Pamela D. Reed |
He is Black.
If I hear one more person say that Barack Obama is not Black, I think I am going to scream.
It was bad enough when anonymous, faceless bloggers advanced that sentiment in the blogosphere, but after reading it as an editorial in a major American newspaper, a response is required.
Particularly since the article in question, "He's Not Black," is not from just any writer representing any old news outlet, but one authored by Marie Arana, editor of the Washington Post's Book World, no less.
Black is deep
First and foremost, Arana fails to understand that Blackness is not just about skin color, hair texture, or other surface attributes. It is a state of mind. Black is life experience. A world view. Blackness embodies a shared history--a culture even. It is about blood...DNA...and ancestry. And it is with a capital B.
Black is deep.
Knowing all this--as he must have, given his keen insight--the young
Barack Obama, chose to self-identify as Black. Arana cites his youthful
recollection from his bestselling memoir Dreams from My Father,
where he writes "I was trying to raise myself to be a black man in
America, and beyond the given of my appearance, no one around me seemed
to know exactly what that meant."
Barack's Baptism into Blackness
It is clear from his brief observation that the young Obama grappled with his identity. And how could he not when society viewed him, with his brown skin, as Black; but there was no one in his immediate family or environment--in Hawaii or Indonesia--who knew firsthand what it meant to be Black? Especially since his African father was long-gone, along with his Kenyan heritage, leaving him with only dreams of both.
Until, that is, he launched a two-pronged effort to affirm his Blackness--consciously or otherwise. First, he made it his mission to embrace his Africanity, part of which included eschewing Barry, the Anglicized version of his name, and embracing his given Swahili name, Barack. He also pointedly traveled to East Africa in search of the family and culture that his father had robbed him of.
Thus, it is not merely a matter of Barack Obama being some latter-day Tragic Mulatto, having "bought into the nomenclature" of Blackness--or "finally accepting the label that others imposed," as Arana suggests.
To the contrary, President-elect Obama deliberately migrated to, and immersed himself in the South Side of Chicago--the city founded by the Haitian (read Black) immigrant, Jean Baptist Pointe du Sable--as did countless African Americans during the Great Migration of the early 20th century, making it one of America's great bastions of Black culture and tradition.
This second part of his "baptism" into American Blackness would have been necessary because this piece of his identity puzzle could not be found in Kenya. For African Americans--who are direct descendants of the African continent, and who thus bear undeniable cultural and physical remnants of Africa--are not always seen as Black by our African counterparts.
We are like twins separated at birth. Sort of.
This is an open secret which I touch upon in my essay in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, "Not Just One Dark Body: Scaling the Intercultural Mountain in the HBCU Classroom," and which I am presently expanding into a forthcoming book on the social and cultural dynamics of the peoples of the African Diaspora. Such is its importance.
Langston Hughes in Context--The Pot Tells the Kettle It's Not Black
It is this phenomenon to which Langston Hughes was alluding in the oft-cited excerpt taken from his first memoir The Big Sea, which ironically Arana unwittingly referenced in her article to buttress her curious point that "it doesn't have to be this way," that Obama should, like Hughes, basically accept his brownness.
"Unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word 'Negro' is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins...I am brown," Hughes mused.
Unfortunately, Arana left out the word "unfortunately" in her citation. And she omitted the part about the pain he felt upon finally reaching "the great Africa" of his dreams--"Motherland of the Negro peoples"-- only to have his African brethren and sisters question his Blackness.
"The Africans looked at me and would not believe that I was a Negro...In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black," Hughes wrote in the very same passage.
Having experienced first-hand this very same jarring disavowal during my travels to Ghana, West Africa--where I was called White--I can attest that this did not make one bit of difference with regard to my African bloodline, except to cement my bond to my homeland.
I mean, this is akin to the proverbial pot telling the kettle that it is not Black...much to the kettle's chagrin. After all, this is not something that one changes by edict or decree.
And if you think this is complicated, try explaining the concept of Blackness to my four year-old daughter, who is still trying to understand that we are Black people, even though our skin is brown. But understand it she eventually will, as an African-descended citizen of the United States--and of the world.
But I digress...
