Lehe: Terminology not a Black and White issue

In 2004, Alan Keyes was running against an upstart lawyer named Barack Obama in a U.S. Senate race. Down for the count, swinging wildly, Keyes made the following accusation:

“Barack Obama claims an African-American heritage … Barack Obama and I have the same race — that is, physical characteristics. We are not from the same heritage … My ancestors toiled in slavery in this country.”

Obama not an African-American? It is hard to argue that you are an African-American only if your great-great-great-great grandfather was born in Africa, but not if your dad was. Are you only an Irish-American if your ancestors fled the potato famine? The denial rings especially false from Keyes’ lips: He believes Obama was born in Kenya.

Keyes is clearly fumbling for a word, though. His quip illustrates the need for a word that means more than “an American of African descent” — something like what W.E.B. Du Bois had in mind when he titled his book “The Souls of Black Folk.” Fortunately, we do have such a word. The word is “Black.” As in “Black people.”

Today I endorse saying “Black” sometimes, instead of saying “African-American” in every case. Here is what I mean by Black:

First of all, Black is a capitalized word. Black people are not black.What makes Black people Black is that they participate in Black culture — the culture that has evolved from the culture of West Africans who were brought over to the New World as slaves.Black people aren’t just Americans, if by “American” we mean “United States of America.” Black people live all over the Western hemisphere.

Here are a few reasons to embrace “Black” over “African-American:”

First, it takes a long time to say “African-American.” The phrase has seven syllables — one more than just outright saying “of African descent.” It’s rare that a noun elongates its own definition.

Second, because of how awkward it is to say, “African-American” has become a phrase White people use when they are afraid of offending Black people. It says, “Look how much effort I’m spending to show I respect you.” But respect is something better revealed in actions, not word choice. Black and White friends nearly always say “Black.”

Third, replacing “Black” with “African-American” implies that all people of African descent participate in Black culture, and thereby cut-and-pastes an identity onto African immigrants. These people are African-Americans, but might not want to be Black.

Fourth, if we use “African-American” to denote exclusively what I call “Black,” as Alan Keyes does, then what will we call recent arrivals from Africa? We would have to call them “African-African Americans,” or “American-Africans” or something else stupid that no one will ever actually say.

Fifth, “Black” preserves conformity across languages and places. “Negro” is the word used in Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. it translates directly as “Black.” These are two of the three languages that Black people speak in numbers, so they should influence the English usage. In the United States, we have gotten away with confusing “African-American” and “Black” only because the United States happens to not share borders with countries that have many Black people — all the Black people we meet are also African-Americans. But elsewhere, Black cultures span national borders. Should we expect Colombians to call a woman Afro-Colombiana when she is in Colombia and then Afro-Venezuelana when she crosses the border 10 miles to visit her sister in Venezuela on the weekend?

Finally, cutting “Black” from the language leaves an asymmetry, since no one actually says “Caucasian-Americans.” I could never explain to my child that he is White — at least half — but that his friends are African-Americans. And if you can’t explain such a common word to a child, to hell with it.

Now for the question you’ve been waiting to take offense at. Is Obama a Black man? I say that Obama is, today, a Black man. He has become Black by moving to Chicago’s South Side, marrying a Black woman, joining a Black church and immersing himself in Black culture. So, he participates in Black culture. But he grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, outside of Black culture. So, I would say that, before he was in his 20s, no, Obama was not Black.

However, there is plenty of room for ambiguity. Who’s to say for sure a man is African-American, African, American, Caribbean, Latino or Black? Words are just useful tools we have. And language, therefore, is never African-American or White.

E-mail Lewis at ljl10@pitt.edu.