BLACK AMERICANA

[fac9876]

If eBay doesn't like Black Americana collectibles, they shouldn't offer it as a posting category - unless, of course, they are using it as an entrapment tool.  I know for a fact that most Black Americana collectors are themselves black - not haters and discriminators, as some would have us believe.  They do it for a very special and innocent reason: to preserve items of black history - both good and bad.  It's not the truth that hurts us, but subjugation of truth - no matter how "noble" the intent.  So, eBay, by taking down these posts, are depriving these black collectors of the special items they like, and are in effect engaging in the very act of discrimination they claim to oppose.  

[fac9876]

I wouldn't force anyone to look at what they don't want to look at.

[fac9876]

I love your response!

[fac9876]

I don't know.  If eBay (and everyone else?) hates Black Americana so much, why does eBay offer it as one of their official posting categories.  They could easily remove the category.  All I did was mention "entrapment" as a possible motive.  Entrapment, in the way I am using the term in this case is creating a narrow gate of entry that can be easily monitored for "undesirable" content.

[fab_finds4u]

@1786davycrockett 

I was not the one who said I know for a fact most collectors are black.  In fact I don't agree with that.

I was merely trying to point out there are some  well known black collectors.  What does that say?  Some are offended, some aren't.   That's all I was saying.

[fac9876]

But it's the way to go.   My lifespan is too short to see it, but I look forward to the day when the whole human race, through mixed marriages, will be a nice toasty brown - and color discrimination will be eliminated.  I have quoted for many years in my conversations with friends South African civil rights leader, Robert Sobukwe's famous phrase: "There is only one race.  The human race."  You should be - and I hope you are - a proud mama.   

[house*of*paws]

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@bonjourami wrote:

"Can we not distinguish between a photo of a black woman in a WAC uniform from WWII ... and a drawing of a black toddler drinking from a bottle of ink entitled 'N----- Milk' ?  **

**  I found both of the above by Googling Black Americana.   Do we have to remove the entire Category to avoid people confusing one from the other?"

omg...that makes me sick.

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I would hope so.   🙂

Similar images once graced the pages of eBay.  [I saw them.]  And that is what I believe eBay attempted to rectify over the loud public outcry following the murder of George Floyd.

I'm sure that relatively innocuous items have been removed by CS reps who were abruptly given the task of 'discriminating' among all the Black Americana listings as to which are and are not 'offensive'.  That's inevitable I'm afraid.  

[itsjustasprain]

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@fac9876 wrote:

9 out of 10 of the Black Americana collectors I associated with in my 40 years as a flea market dealer in both the North and South were black.  And that is the source of my claim. 

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Fair enough - but that does not make it a 'fact'. It just means that you saw 90% Black collectors in your circle of contacts. You simply cannot use that as proof that the whole universe of Black Americana collectors are 'most' all Black.

So anyway - TBH given the racial stereotypes that have been held out as examples in this discussion - I would say that its HIGHLY likely that those offensive items would have a lot more appeal to the same range of knuckleheads today as they did back when they were first issued. After all - who do you think the intended market was back then? Pretty sure it was not Black people.

Sure - they are valid as historical reminders of racial stereotypes from the past - but Ebay is entitled to say that they dont want them listed here. Its not censorship and those items can still be sold elsewhere. Other items such as WWII-era photos of Black soldiers in the service can qualify as Black Americana in anyones eyes.

[house*of*paws]

Your first link contains the noxious image I mentioned later on in the thread.

I wonder how many people think it's appropriate to list such items on eBay ... in the name of 'truth' or whatever.  

[house*of*paws]

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@fac9876 wrote:

Well, white people have spoken out for years on what they think black people are and should believe.  In the end it usually doesn't work out well.

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I spoke only for myself.  I said nothing about what I think black people are and should believe.  [You do tend to twist words and meanings around.]  🙄

[ekmadonna]

Oprah Winfrey collects NOOSE & LYNCHING PHOTOS there is one for you.

[ekmadonna]

OPRAH collects photos of LYNCHINGS.

[maxine*j]

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@house*of*paws wrote:

Your first link contains the noxious image I mentioned later on in the thread.

I wonder how many people think it's appropriate to list such items on eBay ... in the name of 'truth' or whatever.  

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Yes, and the image is in the collection of a Black American, and in the article he talks about when and where he bought it, and a crucial moment in the transaction. 

I wouldn't have it anywhere near me, but it's not about me.

As to people who think it appropriate or inappropriate to sell and buy such items on eBay, or elsewhere, their opinions are as diverse as their motives and intentions.

-

[ekmadonna]

The world's largest collection of Black Memorabilia is owned by a woman in her 90's who lives in Detroit. 

[ekmadonna]

A Black Woman that is

[1786davycrockett]

@ekmadonna 

"Oprah Winfrey collects NOOSE & LYNCHING PHOTOS there is one for you."

Simply because Oprah Winfrey is a collector of offensive Black Americana is NOT proof that the MAJORITY of Black Americans collect offensive Black Americana -- and THAT was the argument to which I was addressing.

I know several non-Jewish individuals that collect German Nazi items from World War II -- does that prove that the majority of  non-Jewish Americans also collect German Nazi items from World War II?

Of course not.  And simply because Oprah Winfrey is a collector of offensive Black Americana is no measurement of the majority of Black Americans.

Oprah Winfrey is neither "most" or "90%" -- the very measurements against which I have been arguing.

And why is it so important for white American culture to cling to all these symbols of hatred, torture, humiliation and oppression?  That should actually be the REAL question being discussed here:  Is America so fragile that it cannot set aside these horrible symbols of white supremacy, and finally mature beyond slavery -- beyond the Civil War -- beyond Jim Crow -- beyond segregation -- beyond Emmett Till, & Medgar Evers, & Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King -- beyond Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson & Addie Mae Collins -- beyond Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney & Andrew Goodman -- yes, even beyond George Floyd -- and finally evolve into the REALITY of "liberty and justice for all," to which too many of us only pay lip service?  Or are we content simply to allow another century go by, and just leave things the way they've always been?

Were all those deaths for nothing?  Is democracy that elastic?  Is America that depraved?