Africa

I don't like using the term "African Americans" because it has a certain objectivity to it that perturbs me. I don't like relating to a person thought of as a representative of some large amorphous group who historically were brought to the United States as slaves and are now living freely in various states of life success thought from the perspective of an economy and taxes.

The term African American carries with it the baggage of colonialism. African comes to most of White America through the museum and that colonial sensibility that rendered the heritage of another in museum artifacts to be viewed by a discerning public as a way of being 'cultured.'

My how that word has transmogrified over the last century. It went from the halls of academe and the circles of blue bloods to the everyday talk of human uniqueness and difference.

That's the problem I have with using the term "African Americans." I'd rather not relate to someone as a group of people recognized in census sheets, a bubble to darken with graphite or ink. A selection. A false choice. We choose how we can identify ourselves but our bodies speak a fundamental truth of how one perceives your presence. Friend or foe?