Monday, August 16, 2004
Playing the Card
You know on all those forms and applications and whatever, when it has the section where you’re optionally invited to disclose your “race/ethnicity”? Why is it that some races get a more specific designation than others? Some people get to designate themselves as “African-American,” or even “Pacific Islander.” I usually get stuck with the very general “White,” or even worse, “Caucasian.” I know the word “Caucasian” has come to mean generally “of or relating to the white race,” but I don’t have any ancestors who hail from the Caucasus, in Turkey. My ancestors came primarily from England and Holland, with a pinch of Sweden thrown in for good measure. Caucasus is even technically in Asia. Can’t I designate myself as a “European-American,” or, better, an “English/Dutch-American”?
What about a person descended from white South Africans? Is he an “African-American”? What about a black person who was born and raised in Africa, and then emigrated to the U.S. as an adult, but has not yet achieved citizenship? Isn’t he an “African,” not an “African-American”? Plenty of white people live in Hawaii. Are they “Pacific Islanders”? Sometimes I think this racial classification thing is out of control. Can’t we all just get along?
What about a person descended from white South Africans? Is he an “African-American”? What about a black person who was born and raised in Africa, and then emigrated to the U.S. as an adult, but has not yet achieved citizenship? Isn’t he an “African,” not an “African-American”? Plenty of white people live in Hawaii. Are they “Pacific Islanders”? Sometimes I think this racial classification thing is out of control. Can’t we all just get along?
Comments: Post a Comment
