(ThyBlackMan.com) I find it vitally important that American’s take a deep look at the terms “black and white.” It was Dr. King who rightfully noted that a man is to be judged neither by the “content of his character nor by the color of his skin.” Although Dr. King is gone and America has achieved significant gains in humanity we still allow two evil vestiges of Jim Crow and Segregation to sit among us; “black” and “white.”
How offensive do you think it would be to call a Native American “red” or an Asian American “yellow?” What response do you think it would elicit from the public or the media? Would this person be seen as a bigot or racist, and would their views be unaccepted by mainstream America? Last time I filled out an application there were no “yellow” or “red,” choices for race. These terms as offensive as they may be were once used to describe each of those groups. It is due to the enlightenment of men that they are no longer used and have since become unacceptable and offensive terms.
Recently I filled out a federal application, and on the application for race it had definitions of where black and white originated. What was surprising is how they have expanded the definition of white. Now white includes not just European’s, but the Middle East and North Africa. This seems more and more that the characterizing of black and white not solely to note skin type or physical description; it is specifically to isolate African American’s from their ancestral land, Africa. The trouble with labeling Middle Easterners’ and North Africans’ as white is that many those in that region span the gamut of color from European features to Sub-Saharan features. So if North Africans of dark complexion are white, what is the purpose of labeling so called races? The only answer I can reasonably conclude is institutionalized racism, it fuels us against them system built on incorrect descriptions. America has long since set out to separate the African American from Africa.
In the mid 1700’s a portly looking European man by the name of Carl von Linnaeus was to first to mistakenly classify man by race. In his classification he took it upon himself to find European’s where most akin to a white disposition and of the utmost intelligence, and African’s were black, lust filled, and quiet ignorant. Linnaeus first mistake was race is a myth there is only one race HUMAN, second people since biblical times have been classified by nations not color.
Linnaeus’s attempt was brazen and unmasked at labeling the African as the lowest form of humanity casting the label of black upon him and his progeny. He readily spewed this doctrine for fellow Europeans to adopt as true. This belief added to the fuel that the African was subhuman and enslavement of the subhuman was for his good, after all he is black, and the lowest of the low. (There is so much in a name, once we understand this and stop calling each other n@ggers we will get it)
For the next three hundred years African’s globally have accepted this false labeling by their European brethren, and have never challenged its basis. European American’s have used it to institute Jim Crow, justify segregation, and establish an American caste system.
Some will say why the big deal, people will just equate African American with the same meaning as black. We must know that Africa was the first and the mother of civilization; from her we all find our genesis. What is in me is in all the world and as a human race those that bare the heritage of the first must be respected; although the rest of the world may not outwardly exhibit African features or even know persons of African descent, it is still within us all. The classification of people based on race and color is absolutely asinine and needs to be checked now before we continue to hand our children this false European rational of European superiority.
The history classifying the so called races was done primarily to create a system of hierarchy with “white” being the best. “Black” was seen as the least among all, lowest of the low, the untamed.
The categories of “black and white” exist, identifying two separate but same people. Sounds familiar, it should they used this same argument to justify segregation in schools, at water fountains, and even deny someone the simple human function of utilizing a bathroom not for them. Segregation still exist in the form of the “black and white” label that America has grown to love, like foreign oil, cheap Chinese goods, or better yet inexpensive Hispanic labor. The terms “black and white” are lingering vestiges of Jim Crow and Segregation that once and for all need to be excommunicated from our everyday vocabulary if we are truly to move forward as a nation.
America has had her share of trials, and blood bought change, but America understands. Now she must further understand that the terms “black and white” are of the past and no longer who we are becoming we must march in all truth to becoming American, but because we love classifying folks the steps taken towards eradicating black and stop using it interchangeably with African American will be a great start.
Staff Writer; Sydney O
One can reach Syd at; SydneyO@ThyBlackMan.com.
