Sam Smith - As a writer and an editor, I have long had a problem with the way ethnic groups are defined and mentioned in writing. I think it all started back in the 1980s when Jesse Jackson began calling for the use of the term "African-American" and not much later gave a speech on the Mall in which he never referred to his ethnic cohorts as anything but "black."
The truth is, whatever they claim, people are highly inconsistent in such matters, and the best guide is to listen to what ordinary people say in ordinary conversation. Thus African-American is preferred by academics, white liberals trying to prove their sensitivity and black activists trying to make a point, but on the street, more than three decades after Jesse Jackson's efforts, black prevails.
In the wake of this I came up with a proposal for ethnic categories that went absolutely nowhere, namely that every ethnic group name should be limited to one word of no more than a dozen letters with hyphens prohibited. Further, ethnic groups should not have capital letters because they are not a place, a person, or a name on a door or business.
The problem is that ordinary people actually prefer the short and the simple, but those trying to exercise leadership over them and others tend to prefer more complicated terms. Further, they are thinking about branding rather than defining, a fact given away by their preference for capital letters - just as advertisements use capitals where they don't belong. Consider the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which in a more normal era was known as food stamps.
Now we are faced with the move to rename Columbus Day as Indigenous People's Day. Certainly there is no reason not to dump the atrocious Christopher Columbus from our heroes of holidays but surely we can do better than this pretentious, bureaucratic-sounding alternative. It's the sort of term one imagines Barack Obama using for a White House conference but not the way any normal human being would describe themselves. Further, its advocates should know that in Canada, it is resented by some of the native culture because of its hostile use by the French who referred to them as indigène.
I don't have a solution, but offer two phrases used in Canada: First People and First Nation. Accurate, non pretentious and kind of nice.
After all, would you rather sit in a bar on your day off and celebrate First Nation Day or Indigenous People's Day? And which makes you feel better about those you are celebrating?
2 comments:
"Race" is more of a social than a biological reality... I prefer to define people's ethnicity in cultural terms... what language(s) you speak instead of what physical characteristics you possess which generally speaking should remain irrelevant and ultimately are --except for racist perceptions serving unfair inequities... So count me in as a Franco-Anglo-Hispanic for the three languages I am glad to be able to write poetry in... those define me a lot better and more usefully than my lily-white countenance ever will!!
You're right in the 'race' has no biological or scientific basis. It does have historical value, but no contemporary value other than to race baiters making money from it and politicians who can fashion their campaigns lies based on geography. It will not soon change. To do away with the construct of race is to change the discussion in America completely. What if there was no racial perforative to call someone. What if a person couldn't blame problems on such and such racial group. Who do people blame then? The short answer is, we have to look at ourselves....all of us as a society and solve problems together as Americans. Culture is important...we should know our individual history and celebrate it, but that has nothing to do with race. But as long as Americans allow the fed to segregate Americans by race, they will stay embedded in our private lives and control us. Do away with race and they won't know who to bully. Look at Germany as an example. You won't find any 'race' blocks to check on government forms. They found out it didn't work out very well for some people in the 20th century. Eventually, that will happen here if we don't learn from their history. Once government divides the population, the collective bureaucracy can impose its will and there is nothing we can do.
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