Call me Black. That's with a capital B.

Houston Chronicle ^ | September 19, 2004 | JOHN MCWHORTER

[Born in a Rage]

I'm part Cherokee. If someone asks me about my heritage, I just say: Irish, Scottish, Norwegian, English, Belarussian, Lithuanian, and Cherokee (I never use the term Native American).

[mass55th]

True, the Indians honored the land they lived on and the creatures they hunted. They only took what they needed to survive. The military tried to wipe out the bison to permanently harm the Indian's ability to survive. I'm glad they failed and the bison are back from the endangered species. I can remember as a kid visiting the zoo in Buffalo, New York. The zoo had one or two buffalo on exhibit. This was in the early 50's when the bison was still endangered. It was always a treat to see them.

My mother was from Canada and always told us that her great-grandmother was a full-blooded Ojibwa. I've never been able to prove or disprove it. She sure looked like an Indian from her pictures, but looking like and actually being are two different things. I'd be honored to have Indian blood running through my veins. As it is, I've got Dutch and English ancestors...probably French too and others I'll never know. I'm proud to be the daughter of immigrants, the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of an American Patriot (on my mother's side), the niece of two WWII soldiers, and the sister of a Vietnam vet. I'm also proud to be an American and a member of the Republican party.

[wizr]

Thanks. That's exactly the point I've been working toward.

Thank God we don't all look alike, sound alike or even think alike.

Let's just hope, that some others will begin the thinking process before they enter the voting booths Nov. 2nd.

Be proud of your family. Be proud to be an American. Be proud we have a man named George W. Bush as our President. And be damned glad, if he is reelected.

[datura]

Plenty of us in here from the Cherokee nation. I'm Irish/German/Cherokee. What 'color' am I? Hell, I don't know. Color me American. Same thing went for all of the 'black' guys I served with in the Army. We were all Americans. We didn't use race for any descriptions. We used each other's names and rank. Race or color was meaningless. Why can't the rest of the nation do that?

[Jewels1091]

There are some people who won't like this at all...

[mass55th]

Ditto and Amen.

[diamond6]

I'm Irish American. :)

[Tribune7]

I never use the term Native American

I only use it. :-)

[Riverman94610]

The problem I have noticed about the telling of ethnic jokes is that the joke teller often thinks his jokes about OTHER groups are hilarious but when someone tells a joke about HIS particular group,he gets really offended.

[doblin]

Blacks and Whites are meaningless terms at the fringes of the population. Very many people can't be fit into any enthnic category. Maybe it would help if some absolute authority established the midpoint of Sherwin Williams brown paint color shades. To qualify as Black or White a person's skin tone should fall on either side of that scale.

In truth, No one is truly Black and no one is truly White. We all have varying degrees of the same brown pigment. In terms of genetic characteristics, I'll wager that a European/American like me has more in common with Jesse Jackson than Jesse has with the average inhabitant of Senegal today.

The racial divisions amount to relatively arbitrary lines in the sand that were drawn by anthropologists at least a century ago. They have little scientific merit.

It's mainly libs that want to keep the concept of race alive. Without racism, liberalism would dry up and blow away.

Donning flameproof suit.

[William Terrell]

Racial characteristics involve much more than skin color.

[Clemenza]

I take issue with that. I am NOT Caucasian. The only Caucasians I know are from Armenia and Georgia. Joseph Stalin and Jerry Tarkanian were/are Caucasians, not THIS Polish-Italian mongrel.

[KC_for_Freedom]

It's mainly libs that want to keep the concept of race alive. Without racism, liberalism would dry up and blow away.

Certainly without the race card to play, many leftist politicians would be out of work. I will use the term Black, its no different than White. I long to see the day when forms and applications don't even bother to ask what you are. (Nanimo, English, Jewish, but many generations American.)

[Blue Collar Christian]

Because the whites had the run of the joint so long that there is a stiff penance to pay, that being a lower case first letter for our skin color?

Now, if I was a white sissie(or White Sissie?)I might find that offensive.

When I refer to a black person as black, or oriental person as oriental,(just means eastern anyway)it's probably going to get the lower case treatment as well. If some black or oriental sissie wants to get hurt feelings over it, he might just want to write his mamma, because it will only lead me to believe I'm dealing with a crybaby.

BTW, all the people of colors other than White that I know don't have a problem with this. It's probably a maturity issue.

[wizr]

Some people should be offended when they look in the mirror.

We all have protective senses. Sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing help protect us.

But, the way that some people put a protective shell around themselves to save their ego is ridiculous.

[William Terrell]

Actually, both Italians and Poles are Caucasian. Sorry.

[Clemenza]

19th Century Anthropologists/"Racial Scientists" attempted to arbitraily define people as "Caucasoid" "Negroid" and "Mongoloid." Any present-day anthropologist will tell you that those categories have little validity and mask complexities among different population types.

I have no problem being called "White," although the average Chinaman is paler than I am.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

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).

I prefer Ecru to White.

[William Terrell]

Anthropologists today have either been pressured into or chosen political correctness. Complexities in race are only around the fringes of each. Racial characteristics involve much more than skin color.

[Sister_T]

Sounds good to me. I don't like the term "African-American" at all. I'm an American, a Black American!