What if…the labels/categories/names we use to categorize our identity tribes suddenly became null and void?

    Now I know there are many aspects to our identities, but for purposes of this discussion, let’s focus on those relating specifically to race/ethnicity/color/nationality.

    You know: Census boxes and the like.

    How do your categorize yourself?

    What would you do if tomorrow that category ceased to exist and no alternative was put in its place?

    Have you ever gone to check off a box and thought, “This doesn’t really reflect who I am, the complex mosaic of my ancestry, allegiance and affiliations?”

    Have you ever wondered what life would be like beyond your category?

    Do you embrace the category that society labels you with, or do you live outside the lines?

    And why does it matter so much to us anyway?

    Because I’m EAL (ethnically ambiguous looking) and Biracial, the world gives me ample opportunity to ponder these types of questions and possibilities.

     Now check it: I am proudly and unambiguously Black/African American in my allegiance and identity, no question.

     But I find it both fascinating and frustrating that some of us want to be called Black, others African American and still others don’t care. So if we, as a people, don’t agree on our label, does that make our label any more or less valid?

     We’re all aware that we don’t come up with our labels or the rules that govern them. Lots of folk are quite to cite the “One Drop Rule” as some archaic relic of slavery that has no significance to proud, free Blackfolk in American today.

      Does it?

      I’ve asked dozens of Latino/Hispanic people to PLEASE clarify the difference between those terms, which one applies to which people and how to use each properly.

      The answer is always the same: I don’t know.

      Maybe they do know and they’re just keeping it to themselves, I can’t tell. But, having grown up in the 60s, I’m careful to try to label folk in the most accurate and respectful way.

      The town I live in has lots of Blackfolk—many of whom are Caribbean immigrants. And some of them are very vocal about saying “I am not Black. I am not African American. I am Jamaican/Barbadian/Guyanese, etc.”

       I understand their perspective—they didn’t emigrate here to identify with the folk the bottom of the Promised Land totem pole, but this view of themselves as somehow completely separated from us is, frankly, ridiculous.

       Plus, they came here to be integrated into the Great American Mainstream, so how many generations into being here will they keep identifying themselves by the place they left rather than the place they chose to come to?

       The topic becomes much more complex with the rise in intimate integration/intermarriage/immigration and the like. Many labels are straining at the seams. My niece, for instance, is Black, Jewish and Asian. I’ll let you do the math to figure out percentages. But what, technically, is she?

       What is your label?

        Has it changed in recent years?

        Is it the same label that the government gives you?

        Society?

        Your identity tribe?

         And who would you be without your label?

         Please write and tell me. Everyone’s opinion is equally valid; everyone’s voice is welcome.

          Holla!