the hair was too much trouble...
Posted on 06/03/2004 5:17:32 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Some people are particularly disturbed by my use of the word Negro as opposed to the latest fashionable label. I am not bothered by such people, but I am disturbed by the reliance on cosmetic identity that has become so important to black people over the last 35 or 40 years.
More than a few people were actually taken in by the obsession with naming that came out of the Nation of Islam, when Malcolm X, chief heckler for Elijah Muhammad, inspired many to begin responding to the word "Negro" as if it were the dirtiest of insults.
The argument was that "Negro" separated black people from their African identity. It did not acknowledge the greatness of Africa, wonderful Africa, that lost paradise where everything was perfect. It did not recognize that black people had not always been slaves - that they were, in fact, a separate nation descended from kings and queens.
Hmm. No one, of course, ever considered that if most of the millions of black Americans really were descended from kings and queens, one would have needed a lot more land than Africa provided to support all that royalty. Millions of kingdoms definitely present a challenge.
It was, at best, cult thinking. But it was also a way of getting people to think of themselves as perpetual victims who were oppressed at every turn. That seems to me the greatest impact of believing that the history connected to the name Negro was all second-class travail and injustice.
Some 40 years ago, Malcolm X said: "You're not an American, you're a victim of Americanism."
That's too crude and simpleminded. But the crude and simpleminded are not unusual when the subject is the Negro. While such statements might sound good on a podium, they miss a great and substantial truth.
Black Americans have had an enormous impact on American history. Almost every important effort to better the position of people in this nation has its roots in the Negro-American story. Consider the history of the labor movement, for one.
Being called something other than Negro will not better the state of the people who now walk around challenging others to call them African-Americans. They think that to be proud and effective, people with dark skins of a certain pedigree need to know they are connected to the grandeur of Africa, the fountain of civilization. Hogwash.
Clearly, knowing that they are Africans has done nothing special for Africans themselves, as we can see in the massacres in Rwanda during the 1990s, the many brutal African dictatorships and the abundance on the continent of backward ideas about women, slavery and a number of other things.
People can call themselves whatever they want. But the challenges facing this nation and its darker ethnic group will not be solved by anything other than deep thinking and hard work. Pride comes from accomplishment. Cosmetic nonsense will not get it.
Well, colored is too broad a term -- it can include everyone from Chinese to Arabs to Africans to South Asians to South East Asians, to even Mediterranean types
the hair was too much trouble...
I got off the bus at "black." Yes, I know, they're not exactly "black." And I'm even less "white." But we know what we mean.
If hyphens are insisted on, then I want a few, too. But I think we're a 'way too hyphenated society.
Dan
Speaking of dimwits, the last election taught me something about race. Teresa Heinz-Kerry, a person of non-color who was born in Africa, proclaimed herself an "African American". She was careful to draw the distinction between that term and "African-American", which meant blacks. It's amazaing what that little hyphen can do!
Talk to the NAACP about their chosen name. They do not represent anyone other than Blacks.
"...a red fag will go up in my mind instantly."
Now you've done it. Homosexual Communists everywhere will be offended.
You can be insulting to Americans of any color if you're an Islamofascist interviewed by 'The Guardian' newspaper.
I was contacted by La Raza, a profoundly racist pro-Mexican organization, several years ago. I penned a manifesto on their application about their use of a hyphenated-American paradigm to separate us into groups, blablabla.
What a waste of time that was. Soon after, I found out what they are really about.
I think one problem may be that us "white" Southerners get in trouble when we try to say "Negro". It's liable to come out wrong no matter how we try, even if no offense is intended. By the way, in print, newspapers and even respected fiction, that word was never capitalized until fairly recent times as I recall, indicating that it was more of an adjective than a nationality.
Tiger Woods has an asian mother. Why is he called african-american instead of asian-american or just simply american?
I don't care what you call me as long as you call me to dinner.
How about "friend" ?
I prefer to be called "that big scary white dude."
Sounds good to me.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
I use "Black," with a capital B, because that's the term Dr. King told me he liked.
all the black kids in my neighborhood spit when they see mexicans.
another example of the left's diversity and multiculturalism in action.
On the other side consider "Negro". "She's a hot Negro" simply doesn't do anything for me. It sounds like "Napoleon Dynamite" trying to sound cool. I'm compelled to wipe the spittle off my lip after saying it. If we changed it to black, it becomes more subjective. "She's a hot black"...it doesn't sound right either. "Hot Black What?" Now I'm interested but I need something more to satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps we're discussing an anatomical appendage? Dunno, but it doesn't sing. "She's a hot African-American"? No. By the time you squeeze out all those syllables I've lost interest.
I prefer a simple "She's hot" or "She hot" in this case. I'll be looking no matter what, and a lecherous nod of the head will acknowledge the matter and then we can move on. Of course if this situation does ever actually happen, my hot latina wife will most likely deck me. I'll be waking up and counting ceiling tiles, which are usually white. At least we'll cover all the bases and everyone will be happy.
I refuse to use the term/label African-American. There is no such species. We all are American, no matter what our color, race, religion, etc. People are either African or American. I don't care what the color of a person, it's the person that matters, their character that matters. But if/when I refer for some reason, I use the term Black, and it certainly isn't intended to be offensive. I would rather not refer to some's color or race, what is the need if we all feel we are American
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