SEE ALSO: Young Futurists Of 2012

For this group – some descended from U.S. slaves, some immigrants with a separate history – “African-American” is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s. Instead, it’s a misleading connection to a distant culture.

The debate has waxed and waned since African-American went mainstream, and gained new significance after the son of a black Kenyan and a white American moved into the White House. President Barack Obama’s identity has been contested from all sides, renewing questions that have followed millions of darker Americans:

What are you? Where are you from? And how do you fit into this country?

“I prefer to be called black,” said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. “How I really feel is, I’m American.”

“I don’t like African-American. It denotes something else to me than who I am,” said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina. “I can’t recall any of them telling me anything about Africa. They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C.”

Gibre George, an entrepreneur from Miami, started a Facebook page called “Don’t Call Me African-American” on a whim. It now has about 300 “likes.”

“We respect our African heritage, but that term is not really us,” George said. “We’re several generations down the line. If anyone were to ship us back to Africa, we’d be like fish out of water.”

“It just doesn’t sit well with a younger generation of black people,” continued George, who is 38. “Africa was a long time ago. Are we always going to be tethered to Africa? Spiritually I’m American. When the war starts, I’m fighting for America.”

Joan Morgan, a writer born in Jamaica who moved to New York City as a girl, remembers the first time she publicly corrected someone about the term: at a book signing, when she was introduced as African-American and her family members in the front rows were appalled and hurt.

“That act of calling me African-American completely erased their history and the sacrifice and contributions it took to make me an author,” said Morgan, a longtime U.S. citizen who calls herself Black-Caribbean American. (Some insist Black should be capitalized.)

She said people struggle with the fact that black people have multiple ethnicities because it challenges America’s original black-white classifications. In her view, forcing everyone into a name meant for descendants of American slaves distorts the nature of the contributions of immigrants like her black countrymen Marcus Garvey and Claude McKay.

Morgan acknowledges that her homeland of Jamaica is populated by the descendants of African slaves. “But I am not African, and Africans are not African-American,” she said.

In Latin, a forerunner of the English language, the color black is “niger.” In 1619, the first African captives in America were described as “negars,” which became the epithet still used by some today.

The Spanish word “negro” means black. That was the label applied by white Americans for centuries.

The word black also was given many pejorative connotations – a black mood, a blackened reputation, a black heart. “Colored” seemed better, until the civil rights movement insisted on Negro, with a capital N.

Then, in the 1960s, “black” came back – as an expression of pride, a strategy to defy oppression.

“Every time black had been mentioned since slavery, it was bad,” says Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania history professor and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Reclaiming the word “was a grass-roots move, and it was oppositional. It was like, `In your face.’”

Afro-American was briefly in vogue in the 1970s, and lingers today in the names of some newspapers and university departments. But it was soon overshadowed by African-American, which first sprouted among the black intelligentsia.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is widely credited with taking African-American mainstream in 1988, before his second presidential run.

Berry remembers being at a 1988 gathering of civil rights groups organized by Jackson in Chicago when Ramona Edelin, then president of the National Urban Coalition, urged those assembled to declare that black people should be called African-American.

Edelin says today that there was no intent to exclude people born in other countries, or to eliminate the use of black: “It was an attempt to start a cultural offensive, because we were clearly at that time always on the defensive.”

“We said, this is kind of a compromise term,” she continued. “There are those among us who don’t want to be referred to as African. And there also those among us who don’t want to be referred to as American. This was a way of bridging divisions among us or in our ideologies so we can move forward as a group.”

Jackson, who at the time may have been the most-quoted black man in America, followed through with the plan.

“Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical, cultural base,” Jackson told reporters at the time. “African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”

The effect was immediate. “Back in those days we didn’t talk about things going viral, but that’s what you would say today. It was quite remarkable,” said the columnist Clarence Page, then a reporter. “It was kind of like when Black Power first came in the `60s, there was all kinds of buzz among black folks and white folks about whether or not I like this.”

Page liked it – he still uses it interchangeably with black – and sees an advantage to changing names.

“If we couldn’t control anything else, at least we could control what people call us,” Page said. “That’s the most fundamental right any human being has, over what other people call you. (African-American) had a lot of psychic value from that point of view.”

It also has historical value, said Irv Randolph, managing editor of the Philadelphia Tribune, a black newspaper that uses both terms: “It’s a historical fact that we are people of African descent.”

