So on my hour long journey into work yesterday am - and it is a journey- I was listening to Joe Madison (aka The Black Eagle) on Sirus radio's The Power. I began listening in the middle of the show, so I didn't hear the genesis of the conversation, but there was a debate over the use of "Black vs. "African-American." Joe viciously defended his preference for being called an African-American - ferociously attacking a caller (probably more in part because she called him stupid, vs. any true connection to the term African-American) who basically questioned the need for the hyphenated moniker.
I suppose the arguments stayed true to those that have existed since this most recent name change (it went something like this - I'm paraphrasing of course): CALLER: It’s stupid - you weren't born in Africa, it's un-American, it’s divisive, etc. JOE: It doesn't matter if I wasn't born in Africa, my ancestors are from Africa, I have pride in my heritage, everybody else gets to know where they came from (and you called me stupid), etc.
Side note: As I write this, it has occurred to me that his staunch stance is especially peculiar, given the fact that his nickname is "The BLACK Eagle" - confused face?? Will he now be known as The AFRICAN-AMERICAN Eagle - I'll have to try and call in and ask him that on Monday.
Anyway, their one-sided debate concludes, (one-sided, cuz that's just how Joe rolls...especially if you incite him in some way) once Joe - in true Black Eagle fashion - hangs up on her. In the midst of the madness I'd just bared witness to, I was able to form a fairly thoughtful opinion about the topic and since this is my blog, I’m just going to put my two cents out there.
So, here’s the deal, I was born in 1977…far enough out of the radical 60’s and right on the cusp of the decade that would be defined by greed and excess (gotta love the 80’s). By the time I came around, “COLORED” was taboo and “BLACK” had been beautiful for quite some time…I mean, people were giving “five on the BLACK hand side” not the light side…what could be better than that? I digress.
Like I said, I was a child of the 80s – the term “African – American” had gained some momentum at this point, but when I described myself, or when I described people that looked like me, “black” was the term that I used. While in elementary school, I recall the school secretary – Mrs. Sledge – referring to my brother and me as “colored” – remember, this was now the mid-80s – the term “colored” had long been ousted. I don’t recall any maliciousness on her part, nor do I recall any particular angst towards her use of the term at the time, but later on when trying to come to terms with various aspects of my childhood, I do recall being bothered by it. For some reason, after my various life experiences, memories of that word being used to describe me had a different charge. For the sake of argument later in this post, it’s important to note that Mrs. Sledge was probably in her mid-60s at the time, which means she was born sometime in the 1920’s – a different era, with different experiences, different life references.
Flash Forward - through the 90’s and 2000’s the term “African-American” became more prevalent and it is now the politically-correct nomen of choice when referring to a group of black folks…usually, with little to no regard for their true ethnicity and/or origin of birth. I like to be real here, so let’s just get to it…when a non-black person sees another person with dark/black skin, that person is automatically thrown into the black category, or for the politically correct, African-American – ‘cuz, truthfully, they can’t tell us apart – I’m just saying. The reality (remember I like to deal in reality) is that there are many groups of black folk within the United States that are not direct descendants of the slaves that were brought to America – which is the group that the term is supposed to describe. The reality is, there are some black folk that are descendants of slaves that were dropped off elsewhere e.g., your black Hispanics, or you have black folk that actually came over from Africa (this time of their own free will), and the myriad of others that come from various countries, but happen to have dark skin and African features.
I say all this to say that I am not a proponent of the use of the term “African-American”. I don’t know if it’s just because “black” is what I know, it’s what I grew up with, or if I have some sort of innate animosity towards the use of the term. It could perhaps be a combination of both. In order to answer that, I think I have to start by going back to our school secretary, Mrs. Sledge – like I said, she was probably born circa 1920 – 1930, America was a very different country and at the time, the name for people that looked like me, was “colored”. That’s what she knew, that was her experience. Was there mal-intent behind her use of the term in the more modern setting – can’t say for sure, but I don’t think so.
Continuing on…I was reading that a lot of American blacks embraced the “African-American” moniker because, as a result of our history of slavery and the slave masters attempt to de-Africanize us, many of us were unable to trace our roots to a specific African nation and as I result, we just claimed the whole daggone continent. Now that’s Gangsta.
I get that, but I also wonder if it’s necessary – what is in this name that makes anything that has happened historically any different? Over time, we have collectively been identified as Negroes, Coloreds, Blacks, Afro-Americans, and now African-Americans, but other than the name, what has fundamentally changed about us and our collective experience? All right, now somebody tell me something I don't already know. Anyone? Bueller. Anyone? Bueller.
So I began to wonder, what is a name – the dictionary defines it as: 1. a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known. 2. mere designation, as distinguished from fact.
I highlighted the second part of the definition, because it kind of speaks to me – a mere designation, as distinguished from fact; in other words a name is not meant to DEFINE, but to merely IDENTIFY or CATEGORIZE apart and separate from that which is fact. The FACTS are that we are united and defined by our experiences, those of which have been shaped, in part by the commonality of our skin color. The identifier doesn’t matter–an identifier is just a word and words are defined by their users.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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