Lets just get this out of the way – I admit it. I agree with Glenn Beck.
What?
No, I don’t agree with Glenn Beck’s views on President Obama, our current governmental leadership, or his comment that President Obama is racist (which is beyond insane). In fact, I rarely agree with Beck as he makes a lot of crazy, absurd, and over-the-top comments to rile up viewers, create debates, and most importantly keep his name (and his media programs) in the forefront.
However, Beck often makes his opinion known on certain topics, and his latest point of view regarding the upcoming United States census is one that is very interesting…one that yes, I agree with.
The new census forms set to begin distribution, fired up Beck due to three particular choices given to respondents, “Black”, “Negro”, “African-American”. Beck, known for letting his tongue loose had the following comments:
“African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. That is not a race. Your ancestry is from Africa, and now you live in America. Okay, so you were brought over, either your family was brought over in the slave trade, or you were born here and your family immigrated here, or whatever. But that is not a race. Negro used to be — is it still — not acceptable, is that still the clinical term, I don’t know, It has negative connotations in this country. But what I’m asking is: what are the clinical categories?”
The comments made has led to many anti-Beck comments. However, Beck did not say anything that isn’t necessarily false or offending, but raised a fair point. As a person of color, what exactly are the categories indeed?
Despite the leader in the free world being a man of color, issues like this prove that we as a nation aren’t as close to where we should be on race relations and communications.
The term “African-American” is completely bogus. And to be honest, so are “Asian-American” and other continent-American titles. Such titles do not describe race, but ethnicity and place of origin.
In specific cases such as Dave Matthews and Charlie Theron who are both South African born, white, and now U.S Citizens – they are not considered “African-American”. And why not?
How about an Indian born person that lives in our country, are they Asian-American?
The term “negro” should not be an active label. It’s a word that is tied directly to some of the worst times this nation has ever endured.
The truth is our nation is still uncomfortable in how to address this issue.
Despite our growth and continuing understanding of others who are different, there are some issues that we all need to deal with. And part of that is dealing, communicating, and interacting with people of color without offending them.
In my personal experience, there are friends that I’ve known for years who are uncomfortable in dealing with people of color, afraid of being offensive, and paranoid of how they themselves will be viewed.
Beck is right.
We’ve become so immersed in being politically correct, we’ve forgotten how to be real, how to be genuine, and most importantly, how to be a person.
For in the end, we create more barriers between us than there actually are.