A Facebook page challenges racial identity and diversity
As Black History Month comes to a close, a new Facebook page is bringing up complicated issues of identity and culture in an increasingly diverse country.
Created by Gibré George, the page called "Don't Call Me African-American" has fueled ongoing conversations about the nature of identity and racial politics in the United States. George created the page as a response to feeling that the term African-American didn't resonate with him:
"It just doesn't sit well with a younger generation of black people," continued George, who is 38. "Africa was a long time ago. Are we always going to be tethered to Africa? Spiritually I'm American. When the war starts, I'm fighting for America."
Others say that the term African-American ignores complex ethnic and cultural backgrounds when it comes to racial discourse in America.
"For people of Caribbean descent, Jamaican-American or Haitian-American is far more descriptive of where their cultural and national origins are, especially here in South Florida which is more diverse than Kentucky where I'm from,'' said [Derrick] White, author of the book 'The Challenge of Blackness: The Institute of the Black World and Political Activism in the 1970s'.
The conversation around racial identity and labels isn't new. Political movements and changes in attitudes have shifted over time. But the debate doesn't often surface outside of black communities. Talking about race is still a charged issue, but it's a conversation that can't be ignored.
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Dwayne_Dean
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i was not born in africa nor due i speak african or adhere to there culture but my decendants originates from africa,that does not make me african just a decendantof africa.I was born in america
- 3 months ago
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Dwayne_Dean
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Dwayne_Dean
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thank God that someone has finally stepped up and adressed this issue because I have been arguing this for a long time with everyone. We as black people are maybe even more amerrican than whites as we've been through a lot and we've stood right on the side of every white man that ever did anything great for this country.
- 3 months ago
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Dwayne_Dean
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1053
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The Chinese call themselves Chinese the East Indians call themselves Indians, etc, no matter where they were born or how many generations ago their parents left their own countties. so what is the problems with Africans outside of Africa? We may not have been born in Africa, but we are OF Africa and we can try to distance ourselves from Africa as much as we want, but that identity will remain with us to our dying days. SO YES, WE WILL BE TETHERED TO AFRICA FOREVER. People of African descent around the world have been made to feel that anything African is bad and shameful so our attitude towards Africa now has become a part of our DNA. We call ourselves everything but what we are. Jamaican-American or Trinidadian-American, etc. are not races, they are nationalities. The only thing these descriptions tell you is that I was born somewhere else and now I am an American citizen. What does an American or a Trinidadian or a Jamacian, or a Spanish look like? We in the Caribbean in general know that we are of African descent and have no problem calling ourselves AFRICANS, but as with everything else, there are people here who will call themselves anything else but. African-Americans need to travel to countries that are predominately people of African descent and do more to understand the mentality of the people. Oh, take a trip to Africe (Not just South Africa) and you will learn volumes about who you are.
- 3 months ago
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1053
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puella
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1053:
I don't try to distance myself from the continent. But, I feel like it's evident when you look at my face. I prefer the term "Black" because it LINKS me to other people of my color all over the world no matter what country or ethnicity they claim. Plus, to me, it's more *recently* accurate because Africa was a while ago (Also, I differ with 1053 in that after 3 or so generation in America many folks become a color rather than a nationality. Look at the terms "White." or "Brown")
- 3 months ago
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puella
