What will our liberal friends do if they can't show how they are defending African-Americans, especially from those nasty ol' racists that they find under every bed- especially Republican beds????
Well...it seems that there are black folk who believe they don't require same....woe is me...or woe is them!
It seems that lots of black folk recognize just what most of us have been saying: They're just like the rest of us: Americans!
"Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'"
1." The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House. Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past: "black."
2. For this group -- some descended from U.S. slaves, some immigrants with a separate history -- "African-American" is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s. Instead, it's a misleading connection to a distant culture.
3. "I prefer to be called black," said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. "How I really feel is, I'm American.""I don't like African-American. It denotes something else to me than who I am," said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina. "I can't recall any of them telling me anything about Africa. They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C."
4. Gibré George, an entrepreneur from Miami, started a Facebook page called "Don't Call Me African-American" on a whim. It now has about 300 "likes."
5. ...that term is not really us," George said. "We're several generations down the line. If anyone were to ship us back to Africa, we'd be like fish out of water."
6. "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."
7. Joan Morgan, a writer born in Jamaica who moved to New York City as a girl...acknowledges that her homeland of Jamaica is populated by the descendants of African slaves. "But I am not African, and Africans are not African-American," she said.
8. Today, 24 years after [Jesse] Jackson popularized African-American, it's unclear what term is preferred by the community. A series of Gallup polls from 1991 to 2007 showed no strong consensus for either black or African-American. In a January 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent of respondents said they preferred black, 35 percent said African-American, 13 percent said it doesn't make any difference, and 7 percent chose "some other term."
9. Tomi Obaro [says her] Nigerian-born parents brought her to America from England as a girl, and she became a citizen last year. Although she is literally African-American, the University of Chicago senior says the label implies she is descended from slaves. It also feels vague and liberal to her.
"It just sort of screams this political correctness," Obaro said. She and her black friends rarely use it to refer to themselves,...
10. "Or it's a word that people who aren't black use to describe black people," she said.
Or it's a political tool."
Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'
"I'm American. When the war starts, I'm fighting for America."
Sounds good.
Feels good.
Well...it seems that there are black folk who believe they don't require same....woe is me...or woe is them!
It seems that lots of black folk recognize just what most of us have been saying: They're just like the rest of us: Americans!
"Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'"
1." The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House. Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past: "black."
2. For this group -- some descended from U.S. slaves, some immigrants with a separate history -- "African-American" is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s. Instead, it's a misleading connection to a distant culture.
3. "I prefer to be called black," said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. "How I really feel is, I'm American.""I don't like African-American. It denotes something else to me than who I am," said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina. "I can't recall any of them telling me anything about Africa. They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C."
4. Gibré George, an entrepreneur from Miami, started a Facebook page called "Don't Call Me African-American" on a whim. It now has about 300 "likes."
5. ...that term is not really us," George said. "We're several generations down the line. If anyone were to ship us back to Africa, we'd be like fish out of water."
6. "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."
7. Joan Morgan, a writer born in Jamaica who moved to New York City as a girl...acknowledges that her homeland of Jamaica is populated by the descendants of African slaves. "But I am not African, and Africans are not African-American," she said.
8. Today, 24 years after [Jesse] Jackson popularized African-American, it's unclear what term is preferred by the community. A series of Gallup polls from 1991 to 2007 showed no strong consensus for either black or African-American. In a January 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent of respondents said they preferred black, 35 percent said African-American, 13 percent said it doesn't make any difference, and 7 percent chose "some other term."
9. Tomi Obaro [says her] Nigerian-born parents brought her to America from England as a girl, and she became a citizen last year. Although she is literally African-American, the University of Chicago senior says the label implies she is descended from slaves. It also feels vague and liberal to her.
"It just sort of screams this political correctness," Obaro said. She and her black friends rarely use it to refer to themselves,...
10. "Or it's a word that people who aren't black use to describe black people," she said.
Or it's a political tool."
Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'
"I'm American. When the war starts, I'm fighting for America."
Sounds good.
Feels good.
