If you live in a culture where such commitments are a-typical it's not a weakness. If you were placed into a society which didn't have such a concept of hard obligations and acted as though they did, you would be at a disadvantage. There's not an inherent superiority or inferiority, just an "impedance mismatch"
The thing is, there's no evidence that either blacks, nor Africans, live in a culture where 'promises' don't exist. In fact, many live in an Honor Culture where such commitments and duties are held in extreme regard.
Most african cultures are fear-power based. We see this reflected in US urban communities and the code of silence. This is done out of fear of reprisal, not honor.
You're claiming intimate knowledge of African cultures by one institution of an American ghetto?
That's utterly stupid.
It's no different from saying, "Europeans have proven their inability to have a stationary culture because white Americans live in Trailer Parks."
And you still don't understand the relationship between fear, power, and duty. If a culture focuses heavily on power, fear of that consequences from that power are a natural result. So is the concept of duty, stemming from obligations both to and from power. They will both exist. To claim that only one can exist is idiocy. If you look in the most culturally degenerated places on Earth, like prisons, you will still find a concept of duty emerge among people as either a form of homage to the powerful, or a duty for the powerful to protect those who sear fealty.
...the code of silence. This is done out of fear of reprisal, not honor.
Then you don't know anything about those communities. A code of silence is not held out of fear. It can be re-enforced by fear, but it does not exist solely out of fear. A code of silence is an obligation to the community not to let outsiders interfere. A violation of a code of silence is a threat to some, but it is an action taken against a community as a whole by allowing outsiders in.
I don't understand how you could think a code of silence, which is most famous from the Italian mob, is evidence of something innately African.
Fear-power, honor-shame, and guilt-innocence cultures aren't mutually exclusive. Each feature can play a role, but African cultures are generally Fear-Power, Asian cultures Honor-Shame, and European cultures Guilt-Innocence as their primary features. Honor-shame culture has a requisite for shame, and that is not the motivation we're talking about here. Duty through fear is not really duty at all. It's coercion.
Snitches get stitches. The fear-power dynamic is very strong in the AA community. Yes, family members don't want to turn in their relatives, but beyond that, snitching will get you (or your kids) shot. Omerta isn't too different, tthough other aspects of mafia culture certainly had at least a veneer of honor-shame to it, including generally leaving women and children off limits.
You look at things too much in black and white. It's not all or nothing. Shame just isn't as powerful of a motivator as fear in African culture.
Anyway, I see African cultures tend towards fear-power dynamics generally wherever they establish. Even BLM trends this way. It doesn't appeal so much to a sense of fairness or honor, but instead to fear to achieve its aims.
If you live in a culture where such commitments are a-typical it's not a weakness. If you were placed into a society which didn't have such a concept of hard obligations and acted as though they did, you would be at a disadvantage. There's not an inherent superiority or inferiority, just an "impedance mismatch"
The thing is, there's no evidence that either blacks, nor Africans, live in a culture where 'promises' don't exist. In fact, many live in an Honor Culture where such commitments and duties are held in extreme regard.
Most african cultures are fear-power based. We see this reflected in US urban communities and the code of silence. This is done out of fear of reprisal, not honor.
You're claiming intimate knowledge of African cultures by one institution of an American ghetto?
That's utterly stupid.
It's no different from saying, "Europeans have proven their inability to have a stationary culture because white Americans live in Trailer Parks."
And you still don't understand the relationship between fear, power, and duty. If a culture focuses heavily on power, fear of that consequences from that power are a natural result. So is the concept of duty, stemming from obligations both to and from power. They will both exist. To claim that only one can exist is idiocy. If you look in the most culturally degenerated places on Earth, like prisons, you will still find a concept of duty emerge among people as either a form of homage to the powerful, or a duty for the powerful to protect those who sear fealty.
Then you don't know anything about those communities. A code of silence is not held out of fear. It can be re-enforced by fear, but it does not exist solely out of fear. A code of silence is an obligation to the community not to let outsiders interfere. A violation of a code of silence is a threat to some, but it is an action taken against a community as a whole by allowing outsiders in.
I don't understand how you could think a code of silence, which is most famous from the Italian mob, is evidence of something innately African.
Fear-power, honor-shame, and guilt-innocence cultures aren't mutually exclusive. Each feature can play a role, but African cultures are generally Fear-Power, Asian cultures Honor-Shame, and European cultures Guilt-Innocence as their primary features. Honor-shame culture has a requisite for shame, and that is not the motivation we're talking about here. Duty through fear is not really duty at all. It's coercion.
Snitches get stitches. The fear-power dynamic is very strong in the AA community. Yes, family members don't want to turn in their relatives, but beyond that, snitching will get you (or your kids) shot. Omerta isn't too different, tthough other aspects of mafia culture certainly had at least a veneer of honor-shame to it, including generally leaving women and children off limits.
You look at things too much in black and white. It's not all or nothing. Shame just isn't as powerful of a motivator as fear in African culture.
Anyway, I see African cultures tend towards fear-power dynamics generally wherever they establish. Even BLM trends this way. It doesn't appeal so much to a sense of fairness or honor, but instead to fear to achieve its aims.