Reply #219: Not at all

[joe_sixpack]

There is no implication that one culture is superior to the other. In the sixties there arose a youth counter-culture that rejected the principles of the previous generation. Much of their values seemed an antithesis of their parents. You have one culture that says that young kids should dress neatly and have clean cut hairstyles, so the other grows their hair long and wears tie-dye T-shirts and jeans and goes barefoot. One believes in saving sex for marriage, the other practices "free love." One group tends to favor a form of music that coincidentally seems to really rattle the other. Both of these groups have valid points and reasons why they believe as they do. Though one culture might be prevailing and dominant, it isn't necessarily better or more correct. So if there is a reluctance in the black community, especially among young males, to be seen as emulating what you call white culture, then it's a legitimate question to ask how much that reluctance itself actually affects and shapes their culture. Culture is dynamic and evolving. Obviously we're not speaking of black culture as it existed in Africa, before European slavery. We're talking of something that has adapted in the last 300 years or so.