African American, because I can’t forget
A recent letter from a reader: “Hi John, I just wanted to let you know that I love your column in the Sun-Times. . . . I wish you would just call yourself “American” though. . . . I’d be a Scotch-Irish-English-Dutch-Indian-German-Russian-Protestant-Jew American. Gets a little ridiculous, don’t you think? It also makes Americans more segregated. . . . Thanks for all you do!”
Dear Sister, I greatly appreciate your kindness and your heartfelt expression of genuine humanity. But I wonder if you will allow me to explain why I call myself an African American:
They called “me” nigger.
Sambo. Porch monkey. Slave. Boy.
Anything, everything, except by my name.
In some eyes — even declared at one time by the law of the land — I was only part man, 60 percent human, to be precise. Often depicted as a soulless, inhuman beast.
Some sought to strip from me my ancestry and culture, long before I was born. My psyche under attack before I inhaled even my first breath.
My skin, born of Africa, and my citizenship, birthed in America, have the duality of being both curse and blessing, depending on the beholder’s eye.
And yet, I am African inasmuch as I am American. American inasmuch as I am African, my dual citizenship paid for in blood, sweat and tears.
African and American. I embrace them both. Together they aptly define my soul....
http://www.suntimes.com/news/fountain/12577726-452/african-americanbecause-i-cant-forget.html
An excellent response for "that guy" we all know who always wonders why the news doesn't refer to so-and-so as a "Scotch-Irish-English-Dutch-Indian-German-Russian-Protestant-Jew-etc. -American."
