Why I'm Black, Not African American

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-why_im_black.htm


This article is old,but interesting nonetheless.I also dont see the use in calling Black americans "African americans" as well.
What do you think?

 

Blame it on institutions that could have shaped my world view. From where I stand I'd say you are, under persent normencluture, African American while I, on the other hand am African. Not African African but just plain African.

Let me put it this way: Wherever the concept of dual naming comes into play you lay the foundation for the perpurtuation of the whole business of "Second Class Citizen". Even calling someone half this and half that will put a human being into a second state or class or make one plain classless. None of which is desirable.

We have white folk here some of whom demand for their rights at times as much as black people in the US fight for theirs. There is imbalance everywhere at one point of the other. The aspire for political office, few get the vote but most dont because of you know why. Does that make them any less African than me? Like in the US some came centuries ago. Must we call them European Africans? White African? Most perfer to be called simply by what they are: African. They share the same aspirations and patriotism as me. When we go watch a game we paint our faces the same colour.

Am looking forward to a day when there is no such thing as Black America and White America or Latino American. Rather a country of one people called Americans. I'd wish that would be your aspirations as well.

My decendants did not come from where I am. The Anglosaxons did not originally appear wherever it is they are based. Humanity has always been a fluid concept made rigid by political intervention. How each of us came to where we are is often historic with a sent of push and pull factors that cannot be understood today but were perfectly legitimate at the time in the eyes of their beholders.

Till such a time that the fix to the American seperation has been found, African American will do well. A term most understand well as opposed to radical extremes such as Black with a capital B. History must be celebrated but celebrated correctly.

When we celebrate emancipation in Africa, we celebrate the event. Not the process nor do we focus on the liberators anymore. Its a thick line drawn in time. An event. Very different from all the bell ringings we see at the US embassy and centres (spelt that wrongly for you) during black history month. There is too much that goes into remembering the wrongs and not the rights. Heros are glorified. That builds in your mind a system that keeps you trapped on the wrongs of the past at the expense of the gains of the last 60 or so years.

Those who have it in their power to correct will out of fear of this great "injustice" you pass on from one generation to the other develop and even harder shell and the line between X America and Y America grows even thicker.

Its isnt just in the US, but every country does it. Its called a cencus. And it has that horrible thing of stating things like the place population in some place has droped to 97%. I one percent increase in white people this year. People go on the streets and start doing head counts, prejudist triggeres get formed. Our goverments know better than to publish composition by ethnicity. How much more different is race?

 

I'm going to create arbitrary guidelines.

If you were born in Africa, you are a (insert country)-American.


If your parents/grandparents were born in Africa and you were born in the U.S....you are an African-American.


If your family history in the U.S. traces to before the Civil War (1861-1865), you are black-American




If you like simplicity....you are black....or simply American

And if none of it matters....you are human.

 

Our "Liberal" Media created that because umm they couldn't call us "Colored" anymore and "Negro" was unsettling.

Its the side effect of Political Correctness...which is flawed anyway.

We are Americans, I am Black, I am not African-American that's a created word to LABEL people that's what is WRONG with being PC!

 

I used to have ethnology before. and the teacher told us that the only one politycally correct way to call Black Americans is calling them African-Americans.

 

My old classmate went transatlantic, married a woman of Ghanaian decent who grew up in Germany. They just had a kid. Whom I can presume will be a Zambian-Ghanaian-German-American.

LOL

 

Black, African-American, it's all the same. No need to drag it around the block.

 

yeah, but some of Black people dont like being called "Black" by Whities for some reason...so you never know who is perfectly fine with that and who is not.

 

What I think...
I think it's interesting you use a capital letter in "Black" but not in "american"...

Would you be OK with white people classifying themself as White, btw? With a capital W?

Why do you have to add African or Black anyway? Why can't you just be American?

 

Ronja,sometimes you bring good facts and some bad ones. The comment you had mentioned is the latter. There had been classifications of Blacks in the diaspora since the first Africans landed in mainland America. In your country it would be hypenated with Afro and other names when your country got involved in the slave trade establishing island forts in the Caribbean. Now my country has been called colored,negro,black and now african-american. Within my community it was race,negro,black,and now African. I call myself a Black-American since African-American belongs to the Kenyan,South-African,and other nations in Africa. Your nationality in my country are hypenated. None had gave up their customs. Check out on the web on the celibrations of your countrymen in America. The example of the French did not integrate the minorities there since they claim there was no discrimination.

 

I've never encountered a black person who felt uncomfortable with the term, and most accept both terms interchangeably.

 

We are, but why can't we be black or African-American as well?

We did not invent the color coding system of human classification nor the racial categories that currently exists. Europeans did primarily during the 17th and 18th centuries. The rise of modern empirical based science led to a desire for practitioners to classify everything that could be studied from a scientific standpoint. Plants, animals, insects and, of course, humans all now belong to some general class.

If you were to step into a time machine and visit the ancient Greeks, they wouldn't understand the categories we use to differentiate human populations.

"Hey Socrates, you're a white guy."

He wouldn't know what you were talking about.

A principal way of thinking in modern life involves knowing what group you belong to. How one accepts that is their choice and most people of African descent prefer to acknowledge their "blackness" or African roots.

 

Yeah yeah. You'll call people African-American, Irish-American, Asian-American etc etc... I know that.

What's wrong with being simply American?

 

Of course you'll acknowledge your roots. Everyone does. And being just American shouldn't change that.

But as long as you people (Americans) keep having this tremendous urge to identify each other by ethnicity and roots, there's no way you can feel as united as you should, being citizens of the same country.

 

I know I'm Black I don't need to be reminded...

Caucsasians don't go around calling themselves German-Americans, as I said its PC, it makes THEM feel comfortable. For US its not designed to feel one way or the other, we were not consulted or even asked, remember that.

In fact, when was the last time Black America was ASKED about anything before it was DONE?

We didn't ask for Affirmative Action get reppealed did we?

We weren't consulted or even asked, it was just put on the ballot and dumb ass Caucasians and confused Black Americans voted to take it away because some SLICK politician (Who's White by the way) said it was time to dump it.

Uh huh and you want me to say I'm African-American..lol

I will not do them any favors...

 

Because -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq2kJ56hSqo

 

Just call me a chocolate-American.

Or an American with a deep, deep tan.

Or a High Melanin Producing American.


I like the last one. I'm a High Melanin Producing American!

 

Ronja it is hard to understand on why Black-Americans would settle for just being Americans while you don't even express loving your nationality.