Sunday, November 5, 2006

Musings of a Colored Girl

In 1955, my mother gave birth to a colored girl. By the 1960s, I was black and proud. Sometime in the 1980s, I became African-American. I think that I'm black again in 2006 but sometimes I'm still African-American.  Recent comments posted to this entry reminded me that I've also been a Negro.  No wonder I'm neurotic!

White America often accuses black folks of playing the race card. I think we play the hand we were dealt. America is obsessed with race. A child is born of two parents, one of Caucasian ancestry and one of African heritage. Equal parts of both, the child is identified as black. A friend of my mine once said that it offended him that it took two white people to make a white child but only one parent with any fraction of black lineage to make a black baby.

Black people have become swept up in this need to identify people by race. When Tiger Woods appeared as a golfing phenomenon, there were black folks who became angry when he identified himself as a mixture of Asian, Black and Caucasian. We wanted to claim him as exclusively ours. This obsession with race that infiltrates American culture makes us believe that our worth as a people hinges on ensuring that our identity remains intact. We object to including a category for multiracial on census forms because we fear that it will dilute our numbers, there will be fewer of us who are black, African-American, colored.

Twice this year, newspaper headlines have touted the birth of twin babies, one black and one white. In each instance, one parent was of mixed race.  I was bemused by one headline that read,"Twins Are of Different Races." The article quoted doctors who stated their own surprise and commented on how unusual and rare an occurrence this is. None of them took this as an opportunity to point out that race is a social construct. The babies aren't different races; they just have different skin tones. The Human Genome Project and other genetic research programs have found no consistent genetic markers to identify race. We are all human beings, we just look different. Classifying people by skin color has no more logic behind it than classifying us by hair or eye color.

I think that I want to be a colored girl again. When I look in the mirror I see a woman with chocolate brown skin and dark brown eyes, a woman of color. When I look around, I see a world full of people, each and every one of us,a person of color.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved your entry. I was a very fortunate white kid...I grew up in an all black community, where I was loved and accepted by everyone. It really gave me a heads up that color is just that.  Of course I have had bad experiences when growing up, but from different races.  When they bused white kids to my school they treated me terrible. So I feel blessed to be here, and lucky to know love is love, and acceptance of each others differences is what God intended. Take care,
Dwana
http://journals.aol.com/alphamoon65/MoonlightDrive/
p.s. congrats on being guest editor

Anonymous said...

I love this perspective, Sheria. I am a white person who wants to know how to refer to those with darker skin when the issue of race comes up. I am comfortable with saying "black" because I thought that the term was acceptable by them. Negro or colored seemed outdated. You don't hear either of those anymore. I like the sound of African-American, in its multisyllableness, and all those poetic sounding vowels, but heard that it wasn't appropriate because not all black people are from Africa, and many don't want the connection. I get confused, because sometimes we read stories in the classroom that do touch on race, and I want my kids (of all shades of brown, from the lightest to the darkest skins) to feel accepted in my classroom. I want them to feel safe enough to speak openly about such topics. In my area, I think the term black is still acceptable. or Black American... but then, I don't refer to myself as White American. We've talked about what's white and what's black, and I'm really not white, and they're really not black. We have discussed various shades of brown-ness and skin tones. HAve you seen the Crayola Crayon box of skin tones? So many shades of browns. Very nice. If we were to look at the races like you do, we'd all be considered colored people!! <grin> Why not? Is this where the idea of Rainbow people came from? Great entry, Sheria. Bea

Anonymous said...

Sheria,

I am definitely feeling you.  I am twenty-something NEGRO woman, also from Eastern NC (Wilson, baby!).  What is amazing to me is the fact that despite the difference in age, the experiences are remarkably similar.  How's that for progress?  Anyway, congrats on being named Guest Editor.  You're awesome!

LaMonique

journals.aol.com/lamonique/WomaninProgress

Anonymous said...

Beautiful entry.  Well written. I agree with everything you have said, and you have said it very well.
Marie
http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/

Anonymous said...

Intersting. Personally, I'm looking forward to the day that we're all some shade of "gray". Of course, mankind will find some other reason to split over, won't we?

Fred

Anonymous said...

I have thought a good deal about these questions since I have a grandson whose father was from Sudan, but from the north (Khartoum) rather than the south where I understand there is more of a mix of arabic and black.  So there is another variation.  Jamal's hair has always fascinated everyone.  He has tight curls when it is short, looser big brown ones when it is longer, and oh that Afro!  His white mother and white father who adopted him had to steel themselves to allow it to grow to the height Jamal wanted.  I love getting your perspective on color.
 Gerry

Anonymous said...

The fact is that regardless of how fearful, obsessed, protective or indifferent people are of "race", there will one day be only one race and that will be multiracial.  Just ran across your journal and love it.

Anonymous said...

This has to be one of the best stories I've ever read about race.  I'm 33 and cringe everytime I hear "African-American"....I just want to be black.  Well, not really...LOL...after reading this, I, too, want to be colored!

Congrats on the Guest Editor spot.  You're really good at what you do!

Oh, and I'm a Carolina girl, too! :>)

Anonymous said...

I'm Barbara and I'm out journal browsing.  Very nice to meet you.  I love your ending thought of a world of color.  I'm a white woman with reddish overtones and various freckles.  I, too, have dark brown eyes.  - Red, yellow, black or white; they are precious in His sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world.  When will we?  -  Barbara