Race

First of all, I give praises to God for allowing me to be the person I am. Black, White, Red, Green, or Yellow no matter my race or color, I will always be ME. Many people don't think of racism...well I think about it EVERYDAY. Many people don't believe racism still exists....well I see it, at least once a month visually and everyday subliminally.

My first thought about this topic is the phrase that I hate WHITES have invented to call us instead of black or negro. I despise "African American". Don't get me wrong, I hold true to my roots and I know that my people were of dark skins and deep roots. I know that they were tribal, I know that they were traditional, I know that they were BLACK. But the main reason I don't identify with that colloquialism is because I am not from Africa. Nor is my grandmother, her mother, her mother, and so on and so forth. I am, unfortunately, a black woman who live in America. I guess that would identify me as American huh? But why African? Can anyone answer that? My phenotype? But what about my genotype?  I am not fully black, who is besides those who roots lie more closely to Africa. I feel that if your great great great GREAT grandmother or father is not from Africa, then who are you to call me African American?

This is America, the melting pot. White men were raping our slave fore-mothers, blacks were loving and marrying Native Americans....who is fully white, black, or whatever race they claim? I try not to identify with any race, mostly because I don't even know exactly all that is in my heritage. I know that my great grandmother was white, the other was Native American, and the others, for all I know were black...so am I supposed to identify with being "African" because of how I look when I know nothing about Africa and have never stepped foot there?

Lets think for a second, the first person was African. The first human being traces back from Africa, so if the first human being was African, and we all descended from other humans, would that not make every American "African American"? It makes no sense to me. I know white people, who I am sure one of their fore mothers were black....so why are they not considered "African American"? Because of how they look? I thought if you had even ONE drop of black blood you were black....funny how it changes when you appear to be something totally different.

In my eyes, the term "African American" is just another term white people invented to label us. To limit us, and it kills me that so many hold it with pride without even having a clue as to what their descendants look like. I have no problem with Africa or Africans, even though majority have a problem with us. I just don't appreciate the reasoning behind giving us blacks another name without a justifiable reason. Because of how I look? What about my roots? Can you know those just by looking at me? I'm BLACK. I'm not African.

Now racism....boy o boy I can go on for days, but instead I'm just going to vent. Why hate me because you aren't me? Why hate me because I'm different? Why does the color of my skin bother you so bad, when I have the same blood in my veins, the same organs in my body, the same teeth, the same HEART as you do? Why hate me? I bet if you ask a racist, why are they racist...they won't be able to come up with one reason that makes sense.

Why can't others get to know a person before assuming or making a stereotype. People, mostly whites,  spent years killing off our kind, killing off those of color, even killing their own because they didn't share the same religion, and here we are, as blacks, doing the same. Maybe not so much physically, but mentally we are. We hate each other. We look at another black and analyze their lifestyles. "what are you wearing, why you got your hair like that, what are YOU lookin at"? Its always drama, we always killing each other for no reason. Mad at each other for no reason. Don't you ignorant people know white people wanted us to be this way? Why do you think they turned us against each other even during slavery, a time when we were supposed to come together. Now that time has progressed, we haven't become more unified, we're more separated than ever. We have few black owned businesses, we would rather shop in the "white side" of town, we can't come together for nothing without a fight or shootout....is this really what we have become?