The African American Problem
The Trouble of Prefixing and Subsetting American Citizens With Terms Like Black and African.
‘Customer service agent needed in aisle 6!’ said a voice over the PA. I was standing staring at the dental shelf in the personal hygiene section, also known as Aisle 6, of a CVS in Manhattan, New York. I needed to buy tooth paste badly that early morning — I had skirted the block a couple of times looking for a shop. Unlike most other times when I went outside anywhere in the US, I was not dressed ‘up’ to discrimination that snowy morning.
Standing there deciding what to pick up, I heard the PA come on the second time; I got curious then, so I looked around to see where I was, and sure as hell I was standing in aisle 6. I didn’t need help though, I had spoken to the counter lady and she had directed me here, and really I was only keen on finding tooth paste and I would be out of there. I needed no help with that.
Needless to say, before I checked out, I walked around the shop to see if I could grab more things so I can void walking back in the cold! As I made the turn into aisle 5, the PA came on announcing for a customer agent to check out aisle 5. I knew for a fact that I didn’t need help, so I looked around and it was clear then that I was alone, and that I wasn’t just being ‘watched’, the PAs where made intentionally for me to not even think about shoplifting. If anything, to pay up and hurry back to the Projects. I stayed at the Radisson Blu across the street.
This experience, brief as it was, profoundly painted the picture of what black Americans have to face every day. Having a target on your back. Having to always state your intentions, check your posture, how much time you spend in a particular store, your overall demeanor.
The cause of a significant part of the discrimination black people face in America is rooted in the very fact that they allow to be referred to with the terms Black/s and African-American. These terms not only stand in the way of achieving American rights and liberties, they are redundant and carry with them more negative sentiments than they do affirmative. Not forgetting that black as a color and as a word, is used literally and figuratively to mean all that is devoid of good or light (which ironically is represented by white).
It is time to move away from that world. And America can not make anymore excuses. It is time to call all its citizens American and to account for all of them.
To further illustrate the psychological ploy that is race based subsets; Every time the term ‘Florida man’ is used in an article or news story I have come to expect bizarre occurrences, in spite the fact that I am not in any bit racist. I can’t imagine the term having a different effect on my children or their children if it’s allowed to exist.
The UK and many other countries don’t face similar levels of race based discrimination particularly because the case of African-Britons, or rather absurdly the case of Blacks has never been argued. Everyone is British. Different thoughts are invoked when a person is referred to as ‘Black man’ instead of just rightly as ‘British man’.
Prefixing African to a word used to describe black citizens is one of the major reasons for why we are where we are in the world today. If children all across America are raised to call everyone that is American, American — without a prefix or any reference to their race, then we can start to defeat racism.
Black Lives Matter and always have, shame upon the US for making that seem like an alternate fact for so long.
