I have posted more thoughts on the Obama phenomenon and his support amongst his East African brethren here.
One of the things that may increasingly come to light is that Obama is not a traditional black American – meaning one (even if they are part non-black) that is the descendant of slaves – in spite of portraying himself that way early in his career with his association with Dr. Wright.
I suppose the question is “What is African-American”? My personal definition is one that is the decendent of slaves brought to the Americas – which would include people like Derek Jeter and Alicia Keys, but not Hakeem Olajuwon or Barack Obama. Perhaps “African-American” (or whatever you want to call it) should be an ethnic group
aziz 11:11 am on July 6, 2008 Permalink |
This may be a naieve question, but why restrict African-American ethnicity to descendants of slaves? Are descendants of slaves in some way more or less affected by pervasive racism in American culture than those whose are not?
admittedly, racism in the US is partly a legacy of slavery, but also partly of attitudes that predated the American colonialization. The deepr current, from which slavery sprung, is that of generalized non-whiteness as a mark of inferiority.
Tariq Nelson 1:22 pm on July 6, 2008 Permalink |
Senegalese, Somalis, Nigerians, Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc all have their own distinct histories, languages, cultures and experiences. Black Americans (descedants of slaves) likewise have a common culture, history and experience. I feel that by defining “African-American” as anyone from sub-Saharan Africa dilutes who the distinct history and culture of the descendants of slaves in this country.
Unlike all the other groups of blacks, African-Americans can only call America “home”. In many cases the African immigrants live in their own enclaves – distinct from AA’s – to preserve their own distinct culture and identity.
With “African-American” being applied to all the other black groups that have another identity (Nigerian, Ethiopian, etc) where does that leave the descendants of slaves? What is their DISTINCT identity? What we are becomes further obfuscated as the meaning of “African-American” is now less clear.
This is not to deny that other groups of blacks face racism. I am only talking about defining the ethnicity of those that are descendants of slaves – which could be a person that is genetically more European than West African (which is why I mentioned Derek Jeter and Alicia Keys). This is probably why it needs to be an ethnicity instead of a race.