“African-American embraces where we came from and where we are now,” he said. “We are Americans, no doubt about that. But to deny where we came from doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Jackson agrees about such denial. “It shows a willful ignorance of our roots, our heritage and our lineage,” he said Tuesday. “A fruit without a root is dying.”

He observed that the history of how captives were brought here from Africa is unchangeable, and that Senegal is almost as close to New York as Los Angeles.

“If a chicken is born in the oven,” Jackson said, “that doesn’t make it a biscuit.”

Today, 24 years after Jackson popularized African-American, it’s unclear what term is preferred by the community. A series of Gallup polls from 1991 to 2007 showed no strong consensus for either black or African-American. In a January 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent of respondents said they preferred black, 35 percent said African-American, 13 percent said it doesn’t make any difference, and 7 percent chose “some other term.”

Meanwhile, a record number of black people in America – almost 1 in 10 – were born abroad, according to census figures.

Tomi Obaro is one of them. Her Nigerian-born parents brought her to America from England as a girl, and she became a citizen last year. Although she is literally African-American, the University of Chicago senior says the label implies she is descended from slaves. It also feels vague and liberal to her.

“It just sort of screams this political correctness,” Obaro said. She and her black friends rarely use it to refer to themselves, only when they’re speaking in “proper company.”

“Or it’s a word that people who aren’t black use to describe black people,” she said.

Or it’s a political tool. In a Senate race against Obama in 2004, Alan Keyes implied that Obama could not claim to share Keyes’ “African-American heritage” because Keyes’ ancestors were slaves. During the Democratic presidential primary, some Hillary Clinton supporters made the same charge.

Last year, Herman Cain, then a Republican presidential candidate, sought to contrast his roots in the Jim Crow south with Obama’s history, and he shunned the label African-American in favor of “American black conservative.” Rush Limbaugh mocked Obama as a “halfrican-American.”

Then there are some white Americans who were born in Africa.

Paulo Seriodo is a U.S. citizen born in Mozambique to parents from Portugal. In 2009 he filed a lawsuit against his medical school, which he said suspended him after a dispute with black classmates over whether Seriodo could call himself African-American.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m from Africa, and they are not!” Seriodo wrote at the time. “They are not allowing me to be African-American!”

And so the saga of names continues.

“I think it’s still evolving,” said Edelin, the activist who helped popularize African-American. “I’m content, for now, with African and American.”

“But,” she added, “that’s not to say that it won’t change again.”

SEE ALSO:

Sick And Twisted? Man Adopts Girlfriend In Florida

Sexually Assaulted: Am I To Blame?

Anthony Bernard Lumpkin, 32, Rico Dehaven West, 19, Eddie Lewis Green, 46, Michael Davis, 23, and Timothy Lamar Johnson, 34, and Jason Dozier, 36, broke into the Jackson home Thursday at approximately 6:30 p.m. while Nicholas and his sister Nikia Jackson, 17, were home alone.

Dozier, who has served four different terms in Georgia prisons dating back to 1993 for robbery and aggravated assault, was just recently released from Telfair State Prison.

Nicholas Jackson, Sr. told the AJC that he believed that his son, who was shot in the heart before dying at a local hospital, startled the intruders when they kicked in the door:

“He got up to see what the ruckus was,” Jackson said. “The shots seemed to be fired as the suspects retreated.”

Older sister, Nikia, was emotional when talking about Nicholas. She witnessed the intruders fleeing in a mini-van and soon discovered her brother trying to roll over. “[The crime] seems so senseless; [He] is the best brother anybody could have.”

The former junior high valedictorian played football at Norcross High School and had plans on attending Alabama State University, his grandmother, Sherry Reid, told Channel 2 Action News.

Dr. Burrell Pope, principal at Hopewell Christian Academy where Nicholas attended for three years, said that he was a “model student” who was known for his helpful, friendly nature as well as his football skills:

“[Jackson] was the type of kid who stayed away from trouble,” Pope said. “That was his motto, he wanted always to stay away from trouble.”

“He was a young man of integrity, a mentor to a lot of the students who were younger than him,” he continued. “He was always willing to help out when needed.”

Norcross Police Capt. Brian Harr said that the mini-van was located about a mile from the scene and several other weapons were found inside of the vehicle.

