Black Culture and the Euro-American Collective Brain

A plea for deeper black cultural integration with the majority

Culture

BLACK CULTURE AND THE EURO-AMERICAN COLLECTIVE BRAIN

A plea for deeper black cultural integration with the majority

John Washington

When some of us blacks refuse to leave the confines of black culture to integrate into the broader Europe-based cultural framework that surrounds us, we risk disempowerment by disconnecting from a larger collective brain.

I encountered the concept of a collective brain while reading Joseph Henrich’s 2015 book The Secret of Our Success. He describes it as the accumulated knowledge of a community’s individuals, passed down through generations, forming the foundation of its culture. In this case, as a black American, I am referring to the Euro-American collective brain.

Henrich asserts that the larger and more interconnected a collective brain is with other collective brains, the more successful a community and its individuals become. This is evident in the global dominance of Western culture. A quick glance at history or contemporary society reveals the immense wealth of knowledge, both good and bad, that the Europe-based collective brain has gleaned from the other collective brains it has encountered all over the world, and how much this has contributed to its dominance.

However, given the historical injustices of slavery and Jim Crow, some within the black community perceive the Euro-American collective brain as hostile, leading them to remain within—or even revert to—the cultural isolation of the past.

Some believe that the gains of the Civil Rights Movement were inauthentic, erasing black culture and replacing it with a Euro-centric framework. They argue that systemic racism remains deeply ingrained, making integration ineffective until all traces of white supremacist ideology are deconstructed. This perspective is reinforced by a continual revisiting of historical injustices as though they were contemporary realities.

Others, having never moved beyond the segregation-era mindset, self-impose restrictions on their opportunities and growth, believing that nothing has changed and it never will.

I understand aspects of this hesitancy, having grown up under Jim Crow myself. It took me years to feel truly comfortable in desegregated spaces after the Civil Rights Movement. The conditioning was so deeply embedded in my mind that adjusting to a new reality required time.

Additionally, there exists a racial grievance industry that profits by perpetuating the belief that racism is an inescapable, omnipresent force. This narrative suggests that black individuals will never be fully accepted, reinforcing a sense of perpetual victimhood.

As a center-left liberal, I find it troubling when figures such as Al Sharpton and others persistently frame racism as though we were still living in the 1950s. While racism is a factor in many societal issues, it is not the sole cause of all our challenges. Issues such as the high percentage of children born into single-parent households — approximately 70% — and the 45% being raised without fathers are rarely addressed, despite their significant impact on our community’s well-being.

A recent personal experience highlighted our separation from the broader collective brain. While I was using an ATM, a black woman in the car behind me shouted, “Wow! I can’t believe you’re driving that! I just knew you had to be white!”

I was in an off-road Jeep Wrangler, customized for wilderness terrain with large tires, a winch, and a hood LED lightbar. Since I had to climb out of the lifted vehicle to be low enough to use the ATM slot, my race became evident to her.

I was being judged for driving a vehicle often associated with white male culture, violating an unwritten rule of black cultural identity. Another black Jeep owner has shared with me a similar experience of being criticized for his choice of vehicle.

“Shouldn’t I be able to drive what I want?” I asked her, keeping my tone light. She withdrew back into her car, and I continued with my day.

Henrich illustrates the power of a larger collective brain by comparing Pacific Island populations. He shows that islands with smaller, less interconnected populations tend to lose cultural and technological advancements over time. Applying this perspective, anyone can see that the 12% of the U.S. black population faces inherent challenges if segregated from the 62% majority of non-Hispanic, Euro-descended whites.

I embrace the Euro-American collective brain because it is also my own. American advancements would not have reached their current heights without the contributions of black individuals and those of other races. The wealth generated from the transatlantic slave trade and free black labor played a foundational role in capital accumulation during the Industrial Revolution, all while white Americans could ignore providing social welfare systems for black communities. This meant even more capital. At the same time, blacks have made immeasurable contributions to music, literature, dance, sports, cuisine, film, dialect, national defense, and technology, infusing American culture in particular and world culture most broadly with soul and vibrancy.

One of the most profound impacts of the black experience on Western culture has been the moral and spiritual evolution that emerged from the long struggle for the abolition of slavery and for civil rights. This ongoing battle has forced Western societies to confront issues of justice, equality, and human dignity and thus has uplifted its humanism and spirituality.

If I allow myself to be restricted in what car I drive, what music I listen to, what sports I play, read only black history or—most damagingly—if I view academic achievement as “acting white,” then I am my own worst enemy. I am isolating myself on a small, disconnected island with limited access to knowledge and opportunity.

A look at the Nation’s Report Card provides sobering data on black 12th graders, who score significantly lower than students of other backgrounds in math, reading, science, writing, history, and civics. If this is a result of avoiding academics because it is perceived as “acting white,” then we fail to tap into the larger collective brain and thus put our future in jeopardy.

To truly empower ourselves, we black Americans must embrace the full spectrum of knowledge available to us, integrating into the larger collective brain while preserving our unique American (sub-)cultural identity. Only then can we rise beyond imposed limitations—some of them self-imposed—and claim our rightful place in the broader narrative of progress.

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John Washington is an octogenarian who has earned his daily bread, first, as an Army paratrooper and then, later in civilian life, as a computer support technician, two careers from which he has now achieved a double retirement. In and around these occupations, he fed his family with janitorial work, factory labor, and long-haul trucking, while also managing the completion of 2 years of college during the journey. Though he is not academically credentialed, he feels his short school life expanded his ability to think broadly and enhanced his analytical thinking skills. As a center-left liberal, he holds firmly that values like family commitment, self-sufficiency, and personal responsibility are not merely conservative but also deeply liberal ideals. He previously published an essay titled “AWOL Black Fathers” in Quillette. He lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina.