Hi. Salutations. To those of you who are new to Black people, let me be the first to welcome you to the gracious culture filled with complications, contradictions, competitions, and whatever else. I know that this may be a confusing time for you, with the President Obamas, Tiger Woods, and Drakes of the world floating around, but don’t worry. I am here to help. To the rest of you who have been riding next to me on this roller coaster ride, what-up tho! It's nice to see you again! And I love what you've done with your hair!
Any who, the second topic of my Black Blogs of February is one of the many internal, controversial debates within the colored community, Blacks versus African-Americans.
Ya see, I am Black. Every single day, for the past 24 years, I have been Black. And every day, for the rest of my life, I will be Black. When some people see me, they think I am African-American. Obvy, these people don’t know a lot of Black people. Or else, they wouldn’t have made such a silly mistake. I mean seriously, I don’t even look African American. #Racist. However, I digress.
Ya see, an African-American is an American who originates from Africa. The term is often substituted as a label used to define the race of a colored individual in a non-insulting way (i.e. it is a politically correct term for "you have dark skin and I have no idea where you might come from so I'm just gonna call you Black and wait for you to either accept it or get really pissed.") To some of us, if you call us the wrong word, it’s okay. We know you were just trying to be super-cautious. To the rest of us, you will be corrected. . .
Here in DC, or Chocolate City, the non-colored community is more aware of race relations. Mainly, it’s cause they are outnumbered. Usually someone of non-colored decent will come up and ask either:
1. If you are offended by the word Black or
2. What you prefer to be called
It is this type of social consciousness that I missed in my super brief (not flying underwear) time in Connecticut. Quick aside: There are 2 races in Connecticut: White and Everyone Else. If you are in the minority, i.e. the Everyone Else, the Whites tend to be, if I may be #blunt, fucking rude. I hope you got thick skin and good luck!
However, I digress.
However, I digress.
If you are reading and STILL don’t get it, let me break it down further. The term African-American describes a person from Africa who is now in America. For instance, if you are from China and are now American, you are Chinese American. #Simple. Now, the confusion is that Blacks do not necessarily come from Africa (for a quick review, go back to my “I Am Not My Hair” Blog and look under Black). This is where the beef becomes Hamburger Helper.
There are a lot of Blacks who HATE being called African-American, because they don’t claim Africa. Me, for instance, I have no idea where I come from. It’s kind of a process to figure out:
1. My roots can be traced to a certain part of the United States and maybe a specific plantation.
2. From there, we have to determine if the Black slaves of that plantation were from Africa, the Caribbean (the Trans-Saharan slave trade preceded the Trans-Atlantic slave trade), or another plantation in the US.
3. Then we would need to determine the race of the other slaves to account for inter-slave procreation (Aborigines/Native Americans, Indians, Arabics, Chinese, Australian, Europeans in Servitude, etc.)
4. Due to master-slave relations, aka rape, we would then have to consider the race of the slave owners (British, Irish, French, Dutch, Negores, Mixed-race, etc.)
5. Considering that the paperwork on most slaves is not kept accurately, we will end up speculating and guessing.
6. Then find the plantations of those ancestors and repeat the steps 1-4.
Or you can just call me Black. The point us, some prefer to be from no where than to be from Africa. Most of those associations, or stereotypes, involve infomercials with bugs on kids eyes and poverty and AIDS and other negativity. Ambiguity kinda looks good in comparison.
On the other hand, African-Americans are not Black, i.e. they were never slaves. They did the immigrant thing and ended up here in America, like everybody else in this country. They don’t have that ugly history to deal with, and therefore find it disrespectful if you call them Black. This one Nigerian-American dude was telling me how his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather killed a whole colony of Europeans who tried to enslave his tribe. Calling him Black would be like stripping him of his history. I mean, I get mad when someone tells me I look bad in my favorite shoes. You are stripping me of what I know to be true. . . Okay, so that was probably a bad analogy, but my Sperrys are on point. #ActLikeYouKnow
The reality is Black is a term for ambiguous dark-skinned person and African-American is a term for Americans coming from Africa. If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything or just ask.
Keep it PG-13 and we should be all kosher. #Beast
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