A co-worker of mine were talking about being called black versus African American. He said we don’t have a history beyond America. Of course as a History grad with a concentration in African History and Politics, I was preturbed by this. Since I was in corporate mode I walked away not wanting to get into a heated arguement.
But I have been thinking about this all day. I really don’t have a problem with term black as long as it is short hand for African American. Why ?
I deplore that black seperates us from the entire African Diaspora–Africans in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and South America. We have a shared history of oppression. This shared history of oppression gave birth to the Pan African Movement.
Hallmarks of Pan African Movement include Kwame Nkrumah to study at Lincoln University, Liberia’s Constitution to be written at Cornell University, W.E.B. Dubious to be buried in Ghana, West Indian Stockley Carmichael to lead S.N.C.C., marry South African singer Miriam Mikeba and live in Guinea, Bob Marley was influenced by Do Wop singers, jazz music was nurtured in Congo Square and how can we forget about Gechey.
Island.
So fine if some Black people want to deny their Africaness that is on them, the global struggle against racist oppression clearly tells the truth about how we are all connected as Africans.
The other issue I hate is that calling people colors instead of basing their identity to a location with a history and culture, over simplifies their perspective about life and experiences.
I mean calling someone white doesn’t help people to realize Americans from Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, Poland, Russians,etc. had very different experiences coming to America. If you just dismissed every white person as white, you miss out on learning their rich family history.
In addition, calling someone white or black just brings up a painful adversial dynamic. Out of ignorance color lines were drawn in America. European Americans believed Hegel that Africa was a “Dark Continent” void of history.
The concept of white versus black in America ignores dynamics like the Civial War, Shay’s Rebellion, Red Scare and all the class wars that have occured in America.
White versus Black ignores the discrimination Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants experienced in the early 20th century.
I have no problem celebrating Irish or Italian or any other Europen Heritage. There should be months that honor them, as well as Asian or Latino Americans. The only reason Black.History month is so.widely recognized is because black people are the second largest and most visible.demographic in America.
Finally someone simply being called white or black cries out for acceptance by American institutions rather than collobration that respects differences.