Counselors were on site at Norcross High as students struggled with the violent lose of one of their shining stars. Maribel Arellano, a junior at the school, said that although she just recently met Nicholas, he would leave a lasting imprint:

“It’s sad how he got shot,” Arellano told the AJC. “It’s scary to know that someone can be in your life one day, and then the next day not be there.”

According to his father, Alabama State University’s football program has already said that they plan on sending equipment to place in his son’s casket.

Funeral arrangements for Nicholas will be planned next week.

***************************************

The Clayton County Police Department is searching for 14-year-old Antonio Williams after the boy got into a vehicle with an unknown man at a gas station and vanished, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Surveillance video shows Antonio getting into the vehicle at around 9:40 p.m. on Monday, January 30. His mother recovered his bicycle at the gas station on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro, Georgia on the outskirts of Atlanta.

The AJC reports the descriptions of Antonio and the unknown male as follows:

Antonio is described as a Black male with brown eyes and black hair. He is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 100 pounds. He was wearing a dark sweatshirt and dark pants when he disappeared.

The unknown male is described as a Black male, 20 to 35 years old, standing 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds. He was wearing a blue button-down work shirt with a long sleeve black shirt underneath it, tan pants, and a black hat with a red brim.

The man’s vehicle, a Chrysler 300 from between 2004 and 2009, is silver and likely has a Georgia tag.”

The Clayton County Police Department is asking that anyone with information on Antonio’s whereabouts to call 911 or 770-477-3648.

Paul has a strong following but is unlikely to win the nomination and Romney is hoping that Paul supporters will help him defeat President Barack Obama in the upcoming election.

The Washington Post reports:

The Romney-Paul alliance is more than a curious connection. It is a strategic partnership: for Paul, an opportunity to gain a seat at the table if his long-shot bid for the presidency fails; for Romney, a chance to gain support from one of the most vibrant subgroups within the Republican Party.

Romney’s aides are “quietly in touch with Ron Paul,” according to a Republican adviser who is in contact with the Romney campaign and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its internal thinking. The two campaigns have coordinated on minor things, the adviser said — even small details, such as staggering the timing of each candidate’s appearance on television the night of the New Hampshire primary for maximum effect.

Read More At The Washington Post

See Also

E-mails Show Meetings Between Ron Paul And White Supremacists

“Anonymous” Reveals Close Ties Between Ron Paul And Neo-Nazis

SEE ALSO: Is “The Help” Racist?

Terra Hall of Fox4 Kansas City recently reported that a slave named York helped Lewis and Clark gain access with American Indians during their trudge through the Midwest. American Indians saw York’s dark skin as a sign of strength and power.

“He’s [York] the first known African American known to make it all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back.  So he’s one of the greats as far as the explorers are concerned,” said Richard Edwards of the National Frontier Trials Museum in Independence, Mo.

For the entire month of February, Edwards will be sharing tales of York and other Black Americans who were instrumental in shaping America’s place in history.

SEE ALSO:

Can Crazy Talk Run Off?

Black Baking Gurus To Compete In “Cupcake Wars”

SEE ALSO: Young Futurists Of 2012

“He was glad that the president attended, but he felt that there were 364 days in a year to give a speech on your policies or campaign rhetoric,” said Gingrey spokeswoman Jen Talaber.

In a puzzling move, President Obama decided do a little blurring of church and state by enumerating the many ways that Christianity influences his economic policy:

If I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense. But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’ teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’ It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.”

Then, in a subtle jab at the current GOP front-runner, Mitt Romney, who — in addition to being Mormon — recently “mis-spoke” when saying that the “poor aren’t [his] concern,” Obama seemed to pull Romney’s religion card by suggesting that his own Christian values ensured that he cares about those in poverty:

“[It's] a biblical call to care for the poor and to follow the responsibility we’re given in Proverbs to ‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute,’” said the president.

Oh, it get’s better. Obama, who has made it a point to surround himself with Wall Street heavyweights during his first term, such as Lawrence Summers, Michael Froman, Neal Wolin, William Daley and Tom Donilon — or as National Review writer, Kevin D. Williamson so brilliantly put it, B.H. Obama & Co. LLC: A Wall Street Cabinet Company — then said that his Wall Street policy followed the commandment of God:

“The Wall Street reform [I] championed makes the economy stronger for everyone and abides by God’s command to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,” said Obama.

