make these choices in ←5 | 6→a context of racial/ethnic power imbalance, institutionalized racism, and cultural oppression. Because cultural choices are not made on a level playing field, Black people are often influenced to make choices that do not serve their interests or reflect knowledge or pride in their heritage. Karenga (2010a) advocates for a cultural revolution, defined as “the ideological and practical struggle to rescue and reconstruct African culture, break the cultural hegemony of the oppressor over the people, transform persons so that they become self-conscious agents of their own liberation, and aid in the preparation and support of the larger struggle for liberation and a higher level of human life” (Karenga, 2010a, pp. 261–262). Similarly, in Ralph Ellison’s (1952) famous Invisible Man, the Black male protagonist learns he can only achieve his individual self-determination once he recovers his cultural identity and defines himself, instead of allowing others to impose their definitions onto him. However, Karenga is not suggesting a sort of unexamined traditionalism as old cultural practices may be oppressive or repressive in the present. This revolution requires African people to identify