Those Who Live in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones
Overall, Arana's musings are intended, I'm sure, to exhibit a spirit of racial "sophistication" and cultural enlightenment, for which she is to be applauded. But unfortunately, much of the language and logic in her article is as "racially backward" and "dated" as she posits is the notion of Barack Obama's Blackness.
In all fairness, she writes beautifully of her multiracial Hispanic heritage, but she makes major missteps in her language with regard to racial "minorities"--which is unacceptable in a world class newspaper, and which might have been avoided if the Post had more diversity on its editorial board. Google, anyone?
For instance, she mentions that one of her great aunts had "distinctly Negroid" features. Now, I'm sure Arana meant no harm, but one is left to wonder if she bases this outdated racial typology on the circumference of her forebear's skull or perhaps the span of her nose, as did anthropologists in an era of race science not so long gone.
In short, this is language that is rarely seen in progressive and informed sources, as it has long been deemed offensive.
What's more, she also refers to the "Chinese coolies" who provided manual labor in her native Peru, and who often intermarried with the Native Americans, Blacks, and Whites. Obviously Arana does not know that "coolie" is a slur against peoples of Asian-descent, along the same lines as "Oriental"--and in the same league with "nigger" for African-descended peoples.
Moreover, the Washington Post editor tells the story of a student she met after one of her college lectures on biculturalism. The young lady was Afro-German, with what Arana called "light black" skin. Exactly what color, I wondered, is this? Gray? What?
Seriously though, Arana is to be applauded for her efforts to lessen the racial divides in our society. And she is right to suggest that Barack Obama is a bridge, of sorts, between divergent segments of our racially polarized nation.
But, I believe that her effort to deconstruct Obama's Blackness is misguided and unnecessary. And unseemly.
Where was Marie Arana when Toni Morrison anointed Bill Clinton America's first Black President?
The Racial Mountain
I am reminded here of another of Hughes' lesser known, but seminal essays on race, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Although originally published in The Nation in 1926, his words still ring true today, even as the country prepares to inaugurate its very first African American President.
"It is the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old whispering, 'I want to be white,' hidden in the aspirations of his people, to 'Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro--and beautiful?'"
The same can be said for Barack Obama. That is to say--while making it very clear that he is also proudly half White--does he not have as much right to choose to classify himself as Black, as Tiger Woods does to make up his own racial designation: Cablinasian?
Further, do we as African Americans not have the right to giddily claim him as our own? And see in him ourselves, which is especially vital for little Black and brown children world over--even those who will reside in the White House?
In other words, can Black people just have a moment to savor this delicious milestone in our peculiar American sojourn, for crying out loud? That's all I'm saying.
The Bottom Line
All things considered, perhaps President-elect Barack Hussein Obama has elected to stand atop the mythical mountain--as did Langston Hughes before him (and generations of countless African Americans, most of whom I might add, were/are multiracial to varying degrees)--as a shining example of the beauty and brilliance of Blackness. And of the possibilities.
This, as I see it, is the all-important bottom line.
Dr. Pamela D. Reed is a diversity consultant, cultural critic,
and assistant professor of English and African-American literature at
Virginia State University.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream
Is it really Barack Obama or has the dream yet to come?
Who are the Negro People?
As the new U.S President B. Obama touts about being the embodiment of the late DR. Martin Luther King dream for America, I can‘t help but wonder, who are the people DR. King is talking about when he speaks of the Negro People? Who are the Negro people?
Has anyone taken the time to read and comprehend Dr. Martin Luther Kings I HAVE A DREAM speech, if they did they will notice there is no mention of African people, African struggle, African Americans.
I Have a Dream states “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”
He only mentions the condition of the Negro people in their homeland of America and their relationship with the new nation of the United States. At some point in time a person reading this speech should want to clarify, “Who are the Negro People- the blacks as they are identified?” To answer these questions one needs to identify some facts.
What does the term Negro signify? The term Negro people signify the Indigenous American people or Amerindians the colonial term used to represent them is Negro The Negro American race or black Americans represent the continuation of the remaining natural linage and bloodlines of the indigenous American People belonging the land of America before European invasion born from American Indian women. The founding father of the U.S established a new form of society on American soil. In this new society American Indian women and her descendants are used to SERVE as human commodity (slaves) people living in freedom(without their natural rights to self determination) but not being free (collective self determination) in the United States. Negro people represent the descendants from American Indian women or enslaved American Indians of America.
