I recently read Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card … and Lose, by Larry Elder. Larry has hit it on the head, again. I am a successful man by any measure: high earner, two degrees from MIT, a general manager of a $100 million business, manage a team of 400 people, married and a father of four. My wife is of Polynesian, English and Irish heritage, and I have a distant European heritage in my own family line. I am particularly dark-skinned and grew up in the American West Indies. 

What I find chilling in America is the overt efforts by many in the ‘black’ community to build an entire culture and identity out of a skin hue. I find this amazing because visually it is difficult to determine whether many ‘blacks’ are, in fact, ‘black’. Simply on appearance, is Barack Obama Middle Eastern, Hispanic or ‘black’? Further, why is Halle Barry ‘black’? Why is Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, the chairman of African American Studies at Harvard, ‘black’? Why, in spite of his explanation of his multi-cultural heritage, is Tiger Woods ‘black’? 

In fact, what is ‘blackness’ as defined in 21^st century America? I truly don’t know. Bear with me on this point.  I understand that I am a descendant of sub-Saharan Africans. What I don’t understand is the minimum requirement to ascribe ‘blackness’ in modern America. In America’s racist past, it was the infamous 1/32 rule. However, today, it appears to be little more than strict adherence to a separatist, isolationist code. Again, bear with me on this point. 

Conservative descendants of sub-Saharan Africans are routinely dismissed and caricatured by the African American community. Even Colin Powell’s Jamaican heritage could not save him this fate. For the uninitiated, within the African American community, ethnic blacks from the Caribbean are admired and viewed as more closely linked to Africa than African Americans without that experience. The particularly Negroid features and dark skin of Condoleeza Rice and Justice Clarence Thomas neither apparently meet this minimum requirement for ‘blackness’. Yet, the straightened hair and particularly Caucasoid features of Halle Berry, or non-Negroid features of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson or Tom Joyner, and even Barack Obama’s 50/50 cultural heritage do not preclude their full attainment of ‘blackness’. Evidently, ‘blackness’ is a state of mind or a willingness to go on record with a very narrowly defined world view that is popularly accepted by many. And, if you deviate from this view, you are deemed devious, deficient or deceived. Worse yet, you are assumed to have deep psychological issues resulting from your self-loathing due to the pain of partial acceptance by a “hostile majority society.”  And, if you reject this psychological evaluation, you are simply too deeply deceived to see clearly your true state.

Nor is ‘blackness’ genetic. I watched intently Skip Gates' series on PBS detailing his ancestry and DNA confirmed testing to determine that he is, in fact, less than 30% ‘black’. According to Skip, DNA researchers have assembled a genetic database of native Africans to use as a baseline with which others may test to determine correlation and, thusly, their ‘blackness’. In Skip's case, his DNA was determined to be less than 30% sub-Saharan African and more than 70% European. Therefore, if ‘blackness’ is not genetically defined (since it is not apparently even correlated with a genetic relationship to sub-Saharan Africa as Skip Gates is much more ‘white’ than ‘black’, but, oddly, is not considered ‘white’) or barely discernible visually, just what is it exactly? 

I have pondered this question for much of my adult life and have come to the sad conclusion that for many in this country, racial identity politics is a convenient package to wrap an affirmation and victimization mentality around. Simply put, it is popular to be the under-dog. In fact, it is even hip. Borne of a longing for a romanticized image of a past culture severed by the history of African slave trading, this intensified longing gives rise to viewing modern neighborhood slang, cadence and gait as evidence of a “culture”. A fondness for a particular type of music or clothing fad is viewed as further evidence of “culture”. Ironically, if anything, these symbols of culture are symbols of American pop-culture as they were foreign to me when I came to the mainland for college. 

Exaggerated reference to injustices of the past trivializes not only those injustices; it trivializes all injustice. Blind adherence to a victimization mindset, regardless of one’s accomplishments and life experience, diminishes those adherents to mediocrity at best or a cycle of despair at worst. Clearly there are instances of overt or covert unfairness based on race. I would argue that these are of much less severe nature than ever before in American history as there are today sufficient legal protections amounting even to legal preference. 

However, attitudinal adjustment is not the responsibility of one group alone. Like the overly sensitive rape victim venturing out on a first date, today’s generation of African Americans could stand to not perceive racial animus in every slight. I would therefore argue that the single best thing that the person of sub-Saharan African descent can do in America is to disavow himself of any concept of ‘blackness’ and to affirm a concept of American individuality. Clearly ‘blackness’ is a construct of a racist past where the very term was meant to denote a sub-human condition, as distinct from ‘whiteness’. Why in the world would any rational being cling irrationally to this construct and then fight to define an entire world view around this outdated construct? 

In the Bible the synoptic Gospels relay the story of the Cyrenian Simon who carried the cross for Christ while Christ was on his way to his crucifixion. I’ve often marveled at that simple reference to Simon that so obviously described his likely appearance. He was most likely a medium to dark-skinned African, as Cyrene is present day Libya.  However, in the Bible, he was simply described as a man of Cyrene, as that is either where he was from or he had a strong resemblance to the vast majority of Cyrenian people with whom the authors of the Gospels had interacted.  He was not described by characteristics of his physical appearance, but by aspects of his origin.

I love myself, which is why I reject ‘blackness’. I am a human being, an American, a descendant primarily of sub-Saharan Africans, a Christian and a father. I am a native of the US Virgin Islands and a lover of Caribbean foods and music. I love the American experiment and the bounteous gifts it has provided for me and my family. I happily served her military and hope to leave a legacy of contribution to this greatest country on God’s Earth. I am no more ‘black’ than any one else is ‘white’. Rejecting race classification is the necessary step to move the human race forward. Let us no longer view ourselves as hyphenated Americans. Rather, let us accept her goodness borne of a precious price of a racist past, but also borne of a wondrous epiphany to craft a country and a culture around ideals of individuality and the freedom and responsibility to pursue the aspirations of that individuality. Let us simply accept ourselves as amongst America’s oldest citizens. Let us simply accept ourselves as American.