The conversation got me thinking about identity envelopes or bubbles (pick your favorite metaphor) and about being inside and outside of them. Trying to figure what it is. In the 1950s (when I was in grade school and headed to junior high), my dad bought Paul Robeson singing Ballad for Americans. And I bought my first record of the Chords singing ShBoom. Not the Diamonds cover. And then on my mother's side, her brother peppered me with Ukrainian folk music. What kind of envelope or bubble was I growing into in Brooklyn in the Kingsborough projects? I'm still thinking about those days and then there are all these other envelopes and bubbles -- way before AI and vector spaces. Maybe it's ultimately just noise and we just need to listen. Thanks for the memories to whomever they belong.
I think identity envelopes or bubbles are part of the human condition. How one understands identity makes all the difference, I suspect. Identity can be fluid or concrete-like, ageless or frozen in time. My bubbles were the Jetsons, Mary Tyler Moore and, of course, Star Trek (Original Series). Best.
Ah, yes. It didn't much come to mind other than briefly when I think I mentioned John A. Williams who wrote a great book called 'Captain Blackman' which chronicled through dreams, the history of black American soldiers going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Having lived in Altadena, CA, I've met members of the New Buffalo Soldiers but unfortunately I didn't have my own horse or I would have joined.
I understand that the entire concept of the singing cowboy was a Negro invention, and my old friend the late Tony Gleaton spent a considerable amount of time photographing black cowboys in the American West as well as in Mexico.
One of the many reasons I support black viewpoint diversity and champion that at Free Black Thought is because of Tony's influence back in the early 90s when he found many Afro-Mexicanos in his travels south of the border. Of course cowboys and Mexicans are part of history, but sadly outside of the conventional canon of Black History Month.
Fortunately, he made it big enough for his work to be collected and curated.
I have to share that I read about how Botswana has worked to make the culture of being from Botswana. It was a book by a German journalist about and he highlighted how the Botswana government assigns people to different cities and towns as doctors and teachers and any government work, it forces different people to see "outside" groups as just a countryman. The book is called, "In Search of Common Ground" and it was great. It's been a few years since I read it but it still pops up in my head.
The conversation got me thinking about identity envelopes or bubbles (pick your favorite metaphor) and about being inside and outside of them. Trying to figure what it is. In the 1950s (when I was in grade school and headed to junior high), my dad bought Paul Robeson singing Ballad for Americans. And I bought my first record of the Chords singing ShBoom. Not the Diamonds cover. And then on my mother's side, her brother peppered me with Ukrainian folk music. What kind of envelope or bubble was I growing into in Brooklyn in the Kingsborough projects? I'm still thinking about those days and then there are all these other envelopes and bubbles -- way before AI and vector spaces. Maybe it's ultimately just noise and we just need to listen. Thanks for the memories to whomever they belong.
I think identity envelopes or bubbles are part of the human condition. How one understands identity makes all the difference, I suspect. Identity can be fluid or concrete-like, ageless or frozen in time. My bubbles were the Jetsons, Mary Tyler Moore and, of course, Star Trek (Original Series). Best.
Hmmm, you seem to have dismissed the West for 19th century black history. What I've heard is that after the Civil War, 1 in 4 cowboys in the American West were black. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lesser-known-history-african-american-cowboys-180962144/
Ah, yes. It didn't much come to mind other than briefly when I think I mentioned John A. Williams who wrote a great book called 'Captain Blackman' which chronicled through dreams, the history of black American soldiers going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Having lived in Altadena, CA, I've met members of the New Buffalo Soldiers but unfortunately I didn't have my own horse or I would have joined.
I understand that the entire concept of the singing cowboy was a Negro invention, and my old friend the late Tony Gleaton spent a considerable amount of time photographing black cowboys in the American West as well as in Mexico.
One of the many reasons I support black viewpoint diversity and champion that at Free Black Thought is because of Tony's influence back in the early 90s when he found many Afro-Mexicanos in his travels south of the border. Of course cowboys and Mexicans are part of history, but sadly outside of the conventional canon of Black History Month.
Fortunately, he made it big enough for his work to be collected and curated.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tony+gleaton&iar=images&atb=v472-1
Somewhere in my garage where I'll never find it, are videotapes of him working.
LOL good it was just a memory glitch. I will look up some of this history you mentioned!
Thank you for not letting us forget the cowboys.
I have to share that I read about how Botswana has worked to make the culture of being from Botswana. It was a book by a German journalist about and he highlighted how the Botswana government assigns people to different cities and towns as doctors and teachers and any government work, it forces different people to see "outside" groups as just a countryman. The book is called, "In Search of Common Ground" and it was great. It's been a few years since I read it but it still pops up in my head.
Sounds like a great book! I will add it to my reading list.