The African American Hashtag
by William Jackson, M.Edu.
Edward Waters College - Jacksonville, Florida
#MyQuestToTeach @wmjackson
(https://myquesttoteach.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/myhashtag.jpg?w=414&h=148)
What kind of vision do African Americans have of
# - Hashtags passing through a digital decade?
Defining the African American experience through
hashtags has become a way of sharing experiences
and telling a story, technology has opened doors
so that African Americans across this nation can
highlight their accomplishments, share their
challenges, testify to their blessings, reflect
on their setbacks to be setups to future success
and even plan their come backs.What better way to
share a life than with hashtags. A personal
exclamation point for the world to see what your
about and who you associate yourself with.
The sharing of content allows for the uplifting of
African American people, the challenge is the definition
of the hashtag of African Americans. Having difficulty
in defining African Americans. African Americans still
have a challenge in defining themselves, coming to
terms with being assimilated to a culture that
intentionally blinds and distracts them
from a unified vision and a unified purpose.
(https://myquesttoteach.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/hashtags5.jpg)
The statement, "Where there is no vision, the people perish,"
is seen as content is created in the randomness of chaos
that is sometimes prevalent on the Internet, and in some
cases confusion as to the direction of African Americans
of this nation. The powers that wanna be only caress
African Americans with promises, trinkets, that allows
temporary pleasure in being falsely accepted and needed.
Look at how some African Americans run to political
candidates and seemingly bow down asking for the candidates
blessings and acceptance only to be ignored again in the
political process that looks at African Americans as a
temporary comodity to be discarded when they are used to the
pleasure of others and not needed because their votes have
been taken as easily as police are killing unarmed African
American boys and girls, but these same politicians are
unwilling to do anything about it. Blacks keep voting for them.
What hashtag can stop the killings, to put an end to racial
profiling and even change the stereotypes of African American
men and boys? Collectively African Americans can make a difference.
#BlackLivesMatter
(https://myquesttoteach.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/blackgirlsmatter.png?w=680)
If other cultures can get the media to change their depictions
why can't African Americans? Maybe if African Americans stop
running after the latest DVD of an entertiner that calls
their mothers, sister and daughters ho** and bit****. Maybe
if African Americans stop spending their monies on Air Jordansz
or the most expensive weave or even chemical treatments to make
them look lighter and whiter. Take those same dollars and invest
in educational and entreprenurial foundations to invest
in their young people. Build African American boys and girls
into financial brokers, political lobbyist and international
business men and women. The hashtags will change for
African Americans
#BlackEducator
#HBCUConnect
(https://myquesttoteach.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/hbcuconnectcom.jpg)
How can people get mad at Beyonce when she expresses her
right to speech and is criticized because she speaks out
for her African American brothers and sister and when
whites do it about endangered insects and animals they
are celebrated. This shows you the value of African
American lives comparied to insects and animals. Wake up
African Americans... The Oscars are showing you the reality
that we can entertain them, we just can't earn their respect
to be represented.
Look at the Presidential elections of today, African
Americans are again having their egos stroked because
someone else needs their vote, but offers no more progress
than a dog would receive from its owner for being trained
to go the the bathroom outside.
What is the vision for African Americans in the
hashtag of this digital expansion of technology, and
an expansion of so many Social Media platforms. African American
children need to understand that just because you have
access to global resources does not mean you have to share
your life globally especially if it will cause problems
later in life with higher educational entrance and employment.
Wny would you show the worst of yourself and your community
online when you alienate yourself by placing violence to the
world that already is fearful of your expanded exhistance.
Cities like Jacksonville, Florida will expand police activity,
but won't expand employment opportunities to the teens that
need it. Where is the re-investment in communities that are
suffering the most, what educational opportunities in
STEM, STEAM and STREAM are there and coding?
(https://myquesttoteach.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/first.jpg?w=680)
The lessons of technology are slowly being learned. What is
the vision of integrating technology to enhance and better
the lives of African American children? There is an incredable
attraction to tech by children, toddlers, and even infants,
but what direction will they take beyond games, Apps, music
downloads, gossip and entertainment? What kind of job opportunities
will be available beyond texting, Facebooking and Snapchatting?
Vine and Periscope are dominating the digital airwaves and
Wi-Fi signals are transmitting over trillions of bytes of
data of African Americans personal stories, but what
benefits does this technology create for African Americans
or is this just another opportunity for people of color
and culture to show just how messed up they are from
colonization and assimilation?
When was the last time youth and teens told their
own story, shared their dreams and aspirations about
survival and perseverance to thrive beyond
just surviving. Too many children of color are satisfied
at just living day to day instead of living for a
secure and comfortable life. If #BlackLivesMatter then
that means EVERYONE must buy into it, they must invest in
#BlackLivesMatter and must stand up for justice.
