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.
We've all heard "Bill Clinton was the first Black President".
And "Colin Powell is not really Black."
And yet, consider that Teresa Heinz Kerry is an "African-American".
These are things I bring up whenever someone tries to put me on the defensive about racism in America and how stupid these labels are.
Another useful observation I have employed is "If America is so racist against Black people, then why do so many people from Haiti and Africa try to come live here - many of them at risk of there own lives?"
You said: How about Negro with a capital "N" instead of anthropologically inaccurate slang?
How is "Negro" any different than "Black"? Don't they mean the same thing?
And if you're a Frenchie like Kerry, you can call them jeans de bleu.
BTTT
National Association for the Advancement of COLORED PEOPLE
If someone finds that offensive then they should change
the name of the organization to NAAAAP or something.
My children, when younger, described their friends who were black as, for example, "the little boy with the brown skin." There was no value judgment attached. The expression was used just as "red-headed" or "skinny" might be used.
How about I just call you Mr. McWhorter? And you don't try to accrue all kinds of bogus street cred from memories of being a slave that you don't even have? How about we don't try to be like John Kerry who claimed his was Irish? Or Hillary Clinton who grew up in Chicago and claimed to be a rabid Yankees fan?
What if we all stopped doing this really pathetic stuff?
If they change it to NAAPoC, they'd probably be happier. Unfortunately, they just use the initials and hope nobody notices the anachronism. Move along, folks, nothing to see here - and all that.
"My children, when younger, described their friends who were black as, for example, "the little boy with the brown skin." There was no value judgment attached. The expression was used just as "red-headed" or "skinny" might be used."
That's pretty much how scientists do it. Differences between people are recognized, but things like "The Black Race" or "The White Race" are scientifically meaningless. Because the "races" have no defined edges.
Calling someone "black" is like calling them "tall". It might have descriptive meaning, but there certainly is no such thing as "The Tall Race".
"Negro" is a derivative of "Negroid", a classical anthropological term denoting a race of mankind, as is "Caucasian" and includes many characteristics other than skin color. "Black" and "White" are colors meant to relate to skin shades, and are inaccurate to boot.
heh, heh, hehhhh....the PC mafia's "African-American" divisiveness is being challenged!
The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!
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I loooove ethnic jokes and telling them. If we can be less serious about ourselves, we can enjoy our wonderful differences from others.
I tell people I can tell ethnic jokes because I'm Cherokee/Norwegian, and you can't get much more screwed up than that.
I'm not sure about the Indian heritage, but I do know one thing, and am thinking of having this put on my ridin' vest:
"I am a AMERCAN, what the hell are you?"
Here are two racist quotes from the racist Plessy v Ferguson:
"If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other's merits and a voluntary consent of individuals."
"Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation."
Maybe I'll follow suit with:
"I'm a member of the human race, what the hell are you?"
To be pigeon holed by "race" robs you're humanity.. and offends whatever "race" you're NOT.. some people are members of several "races" they choose which ever one is more profitable. Cultural identity is another Mob Rule supporting subject.. There is a Black culture , a Gay culture , a Red-Neck culture, even a Feminist culture..
The "race" and "culture" you have chosen to be are illusions and mental figments.. because there is really only one race; the human race.. but many cultures.. Thats why political Multi-Culturism is a mistake.. politics by Mob Rule is what democracy "IS" and also WHY it don't work fairly.. Socialism is not fair, never has been, and can't be. Socialism is Mob Rule and is political gang warfare... Whatever "colors" you wear is everything to gang members..
What colors do YOU wear ?
Democracy is the road to socialism. Karl Marx
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin
Yeah, well.......
from what I've read, many Indian tribes treated the earth, grass, trees and animals as brothers. Many peoples gave thanks, even to the animals they ate. We "humans" may rule, but many times not justly. What did a buffalo ever do to us?
The Bible says "ashes to ashes, dust to dust".
Maybe I'm just dirt. But to me, I'm Wiz (sound on prairie, mad by buffalo)
I'm a Native American.
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