AFRICAN OR BLACK PEOPLE? www.themotherland.info
10,985
Published 2008-04-28
www.themotherland.info/
Black is a construction which articulates a recent social-political reality of people of color (pigmented people). Black is not a racial family, an ethnic group or a super-ethnic group. Political blackness is thus not an identity but moreover a social-political consequence of a world which after colonialism and slavery existed in those color terms. An identity is generally geographical and ties the people to their native environment or their core doctrine (Jews of Judaism, Muslims of Islam, Chinese of China). African and black are not interchangeable just as Dark continent and Africa are not. Self-determination allows a people to re-examine definitions and sculpt them to their reality. Black, like Negro is facing linguistic extinction, especially in academic circles, due to its poor foundation in speaking about the oldest and most diverse people on the planet.
All Comments (21)
-
Ocacia you have sent something that could change my life...I thank you for that! I need to know this
-
I never saw it that way...insightful clip
-
Etymology Afri was the name of several peoples who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage. Their name is usually connected with Phoenician afar, "dust", but a 1981 theory[6] has asserted that it stems from a Berber word ifri meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.
-
@rb7magnetico that is false..."africa" was once known as alkebulan..at various times it was also referred to as ethiopia; it depends who was describing it...
-
I’m still wondering why an African should accept to be called black even when what is accepted as black colour does not define his mere phenotypic characteristics let alone his cultural and historic reality as a human being.
-
@Ocacia thank you
-
I hope those of us who have respect and love for Africa to declare it,often as I do?I worked in North and East Africa several years ,when I worked for Ministry of Education in Massangulu,in Niassa the school,where I worked,I played keyboard/amp ,flute as part of my entertainment duty,To this day I have great respect for Africa. the memory of the "cry of joy "will not erase with time,it is the hearts of the village they share.peace f keyboard with amp as part of my entertainment duty,
-
@ricciuto1 No problem.
-
@rb7magnetico It isn't about the word its about the concept. We need to understand what makes us who we are is not the color of our skin but the people and place we originally descended from. The place called africa gave us most of our genes and that is what makes us who we are. If you use the word black you give people the power to shape your identity strictly on your complexion and we all know how that has worked out for african people in the US. Willy Lynch is all I have to say.
-
3rd or even 4th generation Asians born in America do not have a problem calling themselves Asian Americans or even straight up Asian. Jamaicans call themselves Jamaicans because they come from a primarily African-descended country in the Caribbean, just as Ghanaian people are called Ghanaian people. America is different because of diversity of the ethnic groups already in the country and the need to create unique identities. If Asians with deep roots in America do it, why not Africans?
-
Would you call Native Americans Red? Why or Why not? Why would this be different for Africans?
-
Just curious if a European was born in China as a 6th generation settler are they Chinese.
-
why?
-
It may be that Europeans may feel comfortable calling themselves white - seeing that it is a self-created identity for them. But Africans no matter where they are located would do well to drop the "black" identity - the same way other non-Europeans such as Asians ("yellows"), Native Americans ("Reds"), and Indians ("brown"), etc, have done. "Black" has been found to contain the most negative connotations in the racial-color spectrum.
-
true talk
-
@rb7magnetico Your african identity should not be measured simply by the color of your skin but by what lives in you.
-
Better to be called an African than to be called Black
-
Many Caribbeans have no issues with identifying with Africa. For instance, Haiti is part of the African Union. Anyway, my contention is the idea that any group will feel comfortable identifying with a color. Did you know that your people, Native Americans, fought hard to dissociate themselves from the "red" identity? The only groups on earth that primarily identify with color are so-called "white" and "black" people - identities that, by the way, were formed by the European elite.
-
I'm from Whitia.
-
@ricciuto1 I know what it means,if chinese person is born in brazil and still has their slanty eyes,that doesn't make him a brazilian,it makes him a brazilian citizen,but he wont be a brazilian,if a german is born in haiti that doesn't make him hatian by blood,it makes him a musty german living in haiti,my people were brought here and their nationality was erased,and called a so called african american,thats no no real nationality.
