The peer group (Africans) needs to stop calling themselves Africans and start being American. The sooner that happens the sooner that peer group profiling goes away. The ethnic thing is great to preserve. That's okay. That's family. But what's with hanging on to the ethnic thing at all costs. It's costing them a ton in image. The Italians did, the Germans did, the Polish did, the Irish did, etc., etc.. I'm not sayin they should be denied their heritage but stop wearing it on their sleeve. Lighten up, and the profiling will slowly melt away. The sooner the better. Keep marginalizing themselves this way and it just prolongs the stereotyping and profiling. I'm just sayin'.
Originally Posted by gntman
Gntman,
While I see the intelligence in your argument, I think you are flawed/misguided in your evaluation. Like you, I indeed would like to see African Americans, blacks, or any group, stop using such racial identications and we all can be one big HUMAN family. But the truth is, even if the entire AA community stops this, OTHERS won't. Our government, (Census) corporations (hiring practices), colleges (affirmative action), and others entities will continue to label us as such, even if we stop. But the most consistent group of all to do this is...the White Community.
Let me say it this way, what's the first thing you think about when you open your door, get into your car, and starting driving, but see a darker pigmented man walking down the sidewalk or in his own vehicle. You say subconsciously, "Oh, that's a black man." Even if he isn't...ie, if he is Asian Indian but dark, or Hispanic but dark, or even bi-racial. The truth is, even if it's not racist or bigoted, you analyzed that person's outward appearance immediately based on the same truth that in appearance, you saw a difference in another human being than in yourself. Even if that difference is just skin deep. It's nothing to be upset about. It's human.
So, as I've learned from so many wise experts, analysis, and people in all walks of life, people, particularly in white America, need to stop making the victims of racism/profiling into the problem. You're telling a group of humans, who have spent hundreds if not thousands of years being categorized and persecuted based only on their skin colors that, now that we live in a "post racial" society, we all just need to forget the past and move forward. Forget. Stay silent. Move on. But it's not that simple. How can it when the exact same group that's saying "stop labeling/profiling or bringing up race" is the very same one that is continuing a mantra of separate but equal in practices and communication.
In the end, it's going to take more than 50 years to get us all to be one blended family, like it took hundreds of years for Irish/English/European and now in some extend Hispanic people to band together under the moniker of "white". And that didn't happen b/c everyone in that group stopped labeling them as such. It was a generational effort, as much as it was one for distinguishing who is or is not apart of the "white race." So the problem isn't so much one community self-labeling as it is the larger HUMAN CONDITION which seeks to label and control all things in a particular worldview. Same with religion, gender, orientation, and other social aspects.
Let me apologize upfront for the length of my lecture here, and if I offended any one in the white community for my words. However, it stands to say, we can't drop labels b/c society and the forces in them wont'. Both in and out of the "black" community. But here's how we change things...we discuss, talk, share, blend, and be-friend. And in a few generations, who knows. As for me, I am an American, and view myself as that, but I know I am also within America, a black African American (because you DO know that there are WHITE Africans or what not, right? lol). It's a label that both identifies a present and continuously struggle as well as a connection to one's past and heritage.
Ok, Mods, take me, my fingers, and mouth away. These people are probably sick of me by now
Happy hobbying this week to all btw. Just enjoyed a lovely Sunday fun day time with a young provider this afternoon (but still not ready for review yet sadly).