These remarks did not sit well with Gingrey. Going into further detail on what is sure to be viewed as another disrespectful action against the president — akin to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer losing her mind at pointing her finger in the president’s face like he was an errant school child –Talaber said that Gingrey was most upset at the president’s lack of reverence for the occasion:

“He was disappointed, because he wanted to know what was in the president’s heart, and not just rhetoric,” the spokeswoman said. “So he said that he decided to quietly get up and leave because he felt that it wasn’t the time or the place, and that the president didn’t seem to be aware of the meaning of the breakfast or why so many people came to hear him speak. He was offended by the very tone of the speech.”

I was too, Rep. Gingrey; though, I’m sure, that my reasons have very little in common with yours.

My issue is that President Barack Obama has transparent pandering down to an exact science. Just in time for Black History Month, he managed to insult the intelligence of millions of Black Americans by concocting an end-zone campaign to ensure that the same voters he’s ignored for almost four years make it their mission to “Barack the Vote” in November. It’s amazing that he can’t specifically address the issues that plague our communities — because he’s the president for all Americans — yet, he has no problem specifically asking for our vote.

However it’s not just us; no “special interest group” is exempt.

He claims to be pro-choice, but then goes out of his way to symbolically sign an executive order in March of 2010 to show his unwavering support for the long-standing Hyde Amendment, which effectively bans the federal government from financing elective abortions.

He consistently shrugs his shoulder with that boyish grin when asked about his support of the legalization of same-sex marriages; veering hard to the right, the president repeatedly says that “he’s working on it.” In the mean time, as he continues to deny the LGBTQ community equal rights under the law, he was proud to eradicate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, effectively “allowing them” to fight and die for a country that finds suppression of their civil liberties “fair.”

President Obama is passionate about green energy. If we don’t hear anything else, rest assured that we will hear about green energy. Ironically, when the president had the opportunity to stand firmly behind the Environment Protection Agency and a regulation that would ensure a dramatic decrease in smog production, he caved to business and Republican protest and rejected the potentially life-saving measure. The American Lung Association was so disgusted that they threatened to pursue legal action against the current standards, which  were proposed by George W. Bush.

Noticing a theme here? Obviously, President Obama has perfected the art of the Beltway Two-Step as if he’s been dancing it his entire life. Still, in no arena is he as obviously awkward as when pouring on the hallelujahs. His blatant merger of church and state is the antithesis of words spoken earlier in his career when he spoke eloquently against the very idea.

In one of the most intelligent explorations into the hypocrisy and infeasibility contained within portions of the Bible, a little known speech given by a young Senator Obama at turns ridicules the Good Book (see: Leviticus, stoning and shellfish) and refers to religion as a hindrance to Democracy. He makes it clear that America is not a Christian nation, and that if it ever was, “it’s not anymore.” He quips that if Abraham (see: Genesis) had attempted to slash his son Isaac’s throat in modern society, at the very least, “police would be called and child and family services would be expected to take Isaac away from Abraham.” He convincingly makes the point that faith has no place in politics, because we do not share common spiritual eyesight, we can only share common laws. Most powerfully, he says that “religiously motivated [politicians] must translate their concerns into universal — not religious — values.

Where was that Obama at the Prayer Breakfast?

The president’s injection of personal faith into politics — when he so clearly stands against it — was about as bizarre as Sarah Palin being anointed by a witch-hunter who  asked Jesus to fund her campaign and as laughable as four GOP candidates, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain, claiming that God led them all to run for president — he was clearly wrong about three of them because only Perry remains.

In Matthew 5:17,  Jesus says “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I didn’t come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.” Unfortunately, when it comes to conservative politics, Wall Street cronyism and now his politically advantageous blurring of church and state, that is one verse in the Bible that Obama obviously takes to heart.

He doesn’t seem to understand that not everyone is going to like him, but we should be able to respect him. I’m not referring to that generic “respect the office of the president,” I’m speaking of literally respecting him. He can’t continue to say that the sky is blue at 8:00 a.m around blue lovers, then tell yellow lovers that it’s actually a lovely shade of saffron at noon. He needs to find a position that he’s comfortable with and play it, regardless of who tries to tackle him; if he doesn’t, he will continue to be viewed as ineffective and untrustworthy by many people who worked tirelessly to get him elected in 2008.

SEE ALSO:

Malcolm X Artifacts Unearthed

Denzel Talks About Being Black In Hollywood

SEE ALSO:

2 Live Crew’s Ultimate Guide To Miami

5 Fun Things To Do In Philly

The responses were a mix of incredibly funny and, shall we say, disturbing insights into how out of it many white people are about black Americans. To give you a teaser, when a white couple was asked, “Who is your favorite black person,” the woman replied “We’ll that would require me to know a few personally. I know one at work. His name is Ray Ray.”

