Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle June 5, 2019
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
‘Black’ or ‘African American’?
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
I
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
R. Dallon Adams
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
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n a recent televised com-
mentary, Dr. Greg Carr,
chair of Howard Uni-
versity’s
Department
of Afro-American Studies
kick-started a stirring con-
versation that has mostly tak-
en place inside the confines
of Black communities around
the country.
Carr tackled the some-
times-uncomfortable topic of
identifying as Black versus
African American.
“Despite the dictionary
definitions, there is no term
that truly describes people
that were taken from Africa
and forced into slavery,” Carr
said during commentary on
Washington, D.C.’s WUSA.
NNPA Newswire followed
up by reaching out to several
individuals of color – Blacks,
African Americans – in at-
tempt to gain the pulse of just
which way many lean.
“Many Africans who live in
North America but were born
and raised in Africa do not
like to be labelled as Black,”
said Dr. Tapo Chimbganda,
the founder of Future Black
Female, an organization that
helps create opportunities
for Black female youth to par-
ticipate fully and beneficially
in academic, economic and so-
cial endeavors.
“Growing up in Africa,
where almost everyone is
Black makes it difficult for
people who grow up in that
environment to understand,
grasp and identify with Black
Stacy M.
Brown
NNPA
Columnist
as a signifier the same way
that people born and raised
in the West do,” Chimbganda
said.
“While Africans dealt with
colonization and many of the
“
“There are so many ways to
be ‘Black’ and so many mix-
tures and countries that when
we define people by a single
color, we miss multiple parts
of who they are. That is true
for Whites as well,” she said.
Dr. Gail L. Thompson, the
founder and CEO of Inspira-
tions by Gail LLC, said “Black
is a general term that includes
anyone of African descent, in-
cluding indigenous Africans,
African Americans, Caribbe-
an Blacks, and immigrants.”
I don’t like to be called Black or Af-
rican American because it doesn’t
define me and is dismissive of my
heritage and ethnic makeup
same oppressive practices of
white supremacy, they were a
majority and once their lead-
ers took over government,
for the most part, oppression
ceased to be about race and
more about tribalism and eth-
nic rivalry,” Chimbganda said.
Harvard and Yale-trained
physician, Dr. Hisla Bates,
said race is a social construct
and shouldn’t define anyone.
“I don’t like to be called
Black or African American
because it doesn’t define me
and is dismissive of my heri-
tage and ethnic makeup. I am
from the Caribbean and pre-
fer Caribbean American rath-
er than African American,”
Bates said.
“A Black person can live
anywhere in the world,” she
said.
Thompson defined African
American as a U.S. citizen of
African descent whose an-
cestors lived in America be-
fore and during the era of the
Transatlantic Slave Trade.
“I am an African American
who can trace my ancestry in
the U.S. for five generations,”
Thompson said. “According
to my DNA test results, my an-
cestry is 92 percent African,
primarily from the Congo/
Cameroon region and Benin
and Togo.”
Further, the term “People of
Color” refers to all non-White
ethnic/racial groups. It’s a
very general term, Thompson
said.
Hip Hop Activist and au-
thor Sean XLG Mitchell, said
there’s a significant differ-
ence between the labels of
‘Black,’ ‘African American,’
and ‘People of Color.’
“If we use the term Black,
we are doing ourselves a dis-
service. Black only identifies
with the color of our skin but
it has no cultural connections
to who we are as a people,”
said Mitchell, the author of
“How Do We Build A Real
Wakanda?”
“As a result of our slave
experience, we don’t under-
stand the power and purpose
of culture and we seem to be
naive in how we regard and
respect the unifying princi-
ples of culture,” Mitchell said.
“Other races of people ben-
efit from employing a lan-
guage, education, religion,
names and customs that are
centered around their histor-
ical experience and we’re the
only people who fail to do so,”
he said.
Mitchell said it’s important
that all of African descent find
time to read books like the
“Autobiography of Malcolm
X,”“The Mis-Education of the
Negro,”“Nile Valley Contri-
butions to Civilization,”and
“Chains and Images of Psy-
chological Slavery.”
“We would [then] have a
better insight and under-
standing of culture,” Mitchell
said.
The Congressional Black Caucus Must Oppose HR 246
T
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hink about it this way.
If every tactic that was
used by African Amer-
icans in the Civil Rights
Movement and/or in the fight
against apartheid South Afri-
ca was either criminalized or
attacked by the US Congress,
how would you respond?
HR 246 is a bill before Con-
gress that attacks the Boycott/
Divestment/Sanctions (BDS)
movement that emerged as a
NON-VIOLENT response to
the illegal Israeli occupation
of Palestinian territories.
BDS is a form of economic
pressure on the Israeli state
that is the equivalent of an in-
ternational Montgomery bus
boycott. It is saying that Israe-
li human rights abuses and vi-
olations of international law
will simply not be tolerated.
The US Congress cannot
have it both ways. It cannot,
on the one hand, attack the
Palestinians when they have
used violence to oppose the
occupation while at the same
time attacking the Palestin-
ians for using non-violent
protests against the Israeli
occupation. This is particu-
larly the case given that the
United Nations has roundly
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
The Global
African
condemned the Israeli occu-
pation as illegal.
“
protest the actions of another
country.
To argue that there is some-
thing wrong with engaging in
or supporting BDS is to argue
that the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territories; the
Israeli refusal to recognize in-
ternational law when it comes
to the right of return for refu-
gees; and the Israeli atrocities
Call your Congressional
Representatives immediate-
ly. Call them whether they
are members of the Congres-
sional Black Caucus or not.
Call them and tell them that
you have no interest in them
siding with those who would
have criminalized the Civil
Rights Movement or the an-
ti-apartheid movement.
Tell them that you
side with freedom!
Oppose HR 246! Here
is where you can go to
find YOUR Congres-
sional Representative:
www.house.gov/rep-
resentatives
The US Congress cannot have it both
ways. It cannot, on the one hand, at-
tack the Palestinians when they have
used violence to oppose the occupation
while at the same time attacking the
Palestinians for using non-violent pro-
tests against the Israeli occupation
Efforts around the USA to
criminalize those who sup-
port the Boycott/Divestment/
Sanctions movement flaunt
the Constitution. We are sup-
posed to have the right to
peacefully protest. There is
no exception when it comes to
the question of Israel. There
is nothing in the US Consti-
tution that suggests that the
people of the USA cannot
against peaceful protesters in
the Gaza Strip is permissible.
We, African Americans,
have heard such nonsense be-
fore and we have cast it aside.
In the face of oppression, peo-
ple resist and we—African
Americans—have generally
been at the forefront of those
who supported resistance.
We are called upon to express
our solidarity again.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the
former president of
TransAfrica Forum.
Follow him on Twitter,
Facebook and at www.billf-
letcherjr.com. Look for his mys-
tery novel: The Man Who Fell
From the Sky.
Disclaimer:  The views and
opinions expressed in this ar-
ticle do not necessarily reflect
the official policy or position of
BlackPressUSA.com or the Na-
tional Newspaper Publishers
Association.
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