Monday, January 16, 2012

Black and Proud

I remember back in 2007 while working at Enterprise Rent A Car, I had one of the most stimulating conversations in my life. I was giving this gentleman a ride home and he asked me flat out, “So, do you consider yourself an African-American?”  While the topic was not new, I wrote about it for the Roddey McMillan at Winthrop University when I was there a while back it was shocking coming from the other side. The gentleman in the car was a native African. To him it was strange that Black Americans called themselves African-Americans without recent African descendents. My thoughts exactly. Most recently, I worked with a young lady who was from South Africa. She had recently married an American was talking about starting a family. I said to her, “You know when that baby is born he/she will be an African-American.” To that she laughed. I did too since they’re white. I’ve seemed to have had this conversation over and over through out the past couple years. The term African-American only refers to Americans who are descendents of Sub-Sahara Africans; you know the dark skinned ones. All the while people ignore the fact that Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria are also part of the continent. When was the last time you heard an American born Egyptian refer to their self as an African American? Even at a young age I’ve preferred Black American to African-American. You don’t see whites classifying themselves as European-American. To me, the term separates us from the freedom and civil rights those before us have fought for as American citizens. So now I ask, does African-American refer to all black people living in America including those from the Caribbean and Africa or just the descendents of the slaves that were brought here in the 14th century? I only pose this question as a way for us to think about how we define ourselves in the 21st century. When we look at the contributions black American has made to the advancement of American society, should it be limited to being just an African-American achievement?  The accomplishments of these great Americans deserve to be more than a mention that comes along only during Black History Month. We need to stop applying labels to ourselves as they eventually serve to lessen or make light of our contribution we have made to American greatness. I hate when I hear someone’s name mentioned only to be prefaced with a term describing the color of his or her skin as if it was a shock that it happened. While we have come a long way to cement our value in this country we still have far to go. I have never been to Africa in my life but I do wish to make the journey one day if only to experience the culture. And the guy that I gave a ride home to said if you do make it to Africa, tell them you are American not African-American, some people might not take to kind to you calling yourself that. 

2 comments:

  1. Good post Brian,

    I've never been comfortable with the term "African-American". I prefer black and I always have. "AA" sounds like a false title constructed by the census bureau.

    I'm a black-American that pretty much how I'll always describe myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've had the same type conversation with a man from Ghana a few years back. According to him, he does not judge black Americans for trying to acknowledge their connection with their African ancestry, but it pains him that we as a society are taught to classify ourselves. Most people refer to themselves as the area in which they come from; my grandmother is from Panama - black as you and me, but she is considered Panamanian. When you ask her of her race, she says she is Panamanian. I am Mitzi, that's what I would say if you ask me what I am!

    ReplyDelete