| iv id="body"> | | | | important to study and learn from your |
| I am not an African-American. Don't call me an | | | | forefathers' triumphs, mistakes and pain. |
| African -American. I'm an American plain and | | | | Continuously changing our identification however, is |
| simple. I was born here as were my parents and | | | | not the best way to use that knowledge. We've |
| grandparents and you would have to search | | | | had several "identities:" from Colored to Negro, |
| many a generation back before you found | | | | Black and now African-American. How can we |
| anyone in my family who originated from the | | | | expect anyone else to know who we are if we're |
| continent of Africa. It's time black people in this | | | | not sure of our own identity? How can we |
| country stop trying to identify with a land whose | | | | expect to come together as a people if we can't |
| culture is not their own. It's time we stand up and | | | | agree on something as simple as to what to call |
| say "This land is our land" and let everyone know | | | | ourselves? Hell the government is not even sure |
| we have a right to this country as much as | | | | who we are if the census form was any indication |
| anyone. | | | | with their Black, Negro, African-American |
| I understand the need for black people in America | | | | non-hispanic category. |
| to find an identity all their own. We are as | | | | I say dispense with all of the confusion. We're |
| displaced as a people can be. Brought here in the | | | | American. The sweat of our brow helped build this |
| early seventeenth century, first as indentured | | | | country. Benjamin Banneker a black man, helped |
| servants then as slaves the richness of culture | | | | design the white house. Something as simple as |
| these individuals brought from their various tribes | | | | the traffic light and as life saving as the blood |
| was systematically ripped away from them. | | | | transfusion were created by black people. |
| Maybe in calling ourselves African-American we | | | | Americans. From music, to dance, to literature we |
| feel we can retrieve some of that richness that is | | | | have given much more to this country then it has |
| lost to us and was stolen from our people so long | | | | have ever given to us. We can be proud in simply |
| ago. However the atrocities of the past are just | | | | calling ourselves Americans because we have |
| that, the past and trying to identify with lost | | | | more then earned that right. It's time we make |
| cultures isn't going to help us achieve the respect | | | | use of it. |
| and prosperity that has alluded us for so long in a | | | | I was once asked if I viewed myself as an |
| country that is still hostile to those of African | | | | American first and black second. The answer is as |
| descent. | | | | long as America views me as black first then I'll |
| Now don't get me wrong, I'm in no way | | | | always be American second. But I'll never be |
| suggesting we forget about the past. It's | | | | anything other then American, plain and simple. |