Amakusa,

I'm assuming that when you say "are a French" that you're a Frenchman? My parents are francophone, so I'm saying that respectfully and with the knowledge that you could be from any French-speaking nation....


I happen to be a multi-racial Black women from a former French colony; people tend to perceive me as racially/ethnically ambiguous, in America. When you throw into the mix the fact that I'm a traditionalist and multi-lingual, I've come to accept that it's put me in an extremely unusual position to understand America's race issues.

There are many things people throughout the world need to understand, if they want to understand why America's problem with race is truly unlike anywhere else in the world...

1) America does not have a unifying cultural identity.

And before anyone gets their panties in a knot with their reflexive, thoughtless, infantile, PC BS, any traditionalist would have to acknowledge that American "culture" and identity is extremely dissimilar from any other predominantly European country (including Australia and Canada).

 Europeans can trace their heritage to specific, identifiable, ancient tribes that have inhabited places for hundreds, if not thousands of years with little to know genetic or cultural ambiguity. In the case of commonwealth nations (Australia, Canada), their cultural identity is predominantly derived from Anglo-Saxon culture, even in governance (they maintained that connection as commonwealth nations). In contrast, America is a place of deliberate historic and cultural amnesia: Americans literally do not know where they are from.  This is extremely important to understand because something had to fill this void, as it concerns identity for both Black and White Americans.

2. There was extremely unprecedented inter-racial contact in the New World.

This presented constant tension and fear in extremely different and sometimes hostile ethnic and racial groups. The society developed ways to express and suppress fear. In parts of the South, where American Blacks began to outnumber Whites but where forcibly kept in bondage, there was both a conscious and unconscious fear of the potential for violence and revolt in the Black population.

3. Most importantly, America is the only nation that believes, FULLY, in the idea that race, IN AND OF ITSELF, determines personality and identity. They believe, FULLY, that race is inevitable, deterministic, and very clearly unambiguous.

This belief is Protestant in ethos and informed by "Enlightenment" ideology that posits that "science" should replace religion (Americans' racial ideology is as profound and unyielding as religion), and somewhat parallels the Anglo-Saxon ideology concerning race in other colonies -- however, America's understanding of race is EXTREMELY different because it supplants any notions of culture or religion. Americans MUST believe in race because it tells them who they MUST BE in the society. There is no other society on the planet that believes this, except for maybe India's caste system (and even then it is not the same because they have the same, unifying cultural legacy and religion).

This means that "White" people believe, fully, that to be "White" is their most significant attribute and that "White" is synonymous with a culture. They also believe that "White" has attributes that are evident and inflexible (intelligence, civility, stability, superiority)... This is in contrast to Europeans, for example, who can't readily accept that notion (irrespective of their political leanings) because they understand how culture alters any peoples' attributes. "White" never meant anything in and of itself within Europe because every European was white: it was normative.

Here is what is overlooked:

Blacks also believe, fully, that to be "Black" is their most significant attribute and that "Black" is synonymous with a culture. They also believe that "Black" has attributes that are evident and inflexible (stupidity, violence, chaos, inferiority)... It may seem insane, but American Blacks feel compelled to identify themselves in constant opposition as to what they perceive as "White". In contrast, the word "Black" would never have meant anything to Africans before colonialism, because everyone was the same color: it was normative. See how both Black and White Americans stand in contrast to their ancestors?

Essentially, all American Blacks have an inferiority complex. What further complicates things is that American Blacks are essentially the only Black people in the world to live as a minority in predominantly White nation that is not their native land. Think about it. Australian aborigines are in their native land, as are Black South Africans. All Black West Indians outnumber Whites on their islands. "Black Europeans" have all come from different, predominantly Black nations and can claim a home culture or homeland. Blacks in Latin America are not even entirely Black-identified, so they don't even count. American Blacks are the only Black people in this position, and creates a state of constant cognitive dissonance.  

4. To challenge these notions throws both American Blacks and Whites into an existential crisis.

Both American Blacks and Whites derive their very IDENTITIES from their devotion to RACE -- to challenge their notions is to annihilate the people(s), in their minds.

I respond to this thread with extreme caution because I've come to realize that, quite literally, it is not possible to have a conversation or analysis about race with either American Blacks or American Whites.  Every single dimension of this issue has an emotional fault line that leads directly into their psyches -- they are not reasonable or rational when discussing the matter of race.

~~~~~
In short, what you're witnessing in Milwaukee is the manifestation of what American Blacks believe to be their racial identity. Other obviously self-destructive pathologies are also what they believe to be a manifestation of their supposed cultural identities.

Both American Blacks and Whites stand in opposition/contradiction to one another because they believe it to be their destiny; however, this will not lead to a "race-war" because Whites will simply be outnumbered by non-Whites in the near future.