Negros, Blacks, Coloured & African American...Who are we?

Ok, I never found African American attractive as a “national title” I suppose, but I was certainly alive during the Afro American phase. Afro American preceded African American by a decade or so. But, to me it meant the same thing. By the time African American came I had had enough of the new name thang. During my lifetime if someone was called black that alone could cause a fight, nobody wanted to be black when I was young. But, when I was around 8 years old James Brown came and announced to the world that we are Black and proud. Yep, and I was. Still love James Brown’s original tune and the Brand Nubian cover.

So, I was Black and proud of it period. This would be for a very long time. The 80’s Afro-Centric author’s boom, just sent me over the edge. I was steeped, nah, I was sprung on all the books. Books like Stolen Legacy, by George G. M. James, African Origin of Civilization, by Cheik Anta Diop, The Auto Biography of Malcolm X, by El Hajj Malik El Shabbazz and Alex Haley, or Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton. Now, I had not only my belief in the power of being Black, but factual knowledge to back it up. Yep I am now Black and African.

Africa is where we came from. I could read all the factual books on slavery. Minister Farrakhan confirmed this in his many speeches. A slave ship named Jesus brought the first African slave here, 1609 to Virginia. Yes, I was African because our history taught us. I was African because I wanted to be connected with the great people of the Nile Valley Dr. Ben Jochannan wrote about and of whom Krs One rapped about. I even got more confirmation from reading a book by a British white guy, Robert Temple. Mr. Temple wrote the Sirius Mystery. He had connected with the Dogon people in Mali, that knew of an invisible star (black star) that revolved around the star Sirius. This star was not visible to the naked eye.

But, one of the most fascinating bits of information was that Temple states the Dogon people were physical descendents of the Ancient Egyptians that had migrated to west Africa. These people are in fact the physical relatives of the Ancient Egyptians and I could conclude relationship with them since we were stolen from Africa by the white Europeans and taken to America. Since we really had no evidence that we were not related to the Dogon, we could claim relation, right? Ah, yes, this really blew out the Cherokee blood my mother said we had.Dogon woman

All this information was proof that we were a homeless people, like the “lowly Habiru” as one Pharaoh wrote of the Hebrew. We are Africans in America. We have a home in the Americas but, we are not really American. I mean the European had done so much brain infusion on us in the U.S. He was the real American, and hell, most of us agreed. There was no way I was going to claim that title along with all the negative baggage that it carried. The U.S. had done and does some terrible things around the world including the Atlantic Slave trade. So, the Afro American I used to call myself had to go. I was just Black, I could be in relation to all the people in the world that looked like me.

I then rationalized that being Black was important on several points. As I stated, I could relate to all the people in the world that looked like me. I then realized, after meeting a Somali woman that Black meant those of us that were born in the U.S., as a way to distinguish us from Nigerians, Nubians, Eritreans or Ethiopians that all lived in San Diego at the time. When I first met her she said she thought I was Ethiopian, but as soon as I began to speak she knew I was Black. We (African American friends and family) used to get so angry at the Ethiopians and Somali’s when they would say “I am not Black, I am Somali or I am Ethiopian.” I understood then, that Black was being used as a “national title” for those of us born in the western hemisphere. Not that they were dissing their melanin.  

I would learn differently later. Black was my “national title” from then on. I could connect to all people with deep melanin. But, that would change in the years to come.

Mis-Education Of The Negro then....African American Today

In his 1933 book Mis-education of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson largely criticizes the educational system and the wicked cycle that results from mis-educated individuals, graduating from school and later teaching the mis-education to others.  It's largely a critique of history taught in schools with little to no mention of the accomplisments made by the Negro.  Woodson believed the lack of Negro history would crystalize into deep insecurities, intra racial divides and greater racial hostilities.  Certainly, this has become a reality in recent history and evident in our dissolution as the "top" minority, if you will.  However, the concern at hand is the continued mis-education of the now African American by those that look just like us.

 We are at a time of utmost vigilance due to our condition in the U.S., our relevance to white America, more aptly our postion with the U.S. government as to how meaningful our existance is within the country.  I submit, that we need not concern ourselves with how relevant we are to the government, but how relevent we are to each other and to the rest of the world that world be referred to as 'black."  This would require re-evaluating ourselves, who we are and what we know.  What we know about history in general, and know about ourselves historically.  Not only historically, but legally who we are in this country and the western hemisphere.   As Woodson points out, it  is crucial for our collective social consciousness and mental well being as a group to have a true understanding of ourselves.

 Education should be an ongoing process.  What Dr. Woodson learned and knew should no longer be a mainstay of our "curriculum" so to speak.  Or, more accurately, we should now utilize his knowledge and understanding as part of an educational foundation, but no longer the cornerstone, since we have learned of our status here before the advent of Columbus.   All too many "leaders", ministers, teachers, educators and speakers are mis-educating African Americans by tying them to certain labels and classifications.  These labels that were acceptable at one point in time of our history, should now be dispensed with.  I submit, that by classifying ourselves with such misnomers we are paving the way to our own mental subjugation and political/economic demise.

Immediatley, we should dispatch such labels and terms as descendents of slaves, African diaspora, slaves, minority, middle passage, maafa, Negro, African American, Afro American, Black, or even African unless you were born and raised on the continent.  And, even calling one's self an African, being native to the continent is questionable.  These labels and terms like slave, descendents of slaves, Negro and African American tend to bind people to just that, and some of which we never were.  This infection is so deeply entrenched, that when mentioned to a sister that there were free "Black" people during the times of the enslavement in the United States and western hemisphere, she exclaimed in disbelief that such was true.  Unless we surpass the former education we will wallow in the muck and mire of ignorace and remain enslaved to this system.