He continues and speaks about the full citizenship promised by the U.S to all Negro people in their homeland, and reveals the fact the U.S has not kept its promise; he states the Negro People have received a “Bad Check”.
“It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds”
What is the deal the United States made with the Negro leadership for the Negro people 1868. The U.S. promised “Citizenship” to the Negro people? If a person would do their research, they would find that the 1868 treaty with Abe Lincoln established the Union of the American Indian people as Negros with the United States and the continent of land belonging to the American Indian people was put in a land trust to be governed by the United States in exchange for American Indian people born from American Indian women were to receive full citizenship meaning the same rights as the people who enslaved them and self determination to develop themselves under this new nation umbrella.
Understanding past U.S history explains why Dr. King ‘s dream of seeing an integrated society’s Negro and Euro-American people working as equals in this nation? The big secret is - The Negro People are the people who are allowing the Nation to exist, without their land there is no Nation, with out there peace there is “no prosperity of this Nation” He also threatened the Negro race of people will not rest until they have justice. In other words “NO Justice, NO Peace” All black American people can attest we are not treated equal nor are we treated equally or regarded as citizens,. In 2009 our people still languish on the out skirts of Euro-American society and the Marjory are captured and living in Prisons, our children live in extreme poverty, we lack collective employment as a nation we are on the brink of extinction. The difference today is Negro people as black American for generations have been forced and influence to assimilate into European attitudes and culture they have lost their connection to their ancestral American Indian culture and connection to their Natural homeland. As a result they lack respect, dignity, hope or direction.
Now that some facts have been revealed, the question to ponder is how did the new elected African president become the ideal of DR. Martin Luther King and the Negro People? Or better yet Why is President Barack Obama a European and African decent immigrant being used to personify the dream of Martin Luther King for the Negro people in the Negro Homeland instead of a Negro president for the country that has yet to give them a GOOD check, Wouldn’t a Negro president show the world, the dream of Martin Luther King has for his people finally came to pass? The answer is President B. Obama does not represent Dr. King’s dream he had for the Negro People. President, B Obama represents a distortion of the Dream, and the Negro people are being Con out of their pants again by the Euro- American (U.S) society and (U.S) media at large.
So exactly what is the semantics around Barack Obama? A European and African decent immigrant who is now a Negro Person, or are Negro people becoming Africa immigrants to their homeland thru identifying themselves with Barack Obama. Is there a national identity switch going on? Are the Negro people being duped out of the dept the United States owes them, the one DR. Martin Luther King spoke about? Are today’s Negro people being setup to be permmentily homeless people, with no place to be fruitful and multiply on the planet? If Negro or black American people become immigrants don’t they lose all there human and inalienable rights to live in the U.S, and lose their civil privileges by becoming immigrants to there homeland through identifying President Barack Obama as one of them? Yet he is a Kenyan African not an American Negro? Will this enable the U.S to destroy the dream of Martin Luther King and remove any claim the Negro people have in the Negro Homeland?
LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
As a result, Negro people are being bamboozled again with a new perception that racism has stop in America against them, when in fact the systematic extermination of Negro people are filling up the jails and the graves, the only difference now is that they have a man named Barack Obama to cover over the crimes being committed against them and keep the people invisible and confused. It is a fact most black/Negro people lack education in their heritage, history, and most Negro women have been educated to have little respect for understanding their collective purpose as creators of the race and the sacred Grace we hold- it is woman that nature in trusts to continue their humanity as a valuable part of nature to the planet If they did they would not say they are black and they would understand B Obama is not the first Negro president and recognize and respect Michelle Obama is the first Negro woman in the White house and stand proud because her presence in the White House is a huge strike against the stigma from colonialism of Negro women as inferior woman, while our people understand that the struggle of equality represented by a Negro Man as president has yet to come part of Dr. Kings dream has started but yet to be completely fulfilled. It is up to us not to lose site of who we are and represent, our struggle is not over. It is time to recognize your indigenous identity.
Don’t be fooled by the Hype
Posted by: Dr. RaDine Amen-ra Harrison Pitts | February 11, 2009 at 01:24 AM