While I have a deep and abiding respect for self-made people, no one values the beneficial effects of an authenticculture on individuals, including myself, more than I do.
One of the most damaging forces tearing at young black people in America today is the popular culture's pernicious image of what an "authentic" black person is supposed to look like and how that person is supposed to act.
As the country has become more ideologically polarized, even vacation choices have become opportunities for culture war, for battles over who is a real authentic American and who is an out-of-touch East Coast elitist or alternatively phony cowboy.