Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Andre Crouch: 2004 Negro

The term Negro never really sat well with me. Linguistically it was either a color descriptor derived from the Portuguese or it was a coined term to refer to the people who live among the Niger River devolving into "Nigger." Either way it was in my mind a label put upon Black people by whites for their own use. Of course at the end of the 60's most of us relegated that title to the dustbin of history and only used the term in historical context or as a reference to those whom we felt were less than men or women when dealing with black issues. We call them "Knee-grows." Today most Blacks in the United States are referred to as "African-American." This goes along with every other group that now has some hyphenated name. An unfortunate side effect of this name is that many Blacks have gotten into the habit of calling any and every black person they see "African-American." Furthermore; very few people seem to realize that technically, African-American would include any and all people in the Americas, including those in the Caribbean, and Latin-America. Me I do like Malcolm X and refer to myself as an African in America. I often get silly questions like what tribe I come from. I just say the one that survived the great Maafa. Unlike many of my peers, I also hold a very Traditional" African worldview in that I practice an African Religion (Ifa) and a few other things in addition the the things that are a result of the unique experience of being in America. I would never call myself a Ghanaian or a Nigerian or a Kenyan simply because I did not grow up in any of those places. I am a "generic" African. Damn proud of it too.

Today I ran across what has to be one of the silliest articles I have ever come across. This one is up there with the Jamaican writer who insists that Black people cannot govern themselves. Andre Crouch was republished in the NY Daily News in an article called 'Why I use the word 'Negro'"

Let me deconstruct Mr. Crouches arguement:

Some people are particularly disturbed by my use of the word Negro as opposed to the latest fashionable label. I am not bothered by such people, but I am disturbed by the reliance on cosmetic identity that has become so important to black people over the last 35 or 40 years.

Some people just don't think of themselves as straight products of the social engineering project of Slavery and Jim Crow. Some of us wish to self identify rather than retain the label handed down to us by others. Furthermore for many of us The rejection of Negro is more than cosmetic rather it is a statement of who we are. Some call ourselves "African-American' because we recognize the duality of our identity. One would have had to have embraced ones past and integrate that into oneself in order to understand that.

The argument was that "Negro" separated black people from their African identity. It did not acknowledge the greatness of Africa, wonderful Africa, that lost paradise where everything was perfect. It did not recognize that black people had not always been slaves - that they were, in fact, a separate nation descended from kings and queens.

Hmm. No one, of course, ever considered that if most of the millions of black Americans really were descended from kings and queens, one would have needed a lot more land than Africa provided to support all that royalty. Millions of kingdoms definitely present a challenge.

It was, at best, cult thinking. But it was also a way of getting people to think of themselves as perpetual victims who were oppressed at every turn. That seems to me the greatest impact of believing that the history connected to the name Negro was all second-class travail and injustice.

Some 40 years ago, Malcolm X said: "You're not an American, you're a victim of Americanism."

That's too crude and simpleminded. But the crude and simpleminded are not unusual when the subject is the Negro. While such statements might sound good on a podium, they miss a great and substantial truth.

Now in one sense I agree with this argument. No way could we ALL have been descended from Kings and Queens. But this is too simpleminded for even Mr. Crouch to grasp. The argument is meant to inform the unknowing that believed that all we were capable was begging for scraps from white people that there were in fact large kingdoms and Queendoms in Africa. And therefore the Black man and woman was just as capable of greatness as any other group of people. I suppose such an idea was way too simple for Mr. Crouch to grasp.

The other problem with Mr. Crouch's statement is that he seems to think that Malcolm X was in the business of victim-hood. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Perhaps Mr. Crouch should spend more time studying before attempting to critique Malcolm X.

Being called something other than Negro will not better the state of the people who now walk around challenging others to call them African-Americans. They think that to be proud and effective, people with dark skins of a certain pedigree need to know they are connected to the grandeur of Africa, the fountain of civilization. Hogwash.

Clearly, knowing that they are Africans has done nothing special for Africans themselves, as we can see in the massacres in Rwanda during the 1990s, the many brutal African dictatorships and the abundance on the continent of backward ideas about women, slavery and a number of other things.

People can call themselves whatever they want. But the challenges facing this nation and its darker ethnic group will not be solved by anything other than deep thinking and hard work. Pride comes from accomplishment. Cosmetic nonsense will not get it.

Well thank you Mr, Crouch for stating the obvious. Clearly White Power did not prevent Hitler from visiting War upon the world. It is strange that Mr Crouch wants to whip the Black man and woman for having pride in their ancestry and history but appears to have no problems with the constant pride movements directed at white youths. These take place in various "History" classes about Greco-Roman Civilization. The renaissance, and various stages of American history. So it is only bad for Black people to revel in the history. Everybody else gets a free pass. I'm sorry that Mr. Crouch is sop ashamed of the Dictators and Coup leaders and massacres that have happened in Africa. I'm sad that such things shame him. Perhaps we'll soon be seeing an article entitled : " Why I am no longer a Negro."

Links:
http://www.maafa.org
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/199208p-172003c.html