Another commentary on race

Yesterday (September 24^th) while flipping through TV channels I came across The Jeff Probst Show. The discussion topic was, Things you can’t say on TV. I was hooked when a member of the studio audience, a youngish, white male, said he didn’t know if he was being offensive when he used the terms black or African-American or people of color and he wasn’t sure if either was correct. I don’t think he received a complete answer; this is how I would have responded:   

Anthropologists historically categorize people as belonging to five main races. Described by color (note: I refrained from saying skin color), these races are Red, referring to North American Indians; Yellow, people of Asian ancestry; Black, people of African ancestry; White, those of European and Scandinavian ancestry; and Brown, people of Latin ancestry including South Americans, and some Caribbean countries. The 21^st century politically correct racial terms are Native American, Asian, Black, Caucasian and Latino or Hispanic. So it is not offensive to speak of a “black” person when discussing race.

The problem arises when we assume race and culture are interchangeable. What I call a “hyphenated-American” descriptor speaks of culture, not race. African-American, Italian-American, Cuban-American, German-American are cultural terms. Culture speaks of a person’s lifestyle, religious beliefs, dress, food, activities, music, speech patterns, and more. Cultures evolve as people move from country to country and within various societies, bring their own cultural practices to that new environment, and assume that society’s practices and norms as their own. So a black Frenchman who moves to America cannot rightly be described as African-American based solely on his skin color. The cultural practices he brings with him from France which he continues to identify with in America make him French-American.

Cultural identification is primarily a choice. It is an indicator of how one chooses to live, and is related to the social practices, morals, traditions and mores with which one identifies. Since culture groups include people of various ethnicities, the “hyphenated-American” as a cultural descriptor may be applied to people of different skin colors. A biracial person of Korean and African ancestry who lives in America might consider himself African-American or Korean-American. It is his choice. Most people from the English-speaking Caribbean countries identify themselves as Caribbean-American (or Jamaican-American, or Trinidadian-American), in spite of varying degrees of skin color and wide diversity of ethnic origins.  So black and African-American are not interchangeable.

                The term people of color is correctly used to describe groups of people who are not Caucasian (white). Colored person is inappropriate and considered an insult.

                One final point: The Bible teaches that all people descended from one man, Adam. [See Genesis 1 through Genesis 5 for the creation account]. In fact, every time race is mentioned in the Bible, it refers to the human race, never a sub-set of people. One common ancestor, then, means there is only one race. There is no racial divide.

Contrary to conclusions drawn through ignorance and still held in some places today, scientific research confirms that there is no biological difference between the races. It is the reason why blood, organs, and bone marrow can be successfully transplanted between people of different ethnic origins. In recognition of this, anthropologists around the world are modifying their verbal and written language, replacing the word “race” with “people groups.

I am eager to hear your comments.

Max