When I started writing this article, Black, Brown, White, and race, I thought it was going to be an easy write, it is not, yet, I find the subject enthralling, captivating and interesting. I am not giving this subject the detail it deserves in the few short paragraphs to follow.
If someone asked you to describe your identity to them, where would you begin? Would you say I am White and American, or I am Black and American, maybe I am Arab and American, or would you say I am American. Would it come down to your skin color or your nationality? It is not as simple as that.
What about the language you speak, your religion, your cultural traditions or your family’s ancestry?
There is much talk in the news today concerning race. Black, Brown, and White. Race needs to be discussed however, colors are confusing. There is not as much discussion about the people who are identified as yellow skin or red skin. I think they fall into the brown category. I will leave those skin colors for another article.
I wanted to know how skin colors originated and learned that in the 18th-century anthropologists and philosophers wanted to separate peoples by regions and used geographical location and traits like skin color to place people into groupings. That not only formed the notion there are
separate racial “types” and, also powered the idea that these differences had a biological basis which is absolutely ridiculous.
As far back as the 18th century in America when the census was taken African slaves were known as B for Black, male, female including their age. Black people in America have been called many other names including Sambo, Jim Crow, Mammy, Aunt Jemimah, Jezebelle and Sapphire, Negro, Colored, Black and African American. Some of those names are not as prevalent today however, the sting of their use remains. If anyone mentions any of those names who and what comes to your mind? Good or bad feelings or no feeling at all?
Race refers to physical differences in a specific group like skin color. Ethnicity refers to shared languages, ancestry, cultural differences, and beliefs. Nationality is the country in which a person is born. If a baby is born in the United States that baby is American.
Brown skins refer to and not limited to people, usually from the Middle East, (Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Palestine.). Note: Morocco and Egypt are located on the African Continent. Could the removal of Egypt and Morocco imply that civilization did not begin with the Black race or did it?
Southeast Asia, (Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) or Latin America but can also include dark-skinned Europeans such as Italians.
I do strongly think if I am called African American, other races in America should be called appropriately, European American or Asian American, Latin American, Native Americans, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Arab American. This idea of placing everyone in a box called black or brown is irritational. We may have the same nationality however our ethnicity is totally different. I like the idea of recognizing, respecting, and honoring those differences, and not being afraid to reach out to another person to understand their culture. This is how we erase the fear of each other.
A person can describe themselves as Black American of Panamanian heritage or I am White American of German heritage. Your color does not tell the world the entire story about who you are. There is ethnicity and ancestry to include.
I tend to go back and forth with being called black or African American because what does the color black stand for in people’s minds. Sadness, night, darkness, fear, death, dirty, hell and evil. Now think about the color white, how do you see it? Purity, clean, happiness, weddings, heaven. I am sure you can add a few nouns to the list. This comes about because of centuries of declaring Black is bad.
Ronnie, my husband, and I were touring India a few years back and the immigration agent asks what my nationality was, and I said African.
American. He was surprised I added the African. He said why not just American? I always remembered that.
Looking back I suppose the African was added to clarify if different programs from the 1960s were effective. I truly think the ethnicity of all other races should have been added as well. If there is not a box to check then have a blank space to add it.
I close by paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I dream of my children living in a world where they are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.” Like my mother, Lovie Belle said so often, “when will we love each other?” In heaven, I say, mom, in heaven.
Honor yourself!