The Black Informant

Political Correctness: Does it Actually Help Black/White Relations?

I think everyone can laugh at the following scenario: You are a Black person and you are in a conversation with a white person. The white person is telling you a story about something that may have happened a few weeks ago and he/she gets to the part of the story when they have to identify the race of the person involved in this story. If you are black, you automatically know that the race of the person is Black by the hesitancy the white person is having describing the person (”He was a…you know…a bl…African-American”). Usually what follows next is that they look to you as to see if you were offended in anyway. Once they see that you did not flip out, they continue with their story.

One day, I decided to have a little fun with this scenario as I was listening to this dear white person tell me this story. When she got to the part of the story where she had to identify the race of the person, she must have named every shade of black as she herself was blushing in embarrassment. When she finally said “black”, I proceeded to “go off” as if she struck some kind of internal nerve. I then told her that I am going to have to call Jesse and Al on her for not getting it right. At this point, she looked as though she needed some medical attention. After I was finished, I just laughed and told her that I was just kidding. We both laughed at the incident.

As I walked away, I began to realize just how political correctness (PC) has done nothing to improve Black/White relations. Here you had this nice person who probably did not have a racist bone in her body, feel a brush with total fear simply because she had to refer to someone by their race. As I thought about it some more, I then realized how we have allowed PC to change how we reference ourselves many times. We have gone from colored, black, Afro-American, to African-American — all within a few decades. It is no wonder white people are confused what to call us. We really do not know what to call ourselves. Even in my own writing, I use the term African-American at times partially out of habit. The truth is, most blacks that may prefer to be called African-American have never set foot on the continent and will probably never will. Unless you are related to Alex Haley, most blacks cannot trace their roots back to Africa. Most blacks today (whether they want to admit it or not are not even 100% black). Take me for example, my skin completion is dark brown, but I am made up of at least 2 races that I know of: African and American Indian (My last name Brayboy actually comes from the Lumbee tribe located in the southern region of the east coast. Brayboy actually came from the word Braveboy. Prior to that, it was just Brave). I also have quite a few relatives that have very distinct Indian features. Of course I ended up with the nappy hair (that part is straight outta Africa). The PC term African-American is not exactly true in my case. I am sure many of you have similar backgrounds.

I do not experience a brief burst of memories of walking in the lush jungles of Africa, or the wonderful times being in the village with my kin folk as we watch the giraffes and elephants roam in the vast grassy fields when someone refers to me as an African-American. To me, someone calling me black is no different then someone calling me an African-American.

I was talking with someone a while ago about the importance of having good teachers that really care for their students, and don’t just see them as “little projects”. I also mentioned that when a teacher really cares for a student, in the end that student is not going to care about the color of the teacher. All they see is that someone cares for them. Later, a white woman approached me and was telling me that she could hear what I was saying. She said that she was a teacher in an inner-city school and how she really enjoyed it. As this woman was talking to me, she was almost at the point of tears because of the love that she had for her students (who were mostly black). She also expressed to me how she felt kinda awkward being a white woman that loved her students the way she did. I am convinced that it was PC and not skin color that made this woman feel as though she was in some sort of quandary.

You know, it is almost a common thing for me to see these days a white family with adopted Asian children. Many of these Asian kids come from countries in which they are either under heavy persecution, or were birthed to a family in a country like China, where there is a limit on the amount of children a family can have. In any event, these precious kids need families that will love and take care of them. Many of our precious black children are almost in the same boat. Many of them have to grow up not knowing what it is like to have a father in the home, or a mom that is always around because maybe she is working 2 + jobs. Sure, this is not the scenario in all black homes, but we certainly lead the nation in these situations. I believe that PC has scared off many would-be good parents that just happen to be white for our dear children. Maybe that is why most white families opt for adopting Asian children over black. As I mentioned earlier, when a child sees real love, they do not care about the color of the person. Do you think that when a black child is being held by a white woman, that child is saying “get this white face away from me?” PC has always said that black belongs with black, white with white, etc.; however, PC comes up short in the event of a crisis. The amount of children that we have in our community that do not have fathers in the home is a crisis that requires all hands on deck.

The biggest fear that most blacks have about what I am talking about is that our children will inevitably turn white. In other words, they will loose their sense of black culture. A good parent will never allow that to happen. I have seen parents of adopted children literally bend over backward to see to it that their children are exposed to their roots.

So as you can see, PC has done nothing but further divide the relationship between blacks and whites. Blacks must get over the fear of being referred to as an American first. Whites must get over their fear of being misunderstood for caring for what happens in the black community. Until this happens, we will never see true unity in this nation.