I can see now that this blog is going to be race relations. I get so many people sending me messages daily, using terms that they don't even know the meaning of. Time for a lesson.
Ebony - Wood of several species of trees of the genus Diospyros (family Ebenaceae), found widely in the tropics. The best is very heavy, almost black, and from heartwood only. Because of its color, durability, hardness, and ability to take a high polish, ebony is used for cabinetwork and inlaying, piano keys, knife handles, and turned articles.
Ivory - (I thought everyone knew the definition but I've been shocked by the number of people that had no clue) Hard white substance that makes up the tusks of such animals as elephants, walruses, and preserved mammoths. It is prized for its beauty, durability, and suitability for carving. In ancient times it was treasured as highly as gold and precious stones. Most ivory used commercially once came from Africa; sales of ivory declined in the 20th century as the populations of African elephants shrank, and worldwide concern about endangered elephant populations have led to bans on the export and import of ivory.
Nubian - (The most used word that people have NO clue as to its meaning.) There is no modern location called Nubia. The area known by this term lies today partly in Egypt and partly in the Republic of the Sudan. A large portion of the northern part of ancient Nubia currently lies submerged under the reservoir formed behind Egypt's High Dam at Aswan. Nubia is the homeland of Africa's earliest black culture with a history which can be traced from 3100 BC onward through Nubian monuments and artifacts. More than fifty ancient pyramids and royal tombs rise out of the desert sands in Nubia. The people of Nubia are referred to as Nubians. Sistas, when men approach you and call you a beautiful Nubian queen, ask them to name one. Don't just be complacent and let it slide.
Chocolate - Chocolate is food prepared from ground roasted cacao beans. It is consumed as candy, used to make beverages, and added as a flavoring or coating for confections and baked products. I am a Black woman. As a Black woman, I am far more complex than a simple confectionary treat. I have a personality, identity and history that make me a Black woman. For that reason, I don't want to be called chocolate. Chocolate is NOT a race and I'm too proud of mine to tolerate someone calling me a food and thinking it's cute or innocent. If you want my affection, call me what I am.
Colored - (I can't get over how many times people still use this term) The term colored was used as recently as the 60s to denote Black people. Every person has color so it's not only an inaccurate description but its origins were racist and meant to be demeaning. "Person of color" is more accurate when describing the 90% of the world's population that is not Caucasian.
Afro - (As in Afro-American) Afro was a term that coined after slavery because Black people didn't want to be associated with Africa, they had been indoctrinated to think that anything African was wrong and bad. There is no Afroland, no Afro language, there is no race of Afro people, and thus it should not be used to identify anyone's ethnicity or nationality. An Afro is a hairstyle and Africa is a continent, not a country. African Americans are an amalgamation of many African ethnicities that were kidnapped from Africa, crossbred like livestock, and raised to disassociate themselves with any traditional cultural identifiers.
Negro - Spanish for Black. The first European enslavers were Portuguese, in 1444, and it was used to identify Africans. Again, there is not Negroland, no Negro language and thus is inaccurate in defining a people. English speaking enslavers adopted the word Negro to nigger to the derogatory and offensive meaning dark skinned people of Africa that were something less than human, vile, and repugnant.
Nigger, nigga, niggah (or any other spelling of the word) - Nigger is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be a term of affection. It is used today in the exact same context that it was used in slavery, to indicate a Black person, specifically a man, a black person with little education, or a Black person that doesn't conform to white standards of acceptable behavior. Any slave narrative will reveal the use of the word as commonplace as it is used today, except today, it's considered entertainment. During slavery it was the only term Black people had to describe themselves and they used it because they believed themselves to be niggers. It is used in much the same way today. Black people with education, money, and a sense of history don't use the word to describe themselves, they use it to describe the portion of that has suffered the most generational oppression and disadvantage. Those people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder use it, not because they have money, education, means, or a sense of history but because they don't know themselves to be anything other than niggers.
Racism - Racism is an ideological, structural and historic stratification process by which the population of European descent, through its individual and institutional distress patterns, intentionally has been able to sustain, to its own best advantage, the dynamic mechanics of upward or downward mobility (of fluid status assignment) to the general disadvantage of the population designated as non-white (on a global scale), using skin color, gender, class, ethnicity or nonwestern nationality as the main indexical criteria used for enforcing differential resource allocation decisions that contribute to decisive changes in relative racial standing in ways most favoring the populations designated as 'white.' Contrary to popular white belief, racism is more than wearing a white sheet and burning a cross.
Language has power, be careful how you use it. Ignorance is not bliss.
Ebony - Wood of several species of trees of the genus Diospyros (family Ebenaceae), found widely in the tropics. The best is very heavy, almost black, and from heartwood only. Because of its color, durability, hardness, and ability to take a high polish, ebony is used for cabinetwork and inlaying, piano keys, knife handles, and turned articles.
Ivory - (I thought everyone knew the definition but I've been shocked by the number of people that had no clue) Hard white substance that makes up the tusks of such animals as elephants, walruses, and preserved mammoths. It is prized for its beauty, durability, and suitability for carving. In ancient times it was treasured as highly as gold and precious stones. Most ivory used commercially once came from Africa; sales of ivory declined in the 20th century as the populations of African elephants shrank, and worldwide concern about endangered elephant populations have led to bans on the export and import of ivory.
