
Should a black person only buy products created by members of their own race? Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Timberland are not run by blacks, however, their clothing is used as a status symbol in black culture. I bet the majority of BET viewers don't know the companies are owned by whites.Are we playing into the stereotypes by focusing only on black movies that depict blacks in urban ghettos? Why can't we see movies with black presidents? Why don't we go see the movies where black people play positive roles? Movies like "Babs," "Bootie Call" and "Player's Club" make more revenue from blacks than more positive movies. By supporting these movies, we typecast our race in roles that depict black stereotypes.W.E.B. DuBois said it well in The Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois, the first person of African descent to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard, a prominent civil rights leader of his day, spoke of a "duality" with African-Americans consciousness. This duality was a result of being "black" and "American," torn between two entities, one in which you are supposed "to have certain unalienable rights" and the other in which you are "perceived through the veil" as less than. The problem is not just in the language. It goes much deeper. A word without meaning is just that, a word. A meaning without association to something tangible is just a meaning. The issue comes into play when associating the meaning of the word to something tangible, and, most important, associating the meaning to a human being. As the unknown poet said, illustrating how so many others feel: "But in his mind it wasn't lost, the one undeniable fact/That in a land of justice for all, he always would be BLACK."