is rasta a black thing for black people?

it seems to me in your explanations about rastas in the forum presentation a lot of things are said to have been done in opposition to the white race from the black race..for example the hair of blak people that dread naturally in opposition to the straight blond hair.. so does it make the rastafarianism a religion for black people? too bad that it is built on a race confrontation! so the german rasta with his blond dreadlocks at the sumfest in jamaica in july is not fitting? honestly why reducing rastas to a race thing? i thought it was larger than that! maybe everybody has his own interpretation about it!

 

"It's not the dread upon your head, but the love inna your heart, that mek ya Rastaman" ~Sugar Minott

 

i was mentioning this because this love inna your heart must be for everybody and when sometimes i hear certain rastas talking about black race and white race i do not agree.. if slavery existed it should not been put on the shoulders of the white race. there are evilish people in any race and good people in any race too.. in slavery times some white people opposed slavery and some black people participate in it too.. look nowadays in some countries of africa how certain children are turned into slaves this is between pure black people.. to say white race is responsible for slavery is ignoring all the white people that used to disagree with it !for example the first measurement after the french revolution was to abolish slavery unfortunately the french antilles refuse to follow it.. this kind of reasonnement black race against white race is really a barrier to universal brotherhood.. since i am white and my ancestors as you say carry your ancestors from africa to enslave them well this is your way to see the world stay in your corner and me in my corner and in 100 years we will still be separated because white race participated to slavery.. you seem to forget the black people in africa that sold their brothers to the white man and the black king that first gave some slaves to the white people and gave them that idea! what a simple way to see life ! bye bye stay in your world we will never mix rasta is built on a opposition between races it remains me of hitler and the jews!

 

there are sects within rastafari that are very afro-centric and sometimes anti-white. i'd say most rasta welcome anyone that wants to be a part of it tho.

the lifestyle is nice; religion sucks

 

Now apply that to the Rastafarian; there are individual people with individual views, good and bad.

There might be some people with that bitterness towards whites and slavery, but you would be bitter too if you were a slave.
A real Rastaman will know, say, and live "One Love". Which means have one unconditional love for all life. Which I hope most contemparty Rastamen moving with the times would know, say, and live that too.

 

no matter if this rasta or this one accepts white people as rasta the ideology and official speech is opposing the black race to the white race and puts this in terms of race instead of putting this in terms of wickedness.. this is a very simple way to look at this! to tell you about my case members of my family came back from the nazi camps and i am not resentful to all the german people for that! what kind of one world and one love that not to be able to make a difference between the good and the bad in a set of people? one time i was talking with some young rastas and all they had in their mouth was : your ancestors did that to my ancestors.. me a part of my ancestors have roots in spain and probably in some arab country! what a idiot way of thinking! and the rastas who have a quarter of white blood that come to tell you the same thing and do not even see they carry both blood! sorry me i can see here something really racially oriented that i definitely do not like and as i told you the hitler case and how it affected my own family do not allow me to excuse nobody to talk so stupidly about what this race or this one did to another! it is not because they are rastas that they should have excuses sorry!

 

rasta livity began because of the white man downpression.it is a livity that only black people can really relate to and its one of the few things that black people can call their own.it teaches us about repatriation returning to the mother land.not being funny but the motherland Africa is for black people, who were stolen by white people.bless

 

Black Supremacy is a concept about Black Culture as the Original and Righteous Life. There is no reason why white (and other races) can't live according to Black Culture, just as black people often prefer the materialistic white culture. Black Culture strengthens you in joy, peace of mind, confidence, dignity, community, compassion and faith. The down side is the struggle - hard work and poverty, racism, oppression, political persecution, spiritual warfare (obeah/voodoo). It is easier for black people to accept these trials because they are born into the trials in any case, whereas a white person must make a conscious choice to reject privilege and instead join the spiritual and physical struggle for righteousness sake. A white rasta cannot claim that rasta is not just a black thing. Rasta is purely Black - the concept is that white people can accept and choose Black Culture over white. Check out The Repatriation Papers for my journey to Blackness - RASTAFARI Inspiration.

 

the reason that some black people turn other black people (mostly children, it seems) into slaves still has to do with white people... or i guess moreso western society in general, not just white people. we put such a high price on certain resources that we 'need' because we have placed so much value on them (gold, diamonds, coltan) that it contributes, if not causes, these horrific violations of human rights - and then we stand by and shake our fingers at these 'backwards africans'.

 

yes it is for black people. read up on Marcus Garvey and Leonard Howell

 

Slavery and kidnapping were a part of African tribal warfare looong before the White Man's Burden.

 

Yes, I agree. And what have these native africans to do with rastafari? They probably never heard of it.

It was obviously ment for black people. I don't think they originally thought it would appeal to people from other races as well, especially not whites! But it spread, I guess for the most part thanks to the international succes of Bob Marley's music. It must have been quite a suprise to rastafarians I can imagine. Most rasta's seem to be openminded enough to let others be rasta too. I don't think they're really into the welcoming/converting peeps to their religion thing, they do generally like to spread the good vibes and mindset they got from their religion.

 

Yep. It's a good idea to know what you're talking about before you form a strong opinion on a subject. Africans sold other Africans to Europeans, who then shipped them to the Americas.

The OP has some great points; I don't know many rastas but I have heard from a few people that they are often extremely racist towards white people. I don't understand how the irony somehow eludes them.

And btw otsile, by your logic, the motherland Europe belongs to white people and the USA belongs to native Americans. Does that sound right to you? Of course not, you're not an idiot.

The world belongs to the creatures that inhabit it, people and other animals. To say that a geographical location belongs to only a certain type of people is the height of arrogance and that sort of mentality is why we are currently struggling so much as a species.

 

Rastafari is an absurd religion that did a lot of good for the world, in my view. HS is obviously not the second coming. Marley and the freedom of the West Indian blacks were great products of this movement, however.

 

I don't think that's the majority, Jimmy. But yes, there are some extremists among rasta's for sure.

 

Without doubt.

 

I actually don't perceive rastafari to be more absurd as christianity or islam. Perhaps I did thought this at first because some of the origins seem bogus but this is of course also the case in both of the other two I named here.

 

Perception and reality are obviously not the same. It may be of very good use that religions are perceived as so historically inaccurate; however, if you read certain parts of the Bible you will have little doubt that it is a prophetical book. It has many secrets and many contexts.

The way that I see it is --- all religions are but one path to God. This truth keeps arriving whether I study "the Tao," Buddhism, Rastafari, the Jews, the New Testament, the Greeks, the Mayans, the Romans, the Norse, the Hindus, the Islamic, the Dine, or the Hopi.

 

The bible is used in rastafari as well And what has historical accuracy to do with how plausible the central issues of a religion are? Just because it is an old book with a lot of history does not make the thoughts on sin and a holy trinity more believable.

 

If you were in my shoes, you would feel much differently. I do understand how difficult of notion that the thought of "original sin" happens to be --- and the fact that so many generations of beings would have to suffer for such an act. This was destiny, however, I believe, and I believe it does not put God in the proper light. God is good -- there is no doubt; when you read the Bible in the context of a good god --- it reads much, much differently.

The Bible is a very mysterious book and a very incomplete history of ancient and modern time on planet Earth.

Wonder why it is that "dogma" spelled backwards is "amgod....."