Nubian - (The most used word that people have NO clue as to its meaning.) There is no modern location called Nubia. The area known by this term lies today partly in Egypt and partly in the Republic of the Sudan. A large portion of the northern part of ancient Nubia currently lies submerged under the reservoir formed behind Egypt's High Dam at Aswan. Nubia is the homeland of Africa's earliest black culture with a history which can be traced from 3100 BC onward through Nubian monuments and artifacts. More than fifty ancient pyramids and royal tombs rise out of the desert sands in Nubia. The people of Nubia are referred to as Nubians. Sistas, when men approach you and call you a beautiful Nubian queen, ask them to name one. Don't just be complacent and let it slide.
Chocolate - Chocolate is food prepared from ground roasted cacao beans. It is consumed as candy, used to make beverages, and added as a flavoring or coating for confections and baked products. I am a Black woman. As a Black woman, I am far more complex than a simple confectionary treat. I have a personality, identity and history that make me a Black woman. For that reason, I don't want to be called chocolate. Chocolate is NOT a race and I'm too proud of mine to tolerate someone calling me a food and thinking it's cute or innocent. If you want my affection, call me what I am.
Colored - (I can't get over how many times people still use this term) The term colored was used as recently as the 60s to denote Black people. Every person has color so it's not only an inaccurate description but its origins were racist and meant to be demeaning. "Person of color" is more accurate when describing the 90% of the world's population that is not Caucasian.
Afro - (As in Afro-American) Afro was a term that coined after slavery because Black people didn't want to be associated with Africa, they had been indoctrinated to think that anything African was wrong and bad. There is no Afroland, no Afro language, there is no race of Afro people, and thus it should not be used to identify anyone's ethnicity or nationality. An Afro is a hairstyle and Africa is a continent, not a country. African Americans are an amalgamation of many African ethnicities that were kidnapped from Africa, crossbred like livestock, and raised to disassociate themselves with any traditional cultural identifiers.
Negro - Spanish for Black. The first European enslavers were Portuguese, in 1444, and it was used to identify Africans. Again, there is not Negroland, no Negro language and thus is inaccurate in defining a people. English speaking enslavers adopted the word Negro to nigger to the derogatory and offensive meaning dark skinned people of Africa that were something less than human, vile, and repugnant.
Nigger, nigga, niggah (or any other spelling of the word) - Nigger is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be a term of affection. It is used today in the exact same context that it was used in slavery, to indicate a Black person, specifically a man, a black person with little education, or a Black person that doesn't conform to white standards of acceptable behavior. Any slave narrative will reveal the use of the word as commonplace as it is used today, except today, it's considered entertainment. During slavery it was the only term Black people had to describe themselves and they used it because they believed themselves to be niggers. It is used in much the same way today. Black people with education, money, and a sense of history don't use the word to describe themselves, they use it to describe the portion of that has suffered the most generational oppression and disadvantage. Those people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder use it, not because they have money, education, means, or a sense of history but because they don't know themselves to be anything other than niggers.
Racism - Racism is an ideological, structural and historic stratification process by which the population of European descent, through its individual and institutional distress patterns, intentionally has been able to sustain, to its own best advantage, the dynamic mechanics of upward or downward mobility (of fluid status assignment) to the general disadvantage of the population designated as non-white (on a global scale), using skin color, gender, class, ethnicity or nonwestern nationality as the main indexical criteria used for enforcing differential resource allocation decisions that contribute to decisive changes in relative racial standing in ways most favoring the populations designated as 'white.' Contrary to popular white belief, racism is more than wearing a white sheet and burning a cross.
Language has power, be careful how you use it. Ignorance is not bliss.
3 comments:
Hear! Hear! And thus, since I believe (as you do) that "racism" is prejudice plus power, I don't consider it possible for African-Americans to be "racist." Prejudiced? Yes. Hateful? When they've had enough already, yes. Even dangerous? Just as any other human can be under the right circumstances, absolutely. But "racist"? No. The way I see it, only "Whites" can be "racist." Because they're the only ones who have the power to make their perception of superiority a problem for themselves and everybody else.
And of all the terms people don't seem to have a clue about, people who want to assert that Black folks can be "just as racist" as White folks make me twitch.
I had a white man cry to me yesterday that his white friends told him that he was racist against other whites because he expressd a desire to submit to Black sexuality. After I explained to him that a white person couldn't in fact be racist against other whites, he continued on by objectifying me and equating his very voluntary sexual fetish with the dehumanizing chattle slavery my ancestors endured and insisting that his sexual submission ensured me that he wsn't racist.
And his lack of recognizing his own racism is a primary manifestation, then, of his being (oops!) racist. It's a daily struggle in this society to be a European-American who resists the continual urges and encouragements of the socialization process to routinely speak, act, think, and be racist against people of color. Tiresome and worth it, but interminable. In my opinion, a European-American who claims not to be racist is rather like a person who claims to be humble. Both are oblivious to the point of being ridiculous.
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