I said many years ago that I didnt use the term African-American" and that I never would. It is part of the Lexicon of the Left and as the old book the Tyranny of Words points out the side that defines the vocabulary of a debate wins the debate. But what really is the problem with the term in question?
Addressing a large panel of black conservatives on Hannity last night host Sean Hannity asked whether African-American" was the correct label for black people. Thankfully a vast majority of the panelists quite passionately agreed it was not mainly making the point that we shouldnt hyphenate ourselves. This is true but it still doesnt get at the heart of the matter.
I said many years ago that I didnt use the term African-American" and that I never would. It is part of the Lexicon of the Left and as the old book the Tyranny of Words points out the side that defines the vocabulary of a debate wins the debate. But what really is the problem with the term in question?
Many terms have been used to describe blacks over the years from Negro to colored from the innocuous to the pejorative. But they all had one thing in common: they referred only to race. But African-American references a different part of the world. This can only serve to further alienate black folks from America. Is this constructive?
Of course its also silly beyond words. If you want to describe someones race you use a term that references race not the supposed geographical origin of his remote ancestors. African-American is a term whose literal interpretation tells you nothing at all about race. Not all Africans are black. North Africans are Arabs (who technically are Caucasian) and at one time the region was occupied by the Germanic Vandals who seized it from the Roman Empire. And of course whites have now lived in sub-Saharan Africa for hundreds of years and Indians have occupied the region since the 19th century.
Speaking of which no one feels compelled to refer to those white Africans as European-Africans" and though the term does exist nobody takes pains to label me a European-American." Were just white. Likewise black" had been a preferred descriptive for blacks for a very long time; note that Negro" is from the Spanish or Portuguese word negro which means black." And its clear to me that African-American" was adopted for social-engineering purposes.
Nonetheless conservatives will dutifully use African-American" along with the rest of the Lexicon of the Left. Some will say here that I have an obligation to call people what they wish but actually….
No I dont.
If for instance someone wants to be called God" its not incumbent upon me to descend into sacrilege. Other appellative desires are destructive or just plain stupid. And Im under no obligation to be party to folly.
Conservatives need to stop conserving liberals decades-old social victories and this includes those in the linguistic realm. Would you take your lead from neo-Marxist college professors and Lamestream-media lunkheads? Well who do you think originates these language innovations?
The invisible hand of Gramsci is everywhere purge it from your mind from your heart and from your lips.