Oh, yes. She did say that.

And, if you want to hear more ridiculously hilarious answers on white people’s favorite black people, check out the video below.

White People Say Who There Favorite Black Person Is

SEE ALSO:

Want To Follow Drake On Tour? Here’s How

Top 5 Artists Outta Memphis…Can You Guess Them?

SEE ALSO: Anita Hill: Obama’s Mortgage Plan A “Quick Fix”

Dubbed in the press as the “strip club bill,” the legislation received a whopping 395-27 vote. Essentially, the bill would prevent welfare recipients from accessing their benefits in strip clubs, casinos, and liquor stores. The Republican-backed proposal was phrased as an attempt to cut down waste and abuse of the federal program.

However controversial, the bill’s aims are not new; House Republicans voted in similar fashion back in December during the payroll tax extension debacle. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), the mastermind behind bill H.R. 3567, created the bill because he was against the “fraudulent misuse of funds.”

House Republicans are voting on the bill again as part of negotiations between the House and Senate for a yearlong payroll tax extension package and have put pressure on Democrats in Congress to accept the changes since it has passed previously. Some Democrats are going along with the bill in order to speed past other legislative roadblocks.

House Democrats, nearly defenseless, argued in a debate before the vote that the ban would effectively bar citizens from buying necessary food items from a liquor store in case of an emergency.  However, Republicans were careful to not include those stores in the ban and were declared exempt.

Honestly, one has to wonder how many welfare recipients are or have been caught at the strip club. With Americans fighting historic poverty levels, regarding unemployment and foreclosures, why are House Republicans worrying about passing bills that affect welfare recipients?

While Boustany is ironically concerned about the “fraudulent misuse of funds,” Americans must ask themselves if our elected officials are grossly misusing our funds.

SEE ALSO:
Is “The Help” Racist?

Can Crazy Talk Rub Off?

“A housewife died after suffering a massive allergic reaction possibly triggered by the glue in her hair extensions, an inquest heard today.

Atasha Graham, 34, collapsed after a night out dancing at a club where her boyfriend was the DJ.

The hearing at Southwark  Coroner’s Court in London was told the allergic reaction may have been caused by the glue used to attach her hair extensions – but there was no way to be 100 per cent certain.

Home Office pathologist Doctor Michael Heath told the inquest: ‘I’ve seen cases where people using solvent to apply hair extensions has actually caused anaphylactic shock.”

Source

RECENT HEADLINES:

• Tony Corneilus Reflects On His Father’s Passing
• When Will It Stop?! Unarmed Teen Fatally Shot By Police
• “Generation Google” Offers Scholarships For Minorities
• In Somalia, Famine Declared Over But No Celebration Yet
• U.S. Marine Fights Conviction For Suicide Attempt

SEE ALSO: The Real Deal With Blacks And Suicide

Graham, 19, was pursued by a team of police who had attempted to stop and question him.  Reportedly, police witnessed the youth adjusting the waistband of his pants on the street and immediately assumed he had a gun.  The youth, who had a prior arrest record for marijuana possession and burglary, ran from the officers who then gave chase.

The unarmed boy was tracked down by police in his residential second-floor apartment.  When Graham managed to make it inside his apartment, he reportedly ran inside the bathroom with two officers in hot pursuit.  A tussle ensued and one of the policeman fired a bullet from his .9 mm gun, hitting Graham in chest.  The name of the officer who did the shooting has not been released, but reports state that he is a 30-year-old, two-year veteran who has never been involved in a prior shooting.

According to sources, Graham was unarmed:

“He had some weed on with him,” a family friend told the Daily News. “It wasn’t a big deal. They shot him inside the house. … He didn’t have a gun.”

Police reports state that a small amount of marijuana was found in the bathroom and speculate that perhaps the teen had been trying to flush it down the toilet to avoid further arrest.

Graham was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.

Constance Malcolm, 39, who is Graham’s mother, witnessed the incident and is distraught over the death of her son.

“They chased him into the house.  Nobody deserves to be shot in their own home.”

SEE ALSO:

Black Baking Gurus To Compete In “Cupcake Wars”

Anita Hill: Obama’s Mortgage Plan A “Quick Fix”