An interesting and convincing letter regarding KA Dilday's article "Go Back to Black" ran Monday in the New York Times. Its author, a black Times reader named Lee May, speaks of a childhood spent in 1950s Mississippi, a difficult history that all but guarantees wisdom. And wise May is. Here's her (his?) argument against Dilday's recommendation that African American's embrace the term "black," and her solution to the vexatious "name game":
Ms. Dilday’s preference for an alternative to “African-American” resonates mightily with me…
Because so much pain and anger stemmed from the racist use of “colored” to segregate water fountains, bathrooms, movie theaters and more, many of us were eager to replace the word with one designation after another. Black, African-American, Afro-American, people of color.
Of those, not one works for me. Hyphenated Americans always seem self-segregating, like college cliques based on race or nationality. Many people known as white look a whole lot like some of us officially known as “black.” The fact is, we come in myriad shades — most of which don’t come close to the color of a pair of black boots.
So, I’m looking back and choosing a forward-feeling term: colored. It’s more accurate than black. And, like collecting racist memorabilia, being “colored” helps neutralize racists of old and slay emotional demons associated with the word. It’s my choice until we all know ourselves as … people.
Damn, that's reasonable!
Let us now officially extend an open invitation to Mr or Ms Lee May to come to our apartment and tell us bedtime stories about the good ol' days before tucking us in and assuring us the world is going to be OK.
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Some people still say it. Older southern black people mostly. It doesn't sound right to my ears so I think I'll pass on her suggestion, but it's good that people are talking about it.
I've tried unsuccessfully to integrate "colored" into my vocabulary several times over the past year. It hasn't happened but I must say I genuinely like the term. I think using it now takes some of the racist power of the past out of it, and furthermore, we truly are all "colored": Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans. Even White folks have "color". I think it has an underlying unifying effect. But I don't expect anyone to really pick up on it. For some people, it's tantamount to just saying "nigger" and brings up all kinds of hosing/dog-chasing images. Can't argue with that…
I've never had a problem with the term colored, but I completely undertsand why older folks could never embrace it.
I loathe the term african-american, and never use it. The average black person in this country could'nt spot Africa on a map, let alone name 3 countries in it. That says it all right there.
Of course most americans regardless of ethnicity could'nt find Africa either. It's the education system.
Haha. This is funny cause I've been using colored since 9th grade.
What I like about the "African-American" term is that it gives you a geographical location as to where your DNA originated.
However, being "Black" and not "American," namely from Africa, the West Indies or from Latin America, makes it difficult in the US to define yourselves, and have to go with the standard already set up here.
Many blacks from the Caribbean islands either define themselves as "West Indian" or "Latino," or just put their country of origin in some "Other" category.
Yes, they have African DNA, but by the standard in the US, there is no "place" for them, as they are not "American" in origin.
The term "colored" has so many negative connotations thanks to white supremacists - but I have to agree with AMB, since it does have a more unifying effect.
But then I can't get Malcolm X out of my head when he really drove into the importance of the term "African-American."
i think that african-diasporan is an all encompassing term that i would rather use then colored. i can say that i am a woman of color or a person of color, but to simply say that i'm colored…doesn't sit right with me. to me, it's analogous to n*gger with it's power to marginalize. i've honestly got to say that if i heard that word coming out of a white person's mouth in reference to me, because i decided to try and "reclaim" it and transform the meaning, i'd be ready to fight. it seems like a word that can easily be used to belittle and demean me WITH the historical context intact. i really don't believe you can try to change the meaning of such a loaded word.
I'm gonna follow Maya Angelou on this one and go with "hued".
sloane,
I was trying to gather my thoughts in regards to what my response would be to this article until I read your post. I agree with you and I think you summed things up pretty darn well. I'd rather not hear the word 'colored' thrown around.
My Terms:
Asian-American
Black-American
Brown-American
White-American
Bi-Racial-American
These are not races, they are ethnicities.