Okay...here we go again with another story that is no more worthy of being news than the fact that I clipped my baby toenail too short and now I'm suffering every time that pinky toe touches the inside of a shoe! The latest non-news: The term "negro" on the 2010 census has some people of color upset. According to the Los Angeles Times many blacks, upon discovering this abomination reacted with shock and distaste. They see it as a relic of the bad old days of segregation.
Now I'm about to step on some toes but at this point I don't give a flying rat's you-know-what whose toes I step on!
Just how many names do we have to be before we can finally pick one that suits everyone's fancy. Negro is too incendiary. Colored is too Jim Crow-ish, Afro-American is too out dated. African-American is too broad a description.....what in the hell do you (we) want to be called.
I really don't think we know. You've got the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Black Entertainment Television (BET) and a host of black comedians, rappers, racists and other insensitive pricks calling people of color niggers all day....oh but I forget...if you spell it n-i-g-g-a it's hip and shouldn't be viewed as offensive.
Give!
Me!
A Break!!!
At this stage in the game, I can relate more to black than any other term...and by george...we've certainly had plenty to choose from.
The only race that doesn't have a plethora of choices on the census form are whites....or should I say Caucasians....but then that's not exactly right either. Although Negro is the spanish via latin translation for black. Caucasian (contrary to what some think) is not a foreign translation for white.
According to the actual definition of Caucasian - it was used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous human populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia without regard to race or skin tone.
So theoretically, I could actually be a Caucasian-African-American. I'm told that there's a possibility that we (MANKIND) are all African. Unfortunately as a descendant of slaves, I really don't know where I'm from. I understand that it is likely that my ancestors originated in Africa since most slaves were kidnapped or purchased from that continent and wound up here....but just as sure as their are people of color scattered all over this planet...there's no guarantee that my hypothesis is correct.
Oh...hell why does life have to be so difficult? BECAUSE SOME TIMES WE MAKE IT THAT WAY!!!!
So to all my people of color that will be completing the 2010 census.....just check the darn box you feel most comfortable with and stop making a mountain out of a mole hill. And the next time Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne or your first cousin calls you a nigger.....
Slap The Hell Out of Them .....as a favor to me! We may not be able to agree on what we want to be called...But that word should be shocking and distasteful to ALL OF US.
