Posted on 09/19/2004 8:28:12 AM PDT by Dog Gone
It's time we descendants of slaves brought to the United States let go of the term "African-American" and go back to calling ourselves Black -- with a capital B.
Modern America is home now to millions of immigrants who were born in Africa. Their cultures and identities are split between Africa and the United States. They have last names like Onwughalu, Nwangwu and Senkofa. They speak languages like Wolof, Twi, Yoruba and Hausa, and speak English with an accent. They were raised on African cuisine, music, dance and dress styles, customs and family dynamics. Their children often speak or at least understand their parents' native language.
Living descendants of slaves in America neither knew their African ancestors nor even have elder relatives who knew them. Most of us worship in Christian churches. Our cuisine is more southern U.S. than Senegalese. Starting with ragtime and jazz, we gave America intoxicating musical beats based on African conceptions of rhythm, but with melody and harmony based on Western traditions.
Also, we speak English. Black Americans' home speech is largely based on local dialects of England and Ireland. Africa echoes in the dialect only as a whisper, in certain aspects of sound and melody. A working-class black man in Cincinnati has more in common with a working-class white man in Providence, R.I., than with a Ghanaian. With the number of African immigrants in the United States nearly tripling since 1990, the use of African American is becoming increasingly strained. For example, Alan Keyes, the Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, has claimed that as a descendant of slaves, he is the ''real'' African American, compared with his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, who has an African father and white mother. And the reason Keyes and others are making arguments such as this is rather small, the idea being that African American should refer only to people with a history of subordination in this country, as if African immigrants -- such as Amadou Diallo, who was killed by police while reaching for his wallet, or Caribbean ones such as torture victim Abner Louima -- have found the United States to be the Land of Oz.
We are not African to any meaningful extent, but we are not white either -- and that is much of why Jesse Jackson's presentation of the term African American caught on so fast. It sets us apart from the mainstream. It carries an air of standing protest, a reminder that our ancestors were brought here against their will, that their descendants were treated like animals for centuries and that we have come a long way since then.
But we need a way of sounding those notes with a term that, first, makes some sense and, second, does not insult the actual African Americans taking their place in our country. And our name must also celebrate our history here, in the only place that will ever be our home. To term ourselves as part African reinforces a sad implication: that our history is basically slave ships, plantations, lynching, fire hoses in Birmingham, Ala., and then South Central, in Los Angeles, and that we need to look back to Mother Africa to feel good about ourselves.
But what about the black business districts that thrived nationwide after slavery was abolished? What about Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright and Thurgood Marshall, none born in Africa and all deeply American people? And while we're on Marshall, what about the civil-rights revolution, a moral awakening that we gave to ourselves and the nation?
My roots trace back to working-class Black people -- Americans, not foreigners -- and I'm proud of it. I am John Hamilton McWhorter the Fifth. Four men with my name and appearance, doing their best in a segregated America, came before me. They and their dearest are the heritage that I can feel in my heart, and they knew the sidewalks of Philadelphia and Atlanta, not Sierra Leone.
So, we will have a name for ourselves -- and it should be Black. Colored and Negro had their good points but carry a whiff of Plessy vs. Ferguson and Bull Connor about them, so we will let them lie. Black isn't perfect, but no term is.
Meanwhile, the special value of Black is that it carries the same potent combination of pride, remembrance and regret that African American was designed for.
I have used African American for the same reason that we throw rice at a bride -- because everybody else was doing it. But no more. From now on, I will be returning to the word I grew up with, which reminds me of my true self and my ancestors who worked here to help make my life possible: Black.
McWhorter is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
"Why can't we just all be Americans, no matter what our race or creed?"
We are, but there needs to be some kind of frame of reference when racial or ethnic issues are discussed. Some terms have to be used when discussing differences between people, even if you don't think such differences are incredibly important. The question is, what will those terms be?
I don't want black Americans to be able to refer to themselves by ethnic origin, yet still insist on referring to "whites" by skin color. That's a double standard. Pick one standard and stick with it.
If I have to capitalize the B, then White will also be capitalized and Asians will now be Yellows and Mexicans Brown. What about the Pinks and Beiges?
We need each other's strengths, not weaknesses, now more than ever in history. Americans are Americans, no matter what route they took to get here. Pull together, folks or there will not be a future for us to be proud of.
Personally, i'm still trying to figure out why "colored people" is a no-no, but "people of color" is perfectly fine and used constantly.>>>>>>>>
just the twisted pc thing you know. to say colored people puts the word color infront of the person making it the defining thing about that person, to put color after the person means that color is not their defining quality, they are a person before the color. (I think, it is 'twisted' ya know)
AREN'T WE JUST TIRE OF "PC"? AND A LIBERAL LABEL INVENTION?
Cool. From now on, "blue jeans" is out. I ill now use the tern "jeans of blue".
;)
Nope. Won't do it. You're American like me, and if for some weird reason I have to identify you, I'll call you a black guy.
And a substantial number of them are not Negroid (or even mixed race, folks). My business partner and his family are Caucasoid, but all born and raised in Africa. By any measure, they qualify as "African-Americans".
You're gonna have to capitalize different adjectives in regard to me, depending on how much sun I've had lately.
I am also tired of the PC label invention, but we still need descriptive terms of some kind when talking about people. Again, what will the terms be, and why?
I agree that "we're all Americans". But if we want to have a discussion about any subject with a racial or ethnic component, some terms of classification need to be used.
Here's a radical idea: Let's refer to all Americans as........ "Americans".
I'm tired.
Anyone ?
white is a color, White is a name. Black is a name, black is a color.
These days it doesnt matter whether you are an Afican-American, European-American, Aisan-American ,or Whatever-American. We all have one thing in common. Some muslim terrorist wants to kill us beause we are Americans. So we all have something in common. A common enemy.
The dictates of our modern anti-west, anti-male, anti-heterosexual culture require that it's Black but it's white. Some day, it might well be Gay, but straight, Woman, but man, and Liberal, but conservative.
Probably for the same reason we don't go around calling ourselves Caucasians. The forms we fill out ask if we are White (non-Hispanic).
And that will be a good thing. It will be one less thing to fight about.
"....and Liberal, but conservative."
I'm willing to accept "DUmb", and "smart".
:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.