New Black Man - Neal

New Black Man, by Neal, talks a lot about the desire of the black community to seem united in some way against the oppressors, while the internal conflicts remain hidden from the mainstream eyes.  This is mentioned particularly within the black church community.  It also talked about how mainstream culture has this idea about black male sexuality that it is somehow extremely strong and also dangerous.  Which is naturally a very old idea, and clearly over-generalized.  It talked as well about the hip hop culture, and how many middle class educated black people feel like it is the big problem, a way to degrade and stereotype all black men and women and even causes them to follow along and become that stereotype.  What I thought was particularly interesting was the way that the black community seems so enclosed within itself, and how ridiculous it is that the mainstream culture appears outside of it in some way.  However I think that both cultures interact and change one another.  Whether or not that is a good thing remains to be seen.  Is it better for a community to remain seperatist in a way?  Or is it better for all cultures to be open together and mixing and free flowing?  Or is that just assimilating....