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Race Talk
What to call black people has to be confusing to white people. Having been around for 73 years, I have been through a number of names. Among the polite ones are: colored, Negro, Afro-American, black, and now African-American. Among those names, African-American is probably the most unintelligent. You say, "What do you mean, Williams?" Suppose I told you that I had a European-American friend or a South-America-American friend, or a North-America-American friend. You'd probably say, "Williams, that's stupid. Europe, South America and North America are continents consisting of many peoples." You might insist that I call my friend from Germany a German-American instead of European-American and my friend from Brazil a Brazilian-American rather than a South-America-American and my friend from Canada a Canadian-American instead of a North-American. So would not the same apply to people whose heritage lies on the African continent? For example, instead of claiming that President Barack Obama is the first African-American president, it should be that he's the first Kenyan-American president. In that sense, Obama is lucky. Unlike most American blacks, he knows his national heritage; the closest to a national heritage the rest of us can identify is some country along Africa's gold coast.
Another problem with the African-American label is not all people of African ancestry are dark. Whites are roughly 10 percent of Africa's population and include not only European settlers but Arabs and Berbers as well. So is an Afrikaner who becomes a U.S. citizen a part of United States' African-American population? Should census takers and affirmative action/diversity bean counters count Arabs, Berbers and Afrikaners who are U.S. citizens as African-Americans and should they be eligible for racial quotas in college admittance and employment?
Are black Americans a minority group? When one uses the term minority, there is an inference that somewhere out there is a majority but in the United States we are a nation of minorities.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2000 census, where people self-identify, the ancestry of our largest ethnic groups are people of German ancestry (15.2 percent), followed by Irish (10.8 percent), African (8.8), and English (8.7) ancestry. Of the 92 ethnic groups listed, in the census, 75 of them are less than 1 percent of our population.
Race talk often portrays black Americans as downtrodden and deserving of white people's help and sympathy. That vision is an insult of major proportions. As a group, black Americans have made some of the greatest gains, over the highest hurdles, in the shortest span of time than any other racial group in mankind's history. This unprecedented progress can be seen through several measures. If one were to total black earnings, and consider black Americans a separate nation, he would find that in 2005 black Americans earned $644 billion, making them the world's 16th richest nation — that is just behind Australia but ahead of Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Black Americans are, and have been, chief executives of some of the world's largest and richest cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. It was a black American, Gen. Colin Powell, appointed Joint Chief of Staff in October 1989, who headed the world's mightiest military and later became U.S. Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Condoleezza Rice, another black American. Black Americans are among the world's most famous personalities and a few are among the richest. Most blacks are not poor but middle class.
On the eve of the Civil War, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have believed these gains possible in less than a mere century and a half, if ever. That progress speaks well not only of the sacrifices and intestinal fortitude of a people; it also speaks well of a nation in which these gains were possible. These gains would not have been possible anywhere else.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Most of the labels we use for race and ethnicity are either meaningless or downright nonsensical. Most "black" people are various shades of brown. "Negro" is Latin for black. "Colored"? Except for albinos, EVERYBODY is colored. "African-American"? Actress Charlize Theron, a native of South Africa, became a United States citizen a couple of years ago, making her a bona fide African-American. Welcome to the tribe, sista!
Excellent column, as usual. Larry Els the white professional golfer and Charlize Theron the beautiful blonde actress are both from South africa. If they become citizens of the U.S. will they be African-Americans?
Three of my four grandparents were born in Germany so some would say I am 75% German. Not so. I am 100% American.
Further, if the NAACP is still the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People I'll go along with them as I grew up using the term "colored." African-American is silly as per above and "black" is inaccurate as most are various shades of brown. I like "colored."
My favorite singer was Nat King Cole, basketball player Joe Dumars, boxer George Foreman and I voted for Alan Keyes over George Bush in the 2000 republican primary - ALL colored. When my neighbor was selling his house I told him, "If you sell to a decent colored family it's OK with me."
Comment: #2
Posted by: Robert Bickmeyer
Mon May 18, 2009 7:16 PM
Which term for race would be preferred by most black people? I would think that Negro makes more sense because it has been around for a long time and does not refer to a country or continent. The problem with "African-American" is that people often use the term to refer to someone who is not American. Even the term "American" is misleading because it can refer to anyone from North America or South America.
