We read a piece by Stuart Hall about Cornell West's essay. The main point of the essay was how need to find our black identity and learn our culture. Black culture is how we the music we make, our writings, the way we dress, where we come from, and just overall how we present ourselves. He says that there is no better time than now to do it. America is not just comprised of European culture because every race has some influence on the culture.
We are in a period of post racism so people get the impression that all ethnicities are the same now or try to weed out the differences so that is why we have to know our identity as blacks. Cultural hegemony is the enemy that is against us learning about our culture. Which means the superior European culture wants their culture to be the popular one. As black people we need to look past that and learn our culture and not the European culture that America really presents to us. Also America tries to neutralize all of the cultures in America.
So Cornell West says we need to learn what the American government has tried to keep us from knowing about our culture because it is very important to know yourself. If you don't know yourself than you won't know how to progress and move forward as a people and that is also one of the reasons the American government tries to keep it from us.
Source:
Hall, Stewart. "What is this "Black" in Popular Culture?"
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