Wanna play?? "Who wants to be Black American?"

What is up with this?? Is being who we are now like a game show or something: "Gee, who wants to be a Black American??"

On the eve of U.S. Black History Month 2005 ("The Niagra Movement: Black Protest Reborn") I need to ask who is trying to co-opt and confuse the identity and ethnicity of Black American people?

Black History Month was started in Washington, DC by Carter G. Woodson, a native of next-door Virginia. As a [Black American] school child in Washington, DC, my Mother remembers meeting Carter G. Woodson, much like years later when I met Mohammed Ali/Cassius Clay on more than one occasion.

Were Carter Woodson alive today I'd ask what he thinks of these lame attempts to dilute and de-stabilise Black American identity. If I told my 5 Black American grandparents what some folks today are trying to do to our ethnicity they'd all probably turn in their graves (all located in the USA).

My Black American family's been formed, enslaved, born, raised,
worked and died in North & South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, DC, Kansas, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida, and elsewhere in the USA.

In spite of apparently never-ending efforts against Black Americans there are still plenty of us in most [not all] of those places all over the USA; so there's really no need for anyone to try to 'recruit' or invent any "new" Black Americans.

When I was growing up and sometimes - while traveling - my (Black American) family was busy seeking out a gas station's single 'colored'
restroom [as in 3 doors labelled "men", "women", "colored"] or the local colored motel -if there was one - outsiders (i.e., white Americans) showed no interest in subverting our ethnic identity. In the U.S. North just as much as the South most white Americans (including most of the whites who are related to Black Americans) - just wanted us to stay away; to keep our political and physical distance.

White folks wanted us Black Americans to be 'useful' ... and usable... yet pretty invisible. No such luck for them anymore.

Now together with our domestic and international friends and allies Black Americans must organise and communicate to fight the latest attempts to erase, nullify, dilute and de-value Black American
ethnicity, community, culture and history, as well as our future.

Do U.S. authorities and others wish to manipulate the traditional and
defacto definition of "African American" to further marginalise the
tens of millions of us who actually are Black Americans?

One of the weirdest things that's happened to me personally behind all this is having an Italian American man publicly call me a "racist" - simply because I told him Barack Obama is not Black American.

Well shut my impudent Black American female mouth. Obviously that guy knows better than I who I am and who is and is not related to me. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge...

The U.S. government's (calculated) political process of "naturalising" people cannot make them Black Americans any more than they can "become" American Indian/Native American.

Isn't there a provision in human rights custom or law that says all
human beings and human communities have a right to legal recognition of their ethnic identity? (As if the U.S. government, which has refused to sign other key international agreements, would care.)

The fact that a person or their family is African or "of African
ancestry" (i.e., Black) and lives in (i.e., re-located/migrated to)
the United States does not make her or him a member of the Black
American ethnic group. This is not to suggest those persons are not Black, however they are not ethnic Black Americans from the U.S.A.

For some reason up to now the American government can't seem to be bothered to point out the difference.

It seems almost too obvious to state that due to our distinct history
(still largely unknown or misunderstood outside the USA), Black
American ethnicity & identity are not constructed the way white
Americans and the U.S. government have deliberately (and
hyper-racially) constructed "whiteness" and "white American" identity.

For the past 100 or more years White American identity has perpetuated itself by changing imported individuals and their families and/or communities from various European backgrounds into "white American".

Such persons are also (erroneously) called "Caucasian" - as the U.S. government calls whites (and anyone else they wish to racially/ethnically co-opt).

I received an opinion survey from the opinion polling firm Zogby asking people to choose the "African American" they consider most influential. The "candidate list" included Colin Powell and Barack Obama, neither of whom is Black American.

I'm not saying perhaps one or the other or both of these persons might not be an exemplary human being. I am saying that neither had any family member who was a Black American enslaved or free in the USA.

As an ethnic group our history is not identical to the history of white people in America, since we are Black Americans and are neither white nor white American. Black Americans are related to many white people (most of whom we do not know by their name) - most who refuse to talk about it ... but that's another story. [Read Ed Ball's Slaves in the Family.]

Colin Powell is Caribbean American. Both his parents came to New York from the island nation of Jamaica. Which is absolutely fine, but none of his 4 grandparents came from any Black American community in the United States.

Barack Obama, who is Kenyan and white, is now a U.S. senator - almost solely thanks to the political support of Black Americans from the Southside of Chicago, Illinois. His father is Kenyan who moved to the U.S. and his mother is white American.

That ancestry does not make a person a Black American. In fact Barack Obama, through his mother, is descended from white slaveholder Jefferson Davis who was president of the Confederacy - the armed rebellion organised against the United States to keep Black Americans in enslavement.

If Barack Obama has any blood connection to Black Americans it would
be through his mother's white American family & the Black Americans to whom his Mother and her family are almost certainly related. Sadly, white Americans have almost never acknowledged such things ... but that's another book.

On behalf of my family, ancestors and community I deeply resent continuing attempts to manipulate our existence, to alter who we are. The world needs to understand this, not fall for it, and actively oppose what's going on.

Comments

[owukori]

Speaking of BHM, the Global Coalition for Africa wants the USA and Europe to pay $77trillion in reparations to "African countries as a balm for socio-economic damages inflicted on Blacks through slavery, colonialism and economic exploitation." (http://odili.net/news/source/2005/jan/26/10.html). I really believe that it is possible for reparations to be made at some point though it will take years in court.

You make a very good argument for Black Americans to be recognised as an "ethnic group" and I think it is important when discussing people like Colin Powell and Barack Obama to point out that they are not Black Americans even though they are Black. One has to ask in whose interest is it to marginalise black American history and as you say to "manipulate our exitence"? I would say "white America" but also "new black immigrants such as from the Caribbean and Africa whose relationship to black Americans is not always very positive.

Just a brief comment on your comment re slavery. I am not sure I fully understand your point though I do agree that it is an overgeneralisation to accuse black politicians of getting money from Arab or other sources. I really have no information on that so it is his opinion. As you say 400 years isnt that long in the history of humanity however if you look at it expotentially it is much longer than 400 years and not of the contributing factors have been addressed.

My point about slavery is that it still exists today and in far greater numbers AND this time we should recognise that as far as African slavery goes, Africans themselves are involved. (see my posting under "slavery 2004 - Children in Slavery 7th December 04) We cannot deal with this issue of slavery which is like an open sore in our hearts unless we all begin to speak to the truth about what happened and what is still happening AND we must continue to hold Europe and White America to account -