Colored People
Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 04:50PM
One day I woke up and found that things were much different than I had believed them to be. I didn't wake up as if startled coming out of a deep dream state, it was a gradual awakening to how things may really be. So, for many years I believed certain things to be actual fact when they may not be. Or at least not facts as I understood them to be. I much believed that one day all of the inequities put uopn black people would be redeemed. Even if that day were resurrection day when Jesus sat on the right hand of his father in judgement of our eternal souls. Yeah, I believed we black people would acheive freedom and liberty one day. Much like many in ancient Israel looked for a messiah to come and release them from the tyranny of Rome, we black people would hope for a messiah or Thee Messiah to free us from the tyranny of racism, bigotry and prejudice.
My household was built on the foundation of the Mid-South and deep south. So, there was always an air of rebellion, stemming from my mother due to her experiences growing up in Memphis, TN, working with the NAACP. As such we children were taught certain phrases were meant to be derogatory towards we black people when used by whites. Like, eeney meemey miney mo, catch a tiger by his toe. My mother looked at me very sternly when she heard me chanting what I thought was a childhood song and game. Not so for her, because when she was growing up it was eeney meeney miney mo, catch a nigger by the toe. I learned quickly. I also leanred the term
"colored people" was one of those that my mother detested when someone white would say it and she would literally bristle and say "colored people" under her breath and tell us that we are black people not colored people. We're black and we're proud. Of course this stuck with me and I in turn accepted I should be equally irritated by the use of "colored people" when whites were referring to us. But, just maybe, we are colored people.
After the Civil War the question arose concerning the recently emancipated Negros and their citizenship in the U.S. By legal definition a slave is a stateless person. As such, the nation had to deal with a large population of of recently emancipated Negros and how they could be counted as citizens. During their enslavment they couldn't have been counted as Ctizens of the state in which they were held captive due to their status as Negros. Even if they were born in that state they could not be Citizens of it. There needed to be a remedy for the statelessness of the Negro population. By 1868 the solution was the passing of the 14th amendment which granted the now emancipated Negros citizenship under the federal government. Giving them full rights as citizens of the Unites States, because the federal government could not grant them Citizenship of the states they were born or resided. This created colorable citizenship or citizens under the color of law.
If a person dressed in a police officer's uniform, presents themselves as a police officer, but are not, they are acting under the color of law. They are not acting lawfully. The color of law is not the law, but, however can be acted upon as if it were. For instance the Supreme Court of the United States has made it legal for a police officer, in the course of an investigaton, to lie to you. Lying then is a legal practice, used under the color of law. It's used in a legal format, but is not the law, this is a colorable usage. The 14th amendment made legal citizens of the former slaves by making them citizens of the United States, because they could not make them Citizens of their respecitves states. True Citizens are Citizens of their States, each State united make up the Unites States. A union of States. The 14th amendment made citizens of the Negro to a fictional entity since it is through a state that one is a Citizen. Negros, black people, and African Americans that are descendants of slaves (all of us are not descendants of slaves) are citizens under the color of law, colorable citizenship. Colored people.