The Clinton race-baiting got me thinking…
Posted on January 28th, 2008 by Jackie Danicki
Why do so many people in America seem to think that every black person in America must be African-American? Is it just the lack of critical thinking inherent in those who buy into identity politics and view human beings as the sum of their labels?
Filed under: Life
Mm, lack of critical thinking: agree. All Americans assuming all blacks are African-American: disagree, though I suppose, if one goes back far enough, all Americans are African-Americans. But I digress.
Growing up in New York, people — black people — self-identified as Carribean (name your country), West Indian (ditto), African (ditto). Never African-American, but of course, this was a different era; I still recall my mother instructing me, I was no longer to say “Negro,” but “black.” (Which is what I still say, except occasionally in print.) Yes, I have been “corrected” several times, always by black women. It was important to them, and their work, to be identified as A-A and so, I respect it, while concurrently thinking applying the hyphenate often accomplishes exactly the opposite what I think should be accomplished.
I understand Americans descended from slaves had their identities wiped out; that indentifying as A-A seems a step toward reclamation; one hand-hold in the climb to respect and self-respect. Used an excavation tool, it’s fantastic; let’s know more.
But I fear those asking to be recognized as African-American, or Jewish-American, or Harvard alum, or straight edge, are asking something else, something less noble and intentionally divisive. I am always interested in the cultural mores you bring to the table, but what I really want to know is, how do you treat those around you? Are you striving? Your race/nationality have very little to do with these. Certainly, people ascribe their good qualities to their ethnicity (e.g., Italians are passionate; Jews are educated), just as we sling the bad ones (Italians are lazy; Jews are greedy), which we of course do because we are ignorant, or lazy, or because it suits our objectives, or to justify genocide. Which gets me back to why I think labeling can just as easily (and I might say, more easily) do the opposite of what’s intended: instead of opening the flow of dialogue and deeper understanding, it sets up camps, you over here, me over here.
That’s why I said “so many Americans” instead of “all Americans”. [insert smiley here]