A friend of mine the other day felt that black people should call themselves Americans and not African-Americans since they are from America. As soon as he said that I was ready to snap, but I didn't because this guy is someone I'm dating. Also, take note that he is from Africa, born and raised. His comment made me want to snap at him because I consider myself African-American not black.
This is because we are a lost people. We were taken away from our home and shipped somewhere we did not comprehend. Most of our ancestors did not make it. Once we got to America we were continuously beaten, belittled, and raped. We tried to keep our African culture but we couldn't because we were not allowed to read, write, and sing, since we were not counted as being human by white Americans.
We have become a lost people. We are not African and we are not American, yet define ourselves by the standards of whites. This is a deep, generational, psychological problem that is still going on today. Our DNA tells us that we have African blood so we are indeed African but there is no real way of telling where we came from and if we will be accepted by those Africans.
It is really hard being us period because we are so lost. People say that we should get over our past, but our past defines who we are today. We are African-American because of our past and no matter what we are still going to be that. It's hard to see how every other culture has such pride but we are lost. The pride we do have still has us trying to meet the standards of whites. It frustrating but it's important for us to keep in our mind constantly.
I feel like we are the only people that feels ashamed when we are successful because we still have that mentality that we are less than everyone else. Even our president acts in that manner when the issue of race comes up. He is a bi-racial president and yet they call him a black president. This is because that one drop rule still is in effect. Meaning that even if bi-racial, if you have any amount of black blood in you, you're black.
We have a very complicated and frustrating past but we can change the future by building a culture of togetherness and success. Other cultures do better financially and educationally because they constantly help each other. We need to do the same and redefine who we are as a people. Don't become the stereotype and remember where you came from. We don't have to be lost anymore.
