Janelle Kelty October
14, 2013
Race is a mucky and vague term. It
is hard to determine a pure race. There are only lingering essences of what
races used to be. The great Atlantic slave trade as well as colonization
ensured that there would no longer be such a thing as race. According to
Encyclopedia Britannica race is “the idea that the human species is divided
into distinct groups on the basis of inherited physical and behavioral
differences.” (Smedley)
If this definition of race is adhered to, inherited differences
would have to be proven to exist separately and unmuddled. “Genetic studies in
the late 20th century refuted the existence of biogenetically distinct races,
and scholars now argue that “races” are cultural interventions reflecting
specific attitudes and beliefs that were imposed on different populations in
the wake of western European conquests beginning in the 15th century” (Smedley)
If this is true then there can be many races based on self-identified
attitudes, beliefs, physical and behavioral differences.
(Baraka)
It is my
contention that race is becoming more and more of a personally identified
issue. The term race is defined differently especially between different
generations.
When questioned about her definition and classification of
race, a twenty-four year old student stated” I don’t know I get confused about
race and ethnicity all the time. I think race is like, you can’t really change
your race, if it’s white, black, you can’t change it. I’ve seen Asian
Jamaicans. I consider my race to be African American. (Levine) I then
questioned a 59 year old Master of Social Work whose response was a world away.
“That’s a tricky question to a black person because our race and ethnicity are
the same, I consider myself black and my ethnicity black, please don’t call me
African American, because that is something that is shared and you don’t have
to be black to be African American. We don’t have nothing else I’m Black and Black”.
Experiences shape ones interpretations of self-identification. A student living
in today’s America versus an older woman who has participated in Black Panther party
events and can remember when Kennedy died.
When
discussing the black race in America it is important to understand the
logistics of the numerical importation of black slaves into America. “ Africans brought to North America as slaves were a
small minority, probably fewer than 6 percent, of some twelve million men
women, and children shoved below the decks of ships lying at anchor off of Africa’s
Atlantic shores between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries.” (Miller)
That equation comes out to about 720,000. You are taking approximately 720,000
people out of 12 million people out of an entire population and then dispersing
them into different colonies but somehow expect for there to be a particular
race; and that is without even considering interracial breeding. You cannot maintain
an ethnicity that way and certainly not a race.
Blacks are
categorized by skin color and little else. Black Americans can be a race but it
is so broad because no person is “pure” Black and can usually trace the
different type of lineage as close as a grandparent. If you follow the one drop
of black blood rule a great many more people are black than care to be recognized.
Are you black if you are the descendent of an African slave or a descendent of
a person from Africa or if you are just brown skinned? There are too many interpretations
to determine what race is and what race you are particularly if you are “Black”;
it is almost a guess when you state your race. So I guess I am Black.
(madamenoire.com)
Citations
Smedley, A (2006 June 29) Race. Britannica .com Retrieved
October 8, 2013 frhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/488030/raceom
Levine, N (2013 September 30) Personal Interview
Spencer, R (2013 October 1) Telephone Interview
Miller, J.C. (2000) Upon These Shores: Themes in the African-American Experience
1600 to the Present NY, NY: Routledge
Baraka, J -The hard knock life- The bi-racial, mixed race,
multi-cultural, hybrid races of the world, the future. Part I 2011 6 January
Madamenoire.com- Ten unacceptable cycles black people have
to change
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