RE: Racism... Have you ever tried simply not referencing race?
Very good post.
Just take such a thing as calling people "African Americans" when they've not even set foot in Africa and neither did their relatives several generations back. They are clearly just "Americans", not "Africans" or a "mix" between the two.
But try calling a white person whom actually lived in Africa since several generations back and then immigrated from Africa to America "African American". It would make more logical sense, since neither "African" or "American" is a race, but this would be looked at with contempt by a lot of people.
For me as an outsider, it would seem that the term "African American" is simply the nationalist lesser form of earlier racist terminology, resulting from the fact that people were no longer allowed to say "nigger", "negroe" or in more recent years sometimes even "black".
It's been an easy way out, rather than having to explain what race or nationality is or what role it plays/should/shouldn't play in society. It's a "nicer" term, but which confuses terminology and could ultimately end up hindering progress in the U.S. just because it ties race or even just skin color itself to a continent.
Yes, color terms such as "black" and "white" are imperfect too, but they don't confuse even half as much as jumping to conclusions and presuming African identity or heritage simply by looking at that same skin color.
African American is actually an attempt by people to not be called racist by referring to someone as Black. There have been times in the not so distant past that calling someone Black was considered racist by some people.
The problem is that people can decide just about anything is racist.
Thus, why I wish people would stop referring to race at all except perhaps if they are dealing with a medical condition that has a higher genetic occurrence in a certain "race". That is about the only case where I believe race TRULY matters. If talking to witnesses and trying to identify a violent criminal (intentionally put violent there) then knowing skin color is of course going to be useful.
Other than that racism will continue to exist as long as people continue to use it. For example: Is there a White History Month? Are there White only Scholarships? Is there a White Lives Matter? (probably is on that last)
I don't think any of those things should exist regardless of color. They encourage segregation and fuel racism.
I'm in full agreement.