Black People : "African ... My name is African!"

[anAfrican]

"Black Families of Europe" seems to me another very good reason to drop this "Black People" bit and get back to African People.

We were African when we were started onto the Middle Passage; we were African when we were dropped off during the Middle Passage; we were African when we arrived on these shores; we were African when we started work in this land; we were African when we were encouraged to work harder; we were African when our Families were fractured; we were African when we were encouraged to tell on each other and we are African today ... even though we expend entirely too much energy doing the "white supremelunacy" bit of denying our African Origins with this "Black" stuff and the treasonous "African American" bit. (This is not the "United States of Ethnic America". Any efforts to divide this nation amount to treason. Does anyone suppose that every ethnic group in this country all decided to refer to them/ourselves as "[ethnic] Americans" at the same time? Or was this an external influence. Where, then, would be the origin of this particular bit of treason? ... oh, right: "but "we" are not "amerikkans",")

And, please: stop furthering their all too effective efforts to keep us apart with this talk of "we didn't call it Africa!": we didn't call it "Black" either!

<shrug> But that's just me. I'll just stay over here in the corner, shaking my head at all the questions of "why can't we pull it together?!".

 

[Da Street So'ja]

thank you

"Black Families of Europe" seems to me another very good reason to drop this "Black People" bit and get back to African People.

We were African when we were started onto the Middle Passage; we were African when we were dropped off during the Middle Passage; we were African when we arrived on these shores; we were African when we started work in this land; we were African when we were encouraged to work harder; we were African when our Families were fractured; we were African when we were encouraged to tell on each other and we are African today ... even though we expend entirely too much energy doing the "white supremelunacy" bit of denying our African Origins with this "Black" stuff and the treasonous "African American" bit. (This is not the "United States of Ethnic America". Any efforts to divide this nation amount to treason. Does anyone suppose that every ethnic group in this country all decided to refer to them/ourselves as "[ethnic] Americans" at the same time? Or was this an external influence. Where, then, would be the origin of this particular bit of treason? ... oh, right: "but "we" are not "amerikkans",")

And, please: stop furthering their all too effective efforts to keep us apart with this talk of "we didn't call it Africa!": we didn't call it "Black" either!

<shrug> But that's just me. I'll just stay over here in the corner, shaking my head at all the questions of "why can't we pull it together?!".

for the push of truth

especially feeling this part:

(This is not the "United States of Ethnic America". Any efforts to divide this nation amount to treason. Does anyone suppose that every ethnic group in this country all decided to refer to them/ourselves as "[ethnic] Americans" at the same time? Or was this an external influence. Where, then, would be the origin of this particular bit of treason? ... oh, right: "but "we" are not "amerikkans",")


peace

 

[GrozTheWarrior]

My 2 cents (gotta keep it short because I have a classroom full of 1st graders taking a math test)

I remember back when I was a kid watching Sesame street on PBS. Every so often, during a break in the show, they would cut to a kid (non-white, mind you) that would look into the camera and say something along the lines of, "I'm proud to be a(n) _______-American." The fill-in-the-blank could be anything from African to Chinese to Italian. Something that's been bugging me lately is the Country versus Continent identification.

Allow me to use Asia as an example. There are nearly 50 different countries on the continent of Asia. However, when you hear the term "Asian-America" who do associate that with? Most likely Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. Basically anyone with 'yellow' skin and differently-shaped eyes. You would never (realistically) call someone from Russia or Afghanistan an 'Asian-American.'

So are there limitations on the term 'African-American?' If I knew my family came from Egypt (or any of Africa's 53 indepentent countries), for example, and I had a PBS camera in my face, would I have said, "I'm proud to be an Egyptian-American"? Since America is supposedly this huge coming-together of worldly cultures, should white people refer to themselves as "North American-Americans" or "European-Americans"?

I wish I had more time to articulate my thoughts on this, but I deemed this topic appropriate for this question.

 

[Da Street So'ja]

You make a good point with the asia

My 2 cents (gotta keep it short because I have a classroom full of 1st graders taking a math test)

I remember back when I was a kid watching Sesame street on PBS. Every so often, during a break in the show, they would cut to a kid (non-white, mind you) that would look into the camera and say something along the lines of, "I'm proud to be a(n) _______-American." The fill-in-the-blank could be anything from African to Chinese to Italian. Something that's been bugging me lately is the Country versus Continent identification.

Allow me to use Asia as an example. There are nearly 50 different countries on the continent of Asia. However, when you hear the term "Asian-America" who do associate that with? Most likely Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. Basically anyone with 'yellow' skin and differently-shaped eyes. You would never (realistically) call someone from Russia or Afghanistan an 'Asian-American.'

So are there limitations on the term 'African-American?' If I knew my family came from Egypt (or any of Africa's 53 indepentent countries), for example, and I had a PBS camera in my face, would I have said, "I'm proud to be an Egyptian-American"? Since America is supposedly this huge coming-together of worldly cultures, should white people refer to themselves as "North American-Americans" or "European-Americans"?

I wish I had more time to articulate my thoughts on this, but I deemed this topic appropriate for this question.

i know i don't need to tell you this

america is fairly new

most of the countries you listed have histories of at least 6,000 years

while "Native Indians" are indigenous to america

and there in lies the dilemma

everyone has come from "some place else"

some of these people don't want to give up their heritage

not trying to lecture you

just addin' my 3 cents

peace

 

[It's All Good]

""African ... My name is African!" ".

IS THAT YOU FIRST OR LAST NAME?