afropunk.com now and you

[maria]

First off, I love afropunk.com. I think it is one of the greatest new age creations I've encountered in years. I've been so impressed that I'm writing my thesis on afropunk.com as a forum for co-cultural communication and the development of identity. I was hoping to get some feedback from fellow members, specifically about how afropunk.com has been an influence in your lives or has helped you shape/express your identity. I've been researching and reading old blog discussions from the beginning of afropunk.com, and it is absolutely amazing to see how immensely the community has grown in just a few years. I was hoping to get opinions from contemporary afropunk.com users about how you heard of the community, why you joined the community, what the community has provided for you, whether it has helped you make sense of or analyze your identity, and how the online community has been integrated into your everyday life. Do you think afropunk.com has helped ease the feeling of alienation that was a recurring theme in the 2003 film, "afro-punk: the rock n roll nigger experience?" I would love to hear any and all of your experiences. Of course, do not feel obligated to answer all of my questions. Thank you very much and I look forward to reading what you have to say!

[LesYpersound]

i don't remember how i found afropunk. i have grown personally while being on here and it's helped me really ground myself in black identity--i was punk/"alt" long before i got here and didn't need afropunk.com to affirm my legitimacy in any scene except the black community i felt i was alienated from...

[Compound Egret]

If you go back to the archives of the old board, there are at least three threads where this question was asked. The answers and discussions went on for pages. Have a look.

[superherolnchbox]

going to gym and thinking about my soon to come lengthy response.

[maria]

thank you for the responses! the recent conversations i've had have been very enlightening, and i look forward to hearing more. thanks for the suggestions, CompoundEgret. i've been using the wayback machine to observe the development of the website, but i was hoping to get more recent responses to those questions. personally, i think i've come to understand my identity more, just discussing the notion with other members of the community. what i like about afropunk.com is that it gives people the opportunity to identify and define themselves without first being labeled by others -something which is rare, and nearly impossible in mainstream society and face-to-face interactions. i think this community facilitates identity construction in part because the community and its members recognize the hybridity of the culture that has been created. in mainstream american culture -a conglomerate of diasporas- the notions of purity and american authenticity (which has been configured as whiteness stemming from the puritans, who were not native to this land) are still widely recognized as superior. and based on those notions, people make their judgments of other people without recognizing that there we're all mutts, despite the colors of our skin.

[California King]

I've been into the Alt/punk/hardcore scene since the Eighties. I started out very confused about my racial identity, simply because there were very few black people I knew that were into the things that I liked. I was easy prey to many maladjusted souls that imposed their ideas about what black is and ain't on others. Some of these people were black, some were white/ some were friends/ some were enemies. They all added to my confusion, until one day I had an epiphany: I was the one who was defining Blackness- by my very existence! Everything I did nurtured Blackness, fed it, altered and shaped it. I was and am Blackness personified. Ah... sweet liberation, with this discovery all the negative voices and naysayers quieted and fell away. I became impervious to their influence, confident in my self and my identity.
I made this "discovery" long before I found the afro punk movie or website, so at best these things are companions to the knowledge that I internalized long ago. But it's been great watching and listening and talking with others who are also on a similiar journey.