A couple of points –

Many black Americans are not from Africa, nor do they have any African heritage at all. They may be from Haiti, Guyana, Jamaica, South America, etc – and while there probably is some African in the blood of most black people, it’s a little like thinking of all whites as “European-American” and saying that we should all be grateful we’re not still living in Sweden and paying high taxes.

See how silly it sounds turned around? that’s why the argument about “they should be grateful to be in America” doesn’t wash for a broad class of people defined by race as you do – to assume that all black Americans share a heritage from a single region, and that living in that region would be horrible, is as silly as thinking all whites are from, say, Italy, and we’re lucky to have escaped government corruption and trains not running on time. We don’t know where everyone’s from, and I would wager that the vast majority of Americans have *no idea* what living in the vast majority of Africa is like, because war and famine are all that make the news.

For different views on race in pop culture you can check out Racalicious:
http://www.racialicious.com/

For some a few different veiws on Africa America in general:
http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/
http://blacksnob.com/ (I loooooooooooooove the Black Snob!!)

For deconstructing what it means to be white in America:
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/
http://everydaywhiteness.wordpress.com/

hope these inspire ;)

Peace and Blessings
J

I don’t think language is nearly as important as having diverse friends (no tokenism!). In my experience people who are only emotionally close with their own race, socioeconomic class, etc. etc. tend to be the ones most prone to generalizing the Other. Those who have grown up in diversity and maintain strong emotional bonds/have a genuine mutual respect w/a diverse group of ppl tend to not rely as heavily upon identity politics to frame their perceptions and interactions with others. If you live somewhere culturally homogenous, exposure to different groups through travel, community programs, etc. is absolutely critical imo.

It doesn’t matter what words you use if you lack the ability to see another person as a person. If you don’t respect a different culture, set of values, etc., if you lack the ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective either through lack of education or personal resistance, avoiding racial terms isn’t going to make you less racist.

Your assumption that someone (me for example) referring to you as such is a barrier, a creation of a divide that shall not be crossable isn’t totally on the money, at least when it comes to me. Does it occur to you that due to (and now I’m speaking for me) my past experiences; referring to you any other way (well to be honest I’m not going to call you the ‘black chick’ unless I know you well enough to say, nor am I about to refer to someone with large boobs or some other obvious physical characteristic as the ‘boobed chick’ for instance but that’s another post about manners that I’m not quite done writing yet :) ) make me leary of some how offending you? I’ve had my head ripped off verbally for not acknowledging someone’s color and ethnic descent and was accused of ‘lumping all races into the generic term of nonwhites’.

If someone has a striking (gorgeous, beautiful, luscious) hair color and I refer to them as the woman with the awesome auburn hair, that’s okay, I would assume you’d agree? But if I admire the color of my son in law’s skin, which is a gorgeous blue/black with shades of warm and warmer browns; or the lovely shade of cafe au lait skin tones that my grand daughter has which to my mind is the most perfect blend of her parents’ skin color, I’m a racist?

I really wish that society would pick one. And send me a memo.
:(

An interesting choice of phrase.

(The comment might go to moderation but I’ll pull it out asap.)

Maybe it’s not right but it’s how I roll.