The Prophecies of NostraSeamus

In this article, Annette John-Hall celebrates her identity during this month devoted to African American history. Except she has a problem with African American History Month, much preferring Black History Month. John-Hall insists on being called black. I suppose she can be considered an expert, since she is (insert neutral, non-offensive racial identifier here) and comments frequently on (insert neutral, non-offensive racial identifier here) issues. But then so is Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was with Dr. Martin Luther King when that man was shot in Memphis. Rev. Jackson insists that he is an African American. John-Hall’s mother preferred the term Negro and her grandmother proudly called herself colored.

Ms. John-Hall’s article is disconcerting to someone like me. I’m a 46 year old white and as such I’m inherently evil and belong to that demographic which is responsible for the entirety of the world’s ills past, present and future. Because I don’t particularly like our president and loath his policies, I would be considered by some just one step from Klan membership. In a world where there are so many who look for any opportunity to take offense, I must carefully tread the tricky terrain of political correctness.

One day, about fifteen years ago, while driving back from lunch with a friend of mine from work, I mentioned that I had to stop by the oriental market to pick up some fish sauce for a recipe I was trying later that evening. My friend, a white guy, flew into a rage, calling me insensitive and insisting that, from then on, if I were shopping at this market, I must refer to it as Asian, and not oriental. Keeping silent, I pulled into the parking lot and parked in front of the store, which sat under a yellow sign on which, in large green letters, was written “Oriental Market”. My friend and I went inside, where I made my selection and paid for it. The man and woman behind the counter were obviously the owners and obviously from Asia.

Try as he might, my buddy couldn’t explain to me why the Asian proprietors of the market could call it the Oriental Market, but I couldn’t refer to it as such. He used the example of (insert neutral, non-offensive racial identifier here) people dropping the n-bomb on each other. It was appropriate for (insert neutral, non-offensive racial identifier here) folks to use the word with each other, but not for white people to use it when referring to (insert neutral, non-offensive racial identifier here)’s. I said that the majority of (insert neutral, non-offensive racial identifier here)’s would probably reject that argument because the n-bomb was offensive, whomever used it. Besides, the Oriental Market was sitting right there on Route 198, pretty much inviting everyone to call it the Oriental Market.

This incident illustrates the lose-lose proposition many people face in trying to identify someone in terms of their race. There are some who would argue that referring to one in terms of race is itself racist. The same person who identifies with a certain racial group and proudly celebrates that identification might be offended by someone outside that group identifying them as such. This isn’t surprising given the Culture of Indignation in which we live.

And I’m not talking here about using any of the odious vocabulary in the racist lexicon. What to do when Annette John-Hall prefers being called black, while her mother prefers negro and her grandmother prefers colored? To identify someone as “colored” or “negro” in the year 2010 is to be at the very least, abominably politically incorrect and at worst unpardonably ignorant and offensive. Why? The answer probably doesn’t matter, because that’s just not the way it’s done in 2010. Still, the question remains. Were Annette John-Hall’s mother and grandmother wrong? If I conversed with Ms. John-Hall’s grandmother forty years ago and referred to her as black, she would’ve hit me upside the head, as this term was offensive during the Civil Rights era.

Why is the word “negro” taboo when I write a check to the United Negro College Fund? The Wikipedia article on Carter G. Woodson describes him as an African American historian, Father of Black History, founder of the Journal of Negro History and an affiliate of the Washington branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. That sentence is a veritable minefield for someone such as this humble blogger who strives to make it through the day without giving offense to anyone.

If I’m tottering around at the age of eighty and refer to someone as African American, will I be condemned as a relic of America’s racist past? By that time will “African American” and “black” be banished to the dustbin of history along with “colored” and “negro”? Will there, in 30 years, be some new, acceptable term?

These questions are, of course, rhetorical. Just as there are people who are racist, there are those who will look to take it granted that someone who slipped and said something politically incorrect is a racist. Attorney General Eric Holder not very long ago called us a nation of cowards for not being able to sit down with each other talk about race. Kind of difficult to talk about something when you’re afraid to open your mouth.

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