Anyone mind coming up with a good reason why I should label myself black….in 2008? What do I accomplish by self-labeling according to….umm….the color of my skin (which is actually more caramel or ‘yella’ as I’ve been told) or the ‘kinkiness’ of my (bald) hair? Please explain to me why I should be concerned with cosmetically associating myself with other human beings.

I’ve asked this question to quite a few people and I have yet to receive an answer outside of the usual “you just want to be white” or “you’re ashamed of black people”. Well, if I wanted to be white, this would be more of a narrative about the ills of “being black” and not about the purpose of a label in general. If I don’t care to go around labeling myself as “tall”, does that mean I want to necessarily replace that label with “short”? No, I just see no point in labeling myself, especially according to my skin color or the napocity (n. na-po-ci-ty) of my hair. Oh, but I am guilty of being ashamed of black people…but I’m ashamed of all humans who don’t think for themselves, so that ain’t just the black ones.

Some people have also said that distancing yourself from the label somehow disgraces your heritage. Obviously, I don’t buy this since what I call myself (or don’t call myself) has nothing to do with acknowledging my family.

The truth of the matter is that I had no say in when or to whom I was born. As George Carlin says, everything I inherited from birth was an accident:

I have never understood ethnic pride or national pride…to my way of thinking, pride should be reserved for something you achieve, or attain, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn’t a skill, it’s an accident.

I just don’t see the point in being proud of something just because you happen to be born into it. I should be proud of my darker skin just because I happened to be born black? Shiiiiiiiit….(Clay Davis for you The Wire folks)

That’s the problem–people want to be proud of things they didn’t have to earn. If I’m proud of my family, it’s going to be based on something they did, or the fact that they loved and cared for me…..not because they have dark skin. And since when does every black person qualify as my family anyway? (to be discussed at a later date)

How about this novel idea: reserve pride for things you actually accomplish and earn for yourself. Don’t be proud of being black just because you are black. Be proud of being black because you used your skin color to do something great in life…….and since I can not imagine a circumstance where one would use their skin color to do something positive in life, I fail to see how one would ever reasonably be proud to be black, white, yellow, orange, green, hearts, stars, and clovers.

Unless…

…you’re getting your ass kicked by someone who has told you your entire life that you should be ashamed of your blackness (or orangeness). I could then see a reason to be proud of your skin color, since your ego necessitates such a thing. When someone attacks something about you, I would imagine your natural response is to defend this thing. Black peoples’ response to the assault was to become proud of their skin color. Seems reasonable, right?

Well, fortunately, I wasn’t abused by folks trying to degrade my blackness. I didn’t have to deal with any of that growing up. In fact, most of the teasing or abuse I suffered was at the hands of other blacks….but of course I just chalked that up to people being assholes, and not to the color of their skin. Same for the racism I’ve experienced from whites…..I never thought to attribute that behavior to an entire race, since I know ignorance comes in all colors of the crayon box.

Back to my point….I never really had to face any real torment at the hands of another group of people that would damage my self esteem enough to make me question whether or not I should be proud to be who I am (and I owe all of that to those that put their lives on the line to do what was right). Based on the things I’ve been through and accomplished in my life, I can be proud of being myself whether or not someone tells me I should or shouldn’t. Now, 100 or even 50 years ago, that may have been a different story. Even if I was pretty damn confident in myself, if I heard “you ain’t shit, ya black beast” everyday of my life, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here writing this. I would be marching up and down the street trying to pick my dignity off the ground by yelling how proud I was to be black.

But the reality of the situation is that things have changed….for the better, and while racism still runs rampant through the blood of far too many in this country, a lot of people didn’t have to deal with that stuff, and there’s no logical explanation to why someone should identify themselves by a color.

There was a specific reason why people identified themselves as “black” 50 years ago….but should we automatically continue to do the same thing just because the past generation did? Is there any specific reason why I should associate myself with this label, or any other for that matter?

The last point I try to clear up with this is the racism factor. People always bring up that “you can call yourself whatever you want to, but others are going to call you black, and treat you like you’re black”. Of course, to this I simply say….who cares? If someone calls me an asshole, should I acknowledge this label any more than I should with the “black” label? What if someone calls me “tall”…..should I start to associate with tall people and develop a culture with other tall folks, based on my tallness? It just seems kinda silly to me.

People are going to treat you like shit until the day you die, whether it’s because of the color of your skin, the way you talk, the way you walk, or the way you talk to your invisible friend. Everyone will have to deal with this (some more than others) but we all deal with it. If someone discriminates against you or treats you like shit, deal with it. Whether you pull out a gun and kill them, or you walk away…you deal with it. But nowhere in that process does it require you to acknowledge yourself as a color out of the crayon box.

If someone wants to be racist to me, they’re going to do it regardless of what I call myself or answer to. It only gives the racist one more ounce of fuel in knowing that I hold that label dear to my heart and care about the color of my skin. If someone denies me a loan or doesn’t hire me based on my race, I’ll deal with the discrimination like any other, but that doesn’t require me to call myself black any more than an obese person needs to identify themselves as obese to fight their discrimination. Does an elderly person need to identify as “old” to fight age discrimination? I hardly think so. Then why must I care about a cosmetic label given to me by racists that have been dead now for thousands of years? I didn’t start this nonsense, but I won’t take an active role in keeping it going.

Please, someone give me a good reason why I should do this. Chances are, if you can’t come up with a solid reason why you do something, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

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