I'm Not from Africa

One major shout out to everyone who believes that African in the category African-American means that I have some affiliation with, have been to, or know anything else about that continent. The broadcast flurry of beautiful wildlife and starving children--- pause right there--- Please stop showing me images of children who are sooo sickly, laying there seeming to pass away before the end of the commercial. Then there is always someone standing there saying I can help with a dollar or two. But it gets worse when they want to send me a picture (blinking). I wouldn’t know them to challenge the mug shot. That could be anybody on a picture from Africa! That is not to say that the situation is not that bad, or the people of Africa don’t need help because they DO! I just believe that the charities would have a better chance showing graphs and charts and not ruining my late night snack. Anyway…I was trying to say that it is weird how to some people my racial category sets me apart in more ways than one…now this really got me to thinking.

As always you may completely disagree with the things I am about to say. That’s fine. I just have to call it as I see it.

I have to ask myself one question. Did the fight to become classified as African American help out any? I guess it depends on what result was desired. If there was a desire to recognize ancestral roots and soften the blow of the term “negro” then it was a great win. If the desire was to place a permanent tag of inequality on an entire race and culture then it was also a win. Now before anyone fires off a mark of stupidity or shouts my ignorance from the mountain tops, let me explain my thoughts.

This all goes back to my theory of aiming low. Actually it came from my father. Now my grandfather was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He is named in the archives of Martin Luther King Jr. for the work that he did. (Edgar Nathaniel French 1921-1979). That means that my father was very close to the movement. As inconsistent as it may sound, my views on this subject came from a talk that my father and I had about cars. He told me that when I went to buy a car to go for the one that is loaded with the extras. Go for the top of the line. If you can’t get that car then switch to a slightly lower overall make and model of car and get that car all loaded out with the extras. Basically he was saying don’t go for anything but the best of whatever you are getting.

Since the whole fight for civil rights in America has been about reaching some type of equality, I’m not sure that labeling any citizen with the prefix of a separate continent is anyway to get it. The aim may have been too low on this one. Maybe the fight should have been to drop all racial labels completely. Maybe one of the stipulations should have been that the classification of any race in America would illegal. I doubt if any employer has ever looked at an application, saw that box checked, and gone into a trance daydreaming about the conquests and royalty of African kings and queens. I really doubt it. When no one can motivate by relevance, youth are often instructed to hold their heads up and stick their chests out because they come from kings and queens in Africa. I do understand that to be true. I guess I take issue with that statement being used for that purpose because the generally accepted route of the human race states that we all came directly out of Africa and migrated to other areas. We all came from African kings and queens. We all should take pride in that and learn the history…I mean the whole world. We ALL came out of Africa (research is something serious). Besides, that is much too far away for most children to grasp; especially when, a lot of times, the only home they have ever known is broken and around the corner. Newsflash: You must have pride in yourself before you can be taught to accept and display pride in a complete group of people with questionable self-esteem at best.

Changing the categories of race now would do nothing for the current situation because everyone is and has been operating under the current system for our whole lives. But I do have to wonder where we would have been  in American society if we had gotten rid of race categories back in the 50’s or 60’s. I don’t believe that the prefix African turned out to be what it was expected to be. It does provide recognition, but it also provides unnecessary stigmata in situations. Since being called African American is what was fought for and pushed socially, the people living today will probably not be around to know what it is to be just an American in classification. The aim was low and self-serving. A certain segment of the population wanted everyone to know that “we “were proud of our roots and “we” demanded national recognition of those same roots. The truth about it is, you will often regret hitting your target if you aim too low.