I will answer how I feel about some Black intellectuals already mentioned in the comments.
James Baldwin- I love his cutting honesty, from himself or to others. He admitted that he was unhappy in the usa in a complete way. and he admitted he returned to the usa when he saw the usa was extended everywhere outside. He didn't call usa home de facto cause he was born here, which so many Black DOSers say stupidly. Our forebears were enslaved , adult to children, don't tell me the usa is home to black children living in utter hell who were forced here. They need to choose the usa as home, it isn't de facto. Baldwin admitted something I rarely hear any black person admit to. That all/most of the black elders around him hated white people. Even today so many black DOSers seem to be apologist for black dislike of whites as if whites didn't earn this. I love the fact that he was off camera vibrantly homosexual. So many black DOSers hide their true selves their whole lives. Many Black militants who want to kill whites hide their whole lives in the usa, it is silly. Many Black whitephiles who dislike other black people for being black hide their whole lives in the usa, , acting like they like being around other black people, it is silly. Baldwin was very honest.
Angela Davis- I like that she is a survivor. and embraces that the battle has to be continued by the next generation. It isn't up for one person to be the leader and be at the frong forever and if the next generations aren't willing , then the results will be what they will be. I will never
Farrakhan- is a good reader of the environment, he recognized black men across the usa was looking for guidance, but sadly he wasted the opportunity to guide and instead convinced the black men of what they don't like about the usa.
Black is a word which can designate a phenotypical race. A phenotypical race is a collection of people who exist within a range of physical features.
An intellectual is any human who uses their intellect and displays to another. this includes all humanity.
A black intellectual is any black person.
Who are my favorite black intellectuals?
Black intellectuals i favor, i prefer for some reason. What are the reasons I will favor an intellectual?
most potent in my rearing, a black intellectual who has a huge role the way in my mental development, the intellectuals about children are important.
aligns to my thinking, intellectuals that i have the most congruence with from my own intellect.
Who are the Black Intellectuals I favor based on the reasons stated?
My parents. Two mahogany skinned black people. One male, One female, communicated about all sorts of issues, had opposing positions but never went to blows, could accept unresolved differences of opinion absent the need to proseltyize/preach, both liked to learn and listen to all black or non black. They showed me how varied being black is. They knew all about black history from around the earth, it wasn't just about the usa, and they lived thrugh the 1900s in such a way, they knew the truth about alot of black history in the usa in the 1900s, that many black people have been lied to about, even by other black people. And they also made sure i had something that too too few black people have,a truly positive black environment. As a child I not only had a loving home, but 99% of my neighbors were black people who were positive themselves, the most local businesses were all black owned, my public schools were all black administered, 99% being all. So i grew up surrounded by black positivity. Which sadly, is something too few black people are raised around anywhere on earth. When I look at my youth the biggest opponent to happiness was the nypd and the larger harlem and the larger manhattan and the larger NYC. So I enjoyed not only their intellect but the intellectual environment they provided for me. Said environment being a rarity among black folk, not just the apartment or house, but the larger immediate community was positive. In this very forum i have read so many black people talk about their local community as dangerous and various forms or levels of negativity, it is sad but I am thankful to my parents as black intellectuals for comprehending how important it is for black children to be around black positivity, not merely in the home but outside it in the near locale.
Many black intellectuals are well known, like dubois or douglass or nkrumah or others. But the ones that are closest aligned to my thinking are...Marcus Garvey , Jean JAcques Dessalines, Brother Malcolm. Garvey through his comprehension of what home is for black descended of enslaved or other black people when it comes to the non black . Dessalines because he comprehended the truth about black descended of enslaved people in the american continent,we are unique peoples and don't have to mirror or match others in the american continent, none of whom are similar. Malcolm because he literally engineered the nation of islam and didn't use the nation of islam for profit, he showed alegendary quality of leadership to a peoples who have no money, true advocacy.
where exactly is your home and why do you claim that particular place?
i have said before in this very forum many many times, i am stateless, from my view. I know the legal standing i have by the white country I live in, but I have my own position to myself.
If you guys weren't constantly bitchin' and whining about the lingering injustices of slavery in this country and the institutionalized racism that is designed to stifle Blacks, and keep them in their place and the omnipresent spectre of white supremacy and on and on and on, maybe Richard wouldn't look askance at the ambiguity of your relationship with this country.
Troy bristles with his contempt f or the pervasiveness of social media and all it involves, and ProfD makes no secret about being armed and amenable to vigilancy, never wavering in his goal of reparations.
Funny, I never got the impression that Richard was a member of a different generation than you two. His thinking is not archaic, to me.
All of which contributes to the elusiveness of black unity.
In watching the recentPBS special on WEB DuBos, I can't help but wonder what tribe he would belong to, were he still with us.
I, personally, have given up categorizing folks. How one views the world depends on their core personality, imo.
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Interesting point , if we are all honest, most black people have only ever complained about the usa or the english colonies preceding it, cause most black people were unhappy in the usa or the english colonies that preceded at as an environment.
But well said, most white people say they love the usa , not just that it is their home, and that love is based on opportunities and betterment not just for themselves but their community, which was born by any means necessary. The black people who call the usa home have never been able to call the sua a land of opportunity or betterment for the black masses, maybe for themsleves, but never for a majority of black people like whites, this the complaint heritage you speak of and allude to through troy and others prose.
Well said.
and yes, black unity in the usa has always been elusive and i think complicated because black people don't have a unfiied relationship to the usa. all whites, can say their forebears came here willingly, for better or worse. but all blacks can't say that and time can't change that.
What a question on WEB DUbois. I don't know. It is a great thought experiment.
The problem is DUbois died unlike his heyday. He was arguably a garveyite in his final years who was used as a tool by whites to get garvey out the usa when younger so... Dubois is tough.
I think to the point you mentioned, Dubois would dislike the modern complaint culture in the black populace in usa , simply because black people have been doing it for 250 years, alongside, trying everything from elected officials to starting businessess and never able to really get the majority of black people in a positive place.
Good enigmatic quesiton. I don't know what tribe dubois would be in modernity.
It is funny, the creation of the constitution holds the problem to categorization in the usa.
The constitution seems to only suggest the human race, but the reality of the usa by the very person who wrote it is against that notion. And even though I know people of all racial types [phenotype/age/religion/or others ]who are done with categorizing , like yourself, i also know people who are proud categorizers of all said racial types as well...
Maybe the answer is for a country to start one day that doesn't merely have the words of the constitution but is peopled by people who actually believe in unbiased humanity, a kind of universal individualism.
I saw a thing called asian 30 or something like that, and an actor, indian /of india descent. he said, i quote, he knows there are many in the usa who will never consider him american. Andh here is someone whose parents willingly came to the usa, has earned millions in hollywood, and admits that no matter what he does, there are those who will never consider the usa his home. I think it sums up the challenges of the future at least.
In my head maybe the states identity has to return,... before the war between the states people in the usa considered themselves of the states they lived in , not american. So, maybe that will return.
would prefer to live in Haiti if unknown circumstances didn't prevent him from relocating there.😎
I fortunately plus unfortunately have traveled quite a bit and i know modern haiti isn't for me, I know too many haitians, even if modern haiti were to turn around financially,, turn around greatly, it isn't for me. But I would be very happy for the legacy of the Haiti of yore.
