No Straw MenEnlightened discourse proscribes arguments that are weak or imaginary, like straw, set up only to be confuted summarily.

“African-American” Does Not Mean “Black”

A version of this blog post appeared in the Utica Observer-Dispatch (January 17, 2005) and the Hamilton College Spectator (January 30, 2004), and was noted on the Hamilton College Web site (January 18, 2005).

Asked to describe a person with black skin, most people would reflexively call him an African-American. But not all black Americans come from the African continent—many are Haitians and Jamaicans—and relatively few today actually grew up there. Race does not necessarily follow geography. Additionally, many people native to Africa are white, like the settlers whose ancestors have been there for centuries, or brown, like the Arab tribes in the north.

Therefore, we should not interchange African-American (an American raised in Africa or who retains African customs or mores) with black (a person with black skin). Self-identity is important, but objectivity is imperative.

In fact, let’s not even refer to people by their superficial and divisive skin color. Let’s just identify people, of all colors, by their individual traits, by what Martin Luther King Jr. once called the “content of their character.”

Addendum: In contrast to “African-American,” “Hispanic” derives from culture and language instead of race.