Black American

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9zPRVKQvIM&feature=related

   It’s a guilty pleasure to watch White people struggle with trying to decide rather to call me Black or African American. I’ve even had a classmate ask if I wanted to be called Negro.  I don’t get upset when people ask, in fact, I see it as a compliment. To me, it means that they care about how I choose to define myself. As Mr. Robinson expressed, “why didn’t we get to decide what we wanted to be called?” Fortunately, thanks to many forms of social media, we are able to have more of a voice. Although there are a lot of drawbacks to all of the conflicting voices out there, we still have an opportunity to let the world know our preference. This poem by Smokey Robinson is a perfect expression of what has consumed the minds of many Black Americans for years. It is a representation of the Black American voice, and can easily be adapted to the Black [insert country here] voice as well. Although Black people worldwide are connected through African roots, we are not simply just African Descendents. We all have a unique identity that not only defines heritage, but also the identity created by the country in which we reside. Unfortunately, these differences seem to be neglected by many people, especially by those in the US.

   Our racist history has stripped our identities to the bare bones, and now many of us are trying to figure out who we are. Since positive representations of Black Americans are relatively recent, it’s difficult to change hundreds of years of oppressive imagery. Although there are numerous commendable attempts, our current media doesn’t do a very good job at painting an accurate picture of who we are either. Do you ever wonder why Black people are critical of negative images in the news/movies/music/etc.? For years Black people have tried to create a Black American image, but constant negative imagery undermines the values and beliefs of our culture and identity. And yes, Black people are responsible for creating negative images as well. I do believe we are to blame for some of the misrepresentations in our society. However, in comparison to our White counterparts, there are very few Black people writing scripts, producing movies, creating advertisements and reporting news. So, how can we change this? I’m not sure how much we can do with only 12%, but being represented at least that much in any given industry would be a start…