It's been awhile since I've posted here. A lot has changed in my life, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. It's not that I expected the world to change in the time since I lasted posted in this blog, but one can hope....

Something that I am finding rather disturbing is the fact that the concept of "pride in one's heritage" is often intermingled with the tenets of racism. There is no crime in being proud of your ancestry. I am very proud of my African American heritage and those people in my family who came before me. I have a friend who is an Irish-American male. He is fiercely proud of his Irish heritage. I have another friend who is of Mexican descent. He too, is proud of his people. No African-American (or anyone else) that I know of has ever had a problem with a "white man" being proud of being "white."

But before I go any further, allow me to elaborate on a point of social anthropology; there are no "white" Americans. Almost every"so-called" white American can trace their ancestry back to the European country that their ancestors emigrated from in the past. So, every "white American" in the country is a Swiss American, British American, Irish American, Spanish American, Italian American, French American, German American, Dutch American, Polish American, etc.... To the members of any European-American variant that I may have missed in this, I ask your forgiveness in advance.

Let's remember something; America as a country is just over 230 years old. The Mayflower expedition is nearly 400 years old. Before that, we had Columbus, Vespucci, and Erickson who came over here to explore. The only true Americans were the migratory peoples who made it over here first from Asia/Africa via the Bering Strait; and their descendants, of course. The rest of us are just chumped-up squatters with delusions of manifest destiny...except for the African Americans, because most of our ancestors didn't have a choice in the matter.

As a matter of fact, African Americans are the only people in this country who might have more than a little trouble tracing their heritage. Between the information lost on the crossing and further info lost from slavery records, solid facts about a given person's African descent can be sketchy at times. The most accurate sources are historical insurance records, bills of lading from import/export companies, written historical accounts, and the more traditional methods of family record keeping (family bibles, stories passed from one generation to the next). However, most of that info only takes us so far; to the last slave owner before emancipation.

In fact based upon the above points, technically there are no "African Americans" either. Colloquial knowledge never looks at Africa in the same way that people look at Europe. People often forget that Africa is a collection of independent countries. With that in mind, there are Nigerian American, Zaire-Americans, Kenyan-Americans, and so forth. However, because of the loss of the records as to the location of the various villages and cities where the slaves were taken from, we use "African American" as a "catch-all" term for our people.

Now going back to our original topic; nobody is trying to disenfranchise "white America," despite what these "white supremacist" groups are saying. However, when African Americans or other American citizens of color try to speak up and stand up for what should be their birthright by being born here or granted full citizenship, we are trying to "further the Black agenda" or denying the birthright of "white children."

By the way, and one might think that I'm betraying a trust, I am going to reveal the "Black agenda." Do you know what African Americans want? Do you want to know the goal of the "Black agenda?"All that African Americans want in the USA are freedoms granted to every other American. We want wealth, land, and a prosperous future for our children. Nowhere in that is a desire to "screw over white America."

I repeat; nobody wants to deny "White America" their right to be proud of their heritage. What these "so-called defenders of the 'white' way of life" fail to understand is that most of the "logic" behind their thinking would insure their "pride" only at the expense of every other non-white group's pride in their people.

They usually try to justify their hate by claiming that they are hated in turn. It is a very vicious circle of flawed logic. I'm not claiming that there are not any racist African American people. There are some of us who are just as sick as their white counterparts.

Yeah, I said sick. Racism is a sickness and should be labeled in the same category as other mental illnesses. This is an illness using fears of cultural diversification and miscegenation as a tool to keep us from understanding that we all share this world and we need to learn to get along with each other. The worse part of this is that this sickness is contagious. Older victims often infect their young with this malady; often at an early age.

Now, look at this short film on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1LPf9mnyU

If you listen to the insults being thrown at the workers, you will find that the vast majority of them are racially focused. Just for the record, this is in my hometown, Chicago. And do you want to know the funniest thing? If you asked any of them if they were racist, they would vehemently deny it to the end.

Go figure.