NAMES & RACE

 

A few days ago, I was driving and listening to my radio. I was listening to a “traffic & weather” station which also featured news reports and commentators. On this occasion a reporter or columnist for The Washington Post was giving his opinion on some issue that involved African Americans. What got my attention was his use of a common expression today: “people of color.” His employment of the term seemed pompous and implicitly racist.

All Americans today must surely understand that “people of color” is an exclusionary phrase. White people need not apply. However, African American thinkers have generously opened the door to all non-white minorities. Many such minorities have graciously accepted this offer, joining African Americans in this non-white-only socio-political “club.” They, too, can be encountered talking pompously about “people of color.”

It appears that the United States has become polarized.

Further, a special group such as Jews, who have traditionally played the “white card” when it benefited them and the non-white one when that card benefited them, have recently been nudged into a bifurcated persona. This has caused some to liken the two colors of Jews to “Siamese twins.” To separate them is to annihilate them. What to do?

For many years white people have watched new generations of African Americans insist on a new, respectful term for them collectively. From Negroes and Coloreds to Blacks and Afro-Americans to African Americans and People of Color. As mentioned, the last category is unique for African Americans, as it also embraces anyone who isn’t “white.”

“White” appears to be slated to be the “nigger” of the future in an America filled with “People of Color.” No wonder that this term, “People of Color,” is spoken in terms that are not only infused with pride but pompousness.

It goes without saying that African Americans should have a collective term for themselves that’s inclusive, accurate and respectful. Such a term would not change with each generation nor offend any other group.

Inferentially, the term “African American” does not “cut it” with the hip, glib, sophisticated quasi-African-derived Americans of today. Yet, “People of Color,” having been extended to all non-white minorities, is no longer specific enough. There must be a term for African Americans that excludes all non-African-derived people – not in a racist way but in a racial, or categorical, way – and that was not burdened by disagreeable connotations.

As a white person categorically, I have found the term “People of Color” engenders ambivalence in me. I had been educated years ago to know that “white” was the status acquired when all the colors of light “come together.” At the other end of the “pole” was the place that no colors of light escaped to manifest themselves somehow. The term “black” was coined for this pole. Hence, white could be called “all-colors.”

For that reason I supposed that white people were inherently “People of Color.” As such, I viewed white people to be inherently the most diverse group of people on Earth. There was no need for them to seek “diversity,” as they were already as diverse as anyone could ask for and still maintain their categorical identity. The colors, features and shapes of white people are breathtakingly diverse.

Except in the case of albinism, all white people are, in fact, non-white. You see, we’re not perfectly white. Some of us are a very light brown, some of us are slightly pink, and some of us are slightly “off-white” to some degree or other. Admittedly, from a distance we all may appear to be “white.”

White people are a thoroughly admirable, diverse people. They should not have to face discrimination from an array of darker faces building a new idol called “The Face of Change,” which only serves its devotees – People of Color.

All Americans should be interested in protecting our valuable concept of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Establishing exclusive categories of people and attempting to advance them above all others styrikes threatening, discordant notes.