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You are not African-American, You are White
by Acidus at 12:47 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
] A small group of Westside High School students plastered
] the school Monday with posters advocating that a white
] student from South Africa receive the "Distinguished
] African American Student Award" next year. ] The students' actions on Martin Luther King Jr. Day upset
] several students and have led administrators to
] discipline four students.
...
] The posters were removed by administrators because they
] were "inappropriate and insensitive," Westside
] spokeswoman Peggy Rupprecht said Tuesday. WTF is this? It seems that Blacks professing they are "African American" is prefectly ok, but for a white guy to profess his nationality, it is "inappropriate and insensitive." What kind of bullshit double standard is that? If anything he is more African-American they any of these people: He was born in African, he lives in America. How many of these other students running for African-American Student of the year can say that? |
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Theodore Roosevelt on Hyphen Americanism...
by Decius at 4:41 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
] There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.
] When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to
] naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I
] have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born
] abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
] This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the
] hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or
] French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the
] spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the
] United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds
] any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal
] to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just
] as good an American as any one else. One might observe that if "French-American" or "Irish-American" was a common term for European immigrants in the early part of this century, then its interesting that such terms are not as common today. That such immigrant groups aren't really considered "separate" anymore. It is possible that the use of such a nomenclature is a stage in a process from foreign group to a fully integrated group, and for obvious reasons this particular group has been slower then others to integrate. This would imply that would will see it melt away in time... But not until you forget how to tell the difference between people in that group and people in other groups, as you've forgotten how to identify Americans as "Irish" or "Italian" or "French," and were you DO notice such distinctions its a matter of curiousity only. Theodore Roosevelt on Hyphen Americanism... |
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You are not African-American, You are White
by Elonka at 5:12 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
Here's an editorial about the situation that appeared in the USC paper: http://www.dailytrojan.com/article.do?issue=/V151/N06&id=04-king.06v.html |
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You are not African-American, You are White
by Shannon at 2:19 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
]] A small group of Westside High School students plastered
]] the school Monday with posters advocating that a white
]] student from South Africa receive the "Distinguished
]] African American Student Award" next year.
]
]WTF is this? It seems that Blacks professing they are "African ]American" is prefectly ok, but for a white guy to profess his ]nationality, it is "inappropriate and insensitive." What kind of ]bullshit double standard is that? If anything he is more ]African-American they any of these people: He was born in African, ]he lives in America. How many of these other students running for ]African-American Student of the year can say that? more than anything, this exposes the problem with the term "african american". In a literal, semantic sense, this kid was probably the only truly african person in the school, but lets be honest, that's not what they meant. the award was designed to recognise a black student in honor of MLK's efforts for civil rights. it has nothing to do with africa, and this kid, or his family, should've recognized that. This boys campain may have been innocent, but it wasn't very smart. Somehow a stigma got attached to the term "black", which i understand, and am sensitive to, but "african-american" has it's own set of problems, as this case proves. Anyway, i'm not sure suspensions were necessary, but I certainly don't think would make sense for this kid to win an honor that was really not designed for him, and only made sense because someone didn't completely think out the consequences of a particular P.C. term. People love to smugly exploit semantic inconsistencies and loopholes like this, but it's not gonna work very often. At best, it'll spur debate about how to refine the definitions we use. |
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RE: You are not African-American, You are White
by Acidus at 2:34 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
] lets be honest, that's not what they meant. the award was
] designed to recognise a black student in honor of MLK's
] efforts for civil rights. it has nothing to do with africa,
] and this kid, or his family, should've recognized that. This
] boys campain may have been innocent, but it wasn't very smart. I would argue that there very fact you have a Black Student of the year instead of a Student of the year is in and of itself a mistake. What does that say, "None of these students could win 'Student of the Year' so we have a running just for them?" Bullshit. And if its an African American Club in the school giving the award for raising issues or something, isn't a white just as able to educate the public about mispresentation/mistreatment of Blacks. If the answer is no then a lot of my fellow democrats have wasted there time. I think a white kid from South Africa could just as easily talk about issues/problem/slavery in African as a Black kid whose last 3 generations are from Arkansas or something. The "We should be treated equal, but at the same time have our own special club just for us" thing does not work. Just my $0.02 |
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RE: You are not African-American, You are White
by k at 4:24 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
[yeah, of course. i mean, you've hit the core of many critical issues of civil rights activity. The school, in their efforts to honor MLK, *should* have had an award for "Civil Rights Activist of the Year" for the student most committed to working toward social change or whatever. I agree that it's not really useful, when you're trying to talk about equality, about color blindness or whatnot, that you create race-based categories for honoring people. If your initial argument was "that award seems offensively narrow" i'd probably agree. The article doesn't indicate the criteria for the award, and says only that it's given to a "distinguished" individual selected by teachers. Ostensibly it could be given for excellence in sports as much as in academics or activism or anything else, though i would hope all elements would be taken into account. Seems like a fairly hollow award in a narrow field of competitors, but if i say that, it's offensive to the students that have recieved it in the past, and who are almost certainly deserving of honor, regardless of race. fundamentally, the only way to move beyond these kinds of issues is to not base activities, awards or whatever on race at all... base them on cultural influences, historical movements or leaders, or common interest, but racializing things only perpetuates a racial view of the world.]-k |
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You are not African-American, You are White
by Elonka at 3:41 pm EST, Jan 22, 2004 |
] A small group of Westside High School students plastered
] the school Monday with posters advocating that a white
] student from South Africa receive the "Distinguished
] African American Student Award" next year. ] The students' actions on Martin Luther King Jr. Day upset
] several students and have led administrators to
] discipline four students.
...
] The posters were removed by administrators because they
] were "inappropriate and insensitive," Westside
] spokeswoman Peggy Rupprecht said Tuesday. Acidus comments:
WTF is this? It seems that Blacks professing they are "African American" is prefectly ok, but for a white guy to profess his nationality, it is "inappropriate and insensitive." What kind of bullshit double standard is that? If anything he is more African-American they any of these people: He was born in African, he lives in America. How many of these other students running for African-American Student of the year can say that? I agree, this baffles me. To me, "African-American" does not mean only black, it means people whose ancestry is African. Using myself as an example... Though I rarely use the title, I can claim to be Polish-American, or Croatian-American. The latter one is especially relevant because though two of my grandparents were born in Croatia, their own parents were born in Hungary. But I don't see that as negating the Croatian heritage. I grew up with Croatian culture around me -- dances, food, language, customs, and people who identified as Croatian. To say that I could not identify myself as of Croatian heritage because my ancestors hadn't been there for enough generations, or were of the wrong skin color, would be absurd. |
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