Politics

US Elections: Politics, Color and Racism, Part II

Written by Guest Author on October 28, 2008 10:35 am EST

Written by,
Professor (Emeritus) Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D

Color classifications among Americans of different races and ethnicities are often perplexing to people outside the US – including Kenyans.

Why, for example, is Senator Barack Obama referred to as black, while he is so light – you know, lighter than some Indians and Arabs?

The US Census Bureau recognizes five (5) categories for racially classifying Americans, namely: White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
In Kenya, one can strangely be simultaneously white or brown or even black. I’m always amazed when I hear of lost black people or children being described as “mweupe” (white) or “mweusi” (black) or hudhurungi (brown).

In America, however, racist practice dictates that you’re either 100% white, or black even if you are 99.99% white. This leaves Senator Obama no room to maneuver between shades of blackness. Sisters and Brothers who are so white that they could “pass for white” remain classified as black. Senator (soon to be President) Obama is therefore black.

But African Americans did not become black without struggle. They fought hard to reject the use of slave names like Negro, colored, mulatto, darky, and nigger (the worst epithet) during the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Movement encompassed: comprehensive demands for human and civil rights, political and economic empowerment, and human recognition and respect for people of African descent. Nobel laureate Dr. Martin Luther King was among the leaders of the crusade before he was assassinated in 1968.

The Movement called for demonstrations, strikes, marches, and sit-ins in all-white restaurants, schools and residential areas. An end to segregated bus seating was spearheaded by Rosa Parks – the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

Predictably, white segregationist authorities tried to suppress these activities violently, but to no avail.

The calls for “Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful” preached the potential power of the African descendants and respect for the humanity embodied in the black race. The leaders advocated natural hairdos and African dress. Youths like Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) championed this doctrine as a means of rediscovering their lost “Africanness”.

The rejection of the term Negro and the use of Black instead were initiated by the Nation of Islam led by the Hon. Elijah Mohammad and his brilliant disciple Malcolm X. Their publication Mohammad Speaks (today The Final Call) preached self-discipline, economic independence, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and sexual promiscuity. The Muslims reformed many former criminals, including Malcolm X himself, and established successful independent businesses. Tragically, like Dr. King, Malcolm X was also assassinated during the upheavals of the Civil Rights Revolution.

In academia, black students staged violent demonstrations demanding a relevant Afrocentric education for African descendants – which Eurocentric scholars had ignored for centuries. Consequently, Black (later Africana) Studies Departments proliferated in most American Universities and Colleges.

Black scholars started Afrocentric Periodicals and Journals, e.g., Journal of Black Studies and Journal of Black Psychology. Similarly, academicians wrote pioneering books on Black Studies. Moreover, they organized Professional Societies, e.g., the African Heritage Studies Association and the Study of Classical African Civilizations.

Black Churches, newspapers and magazines beat the same drum of “Black Power” and the “Black is Beautiful” message.

White electronic media started airing black programs on television and radio and eventually stopped the use of Negro and Colored altogether in favour of Black and, later, African-American.

That Senator Barack Obama is on his way to the most powerful office in the world, speaks powerfully to what African-Americans can now achieve in the United States of America – despite a history of slavery, racism, segregation and economic deprivation.

Professor Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D., 73, is former Professor and Deputy Chair of the Black (Africana) Studies Department, City College, City Univ. of NY (1967-1995). After retirement, Prof. Kiteme served as a member of the Kenya Standing Committee on Human Rights (1996-2001); and Vice-Chair of the Kenya National Library Service (2001-2007). He has been patron/advisor for village projects such as schools and health centers, and coordinator of international academic exchange programs.

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