Whatever happened to "black"?

Chris Rock, though not everyone's particular brand of comic, is one of the funniest people alive today. In a routine of his, where he addresses the Columbine murders, he explains how angry young white boys are the new people to be afraid of when you are walking down a street or entering an elevator. He goes on to query the audience (or everyone, if you will), just why must there be an explanation about the boys being bullied, or they were loners, or left alone at home too much... what ever happened to "crazy"? Why is it not simply possible that the two youths went bananas and started shooting up the place?

In a less drastic form, the same question can be asked of the term "black". For a while now, there has been this great shift on trying to get the reference to race changed from a colour to some ethnicity reference of origin. For example, I, being of a darker, African origin (way way way WAY back) would be now referred to as African-Canadian; our cousins to the south prefer African-American. Now, according to some laws that are still on the books in the US, Hillary Clinton could be termed African-American if she has a drop of blood in her lineage from an African. Oh yeah, those laws still exist people; don't be naive. So, exactly how would the term relate to her? Obviously, it would not. So too though that it does not refer to or mean anything to a lot of people that are very light in skin, but of African heritage. More over, while it is always important to remember that the African population is the only race to have not relocated by choice (think tall ships and heavy whips), it does not necessarily mean a connection to a place or people that one has never been to, never seen except in pictures or on the Internet and have nothing in common except that some of it's people happen to look like oneself.

I know you are thinking "some", and if you are, I remind you to check out the nearest geography book or World Atlas for the answer to your questions.

So, in essence, I have the same connection as a lot of modern day North Americans; I happen to be of similar hue to my African brothers and sisters. That is where the similarities start and end. I grew up in a Western society with running water, schools, laws, lawns, apartment buildings and cattle that has been conveniently sliced into manageable portions for me in a chilled area for my purchase and future consumption. I know nothing of sleeping under the stars sans tents. I know nothing of being jailed and beaten for simply existing. I know nothing of being hunted down because I belong to a different tribe. I have never gone hungry because the land is dry. I have never been restricted to travel elsewhere simply because the warlord of the day deems it so. I have not been sold into slavery or made to work in a diamond mine. I have not been shot as an example to others.

How am I similar then? How do I connect with these far removed cousins? I do so every time someone utters the word or thinks it silently; black. I don't yell out my window when the dumbass cuts me off, "Nice move, you African-Canadian-Jamaican-Dominican mixed asshole." I yell what everyone else yells, "Nice move, you black ass!" It is what we see. It is how we identify. It is what we are. Personally, if the worst thing you can do is identify me by that which is most obvious (fat and black), then I will be a happy man; better than a bullet in the brain or a knife in the gut any day.

Call me ignorant, irresponsible or a bad father, and you WILL have a fight on your sorely mistaken, stupid {insert proper epithet here} hands.

Peace.