Comment: #3
Posted by: Paul M. Petkovsek
Thu May 14, 2009 3:04 AM
Another excellent article by Walter Williams. I find the term “African American” to be condescending. As Walter says, if Americans who are black are African Americans, then shouldn't that mean that Americans who were born white are European Americans. To qualify my Americanism with the adjective “European” would be insulting to me. Whereas I have nothing against the Europeans and am no more ashamed of my ancestry than I am proud of it, I am simply an American. To qualify it with an adjective such as “European” or “African” carries with it a connotation of “less than”.
For this reason I refuse to refer to Americans who happen to be black collectively as African Americans. The fact that the vast majority of the population uses that term carries no weight with me. If some individual tells me that he wishes to be referred to in that manner I will oblige him. But I knew there had to be some black Americans who think like I do, and I refuse to insult them. I might have known that Walter Williams would see it the same way I do.
Of course if all people of all races were like Walter Williams skin color would hold no more significance to us than hair color.
Walter Williams' "Finding a name for black Americans" is most excellent and I dare say that most Americans of Color will totally agree. There are no such individuals as African-Americans. First, the fact that there are 58 countries on the Continent of Africa eliminates the giving of 58 countries to Americans of Color in these United States of America!
Next, there are no black Americans nor white Americans! "Pure" blood countries of origins of individuals in this country are most rare. We are so mixed that the degree of pigmentation has become irrelevant. When visiting a church in Century, Florida, I informed the congregation that one of my grandmother's was Irish, one from the Isle of Madagascar, one grandfather was a full Choctaw Indian and the other was mixed indian and of pigmented skin. There was a journalist, David H. Green, in the assembly and in his writing for the Pensacola News Journal, he wrote, "Based on that I'd be Welsh/Irish/Scot/Scot".
We are both persons born in the United States of America, one with pigmented skin and one without! The Acts of the Apostles 17:24-28, King James Version, informs or speaks to all human beings being of "one blood". Indeed, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the War Department sent out an urgent message for "caucasion" blood and one "mixed" American, Charles Drew, was the the scientist who informed the nation that there are four types of human blood, A - B - AB - O, and they have the negative and positive factors. The facts are still true today!
Most of us know from whence "African-American" came and, even then, people anxiously used the term because it assured "separation" and "division" of those born in the United States of America but with the inference that those of color were not "full" Americans.
One final note, I wrote Merriam-Webster, about 1998/1999, requesting that there be a definition of an American be within there next edition and it would be "one who was born in or naturalized in the United States of America". This, of course, was tantamount to the definitions for English, Irish, German, Italian, Japanese, etc. However, Merriam-Webster never responded to my communication.
The continued excuse to separate and divide Americans based on socio-economic-ethnic bases is poor and not reflective of human decency!
Ernest A. Hickerson
Comment: #5
Posted by: Ernest Hickerson, Sr.
Tue May 19, 2009 7:24 PM
Thanks, Walter Williams for your article! It's amazing that 'people of all races' want to follow the leader, but I'm like you, from the old school, and I'm not interested in following anyone! Being German and Irish, how would this looked tacked onto the end of my name? VERY IGNORANT! I think this is the problem we have in America in calling our black race (that's never been outside of America), African-American. If these people would look at Africa, seriously, I truly don't think they'd want to be called African-America. I wrote an article, not long ago, in reference to an article written by NAACP! I clearly stated that Americans need to start the 'NAAAP (American People)' and forget all the nonsense created by the politicians to make everyone think that Black Americans were held back by the White Americans which is not true. People, of all races, if they wanted to work had a job, as is true today. Look at the illegitimates having more illegitimates, living off the system, and you'll see this is more than correct. In going back to the Buffalo men in uniform, the Old Slugger Bat company, the farmers and blacksmiths, I found folks of many color, as I'm sure you have. Politicians created all this 'black, white, entitlement mess' so they could stay in office, keep the power, as their pockets grew deeper! Where has this gotten America? 'DAYS OLDER AND MUCH DEEPER IN DEBT!"
I saw a Judge on Fox News discussing the problems of illegitimates. Taxpayers feel sterilzation should have never been done away, period! All these girls 'sleeping with every Tom, Dick, and Harry' having more illegitimates (that they aren't sure where it's incest or not, or that these people are eat up with hiv-aids and other diseases) than Taxpayers can pay for! Judge Joe Brown states "It's time to man up, as I'm tired of paying for you to lay up and spend money we don't have!" You see, it's beginning to affect everyone's pocketbooks in America; therefore, everyone needs to make sure this type behavior stops immediately, as it's only creating more terror on American soil! Can Taxpaying Americans afford this! I DON'T THINK SO!