(https://myquesttoteach.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/blackgirlsmatter.png?w=680)
#BlackLivesMatter must be a vision of now and the future.
The importance of having a vision can be seen throughout
history; a # hashtag vision for African Americans motivates
and focus now in the present.
This is not a put down or throwing dirt at parents, schools or
society in general, it is a call for parents of color and culture
to use their mobile technology for the betterment of their
children. Too many children today do not have a vision beyond
their circumstances, parents do not have a vision for
their homes beyond their issues and experiences.
The hashtag is a brilliant tool to promote unity and create
strength with connections and growing a network, but when it is
filled with self demeaning images, videos of destruction and words
that hurt and destroy it is hard for the world to take seriously a
vision for African Americans that only use technology
for foolishness and self destruction.
#BuildBlackFamilieswithEducation
Rest assured Hillary knows how to stroke the egos of African
American families using Social Media with hashtags of empty promises,
family members that attract thousands just to "be seen" or ignoring
the true needs within the African American community.
#BlackLivesMatter
What hashtag will you use to define yourself, your community, your
neighborhood, your family and your life? Mines is and will always
be #MyQuestToTeach to help children of color and culture better
themselves either directly or indirectly through access to
educational resources and using technology.
Will you allow someone else's hashtag to define you or will you
create and build your own?
Hashtags:
#AfricanAmerican
#NMAAHC
#BlackTwitter
#POCIT
#POTUS
#FLOTUS
#MyQuestToTeach
#BlackHistoryMonth
#BHM
#BloggingWhileBrown
#AfricanAmerican/Black youth
#BlackandStem
#AfAmEdChat
#Blackwomen
#Blackmen
#sandrabland
#tamirrice
#africa
#chosenpeople
#blackyouth
#blackpower
#blackpeople
#prayforafrica
#fightthepower
#BlerdNation
#Negro
#NegroPlease
#TheNegroLeague
#TuskegeeAirMen
#HBCU
#HBCUNation
#EducationalTechnology
Top Hashtags for Black People
http://top-hashtags.com/hashtag/blackpeople/
Best Black Twitter Hashtags
http://www.dailydot.com/lol/best-black-twitter-hashtags-2015/
I always appreciate Mr. Jackson's insight into cultural issues and this is no exception......except, there is a grave error in his remarks here and its OK, because it is a common mistake.
African-American is not exclusively Black
Unfortunately, the hyphenated term, which was adopted to avoid recognizing people by their race without a distinction to color has been misunderstood and mis-assigned to be used strictly by the Black American community.
I will share this little tidbit and then let it flow from there.
I went to a diversity training session in one of the top firms in Chicago. It was going really well until they conducted a session on names and assignments. The question was "what name or title in society do you associate with?" So everyone started rattling off names, titles, associations, etc. and they wrote them all on a blackboard for all to see.
Someone mentioned "African-American" and so they asked everyone to raise their hand if they were A-A. I raised my hand.
One of the two diversity trainers (who happened to be black) said to me point blank, "You can't be A-A, you aren't black"
I said "you didn't ask me if I was black, you asked who was A-A" The trainer said that it was impossible for me to be A-A.
Now there was a kind of slow murmur in the room. It seems the diversity trainer wasn't as diverse as she thought.
Fortunately, the other trainer caught on and asked me why I thought I would be A-A. I told him that my dad was born in Africa but lived most of his life in the US. That in turn made him more A-A than anyone in the room, including the trainers. Then the light bulb went on. You see A-A can include, Egyptians, Tunisians, Congolese, Liberian, Zimbabwean, and descendent's of transplants to Africa many moons ago. Former English, Dutch, Indian, Italians, French Huguenots, the list goes on. Finally the male trainer says "You can be whatever you want to be" as a kind of bail out to move on.
The female trainer then approached me and apologized profusely and admitted openly how uneducated she really was about what being African American really meant. She said, "you are absolutely right, being African-American is not about being black at all, its about coming from an African based heritage which encompasses many traditions & backgrounds.
Because my father was African-American, my mother & father weren't allowed to give blood. US health laws forbid anyone in the US either born or married to someone who was born in Africa before 1945. Fortunately my fathers US citizenship was formalized when he joined the Navy in 1952 and served.
So to wrap it up, I just wanted to say that while the use of A-A and black are used interchangeably in Mr. Jackson's article, in reality, they aren't the same.
Whatever it might logically be extrapolated to mean, "African-American" is only used for black Americans. It was created to replace older terms like "colored" and "negro" and to indicate they were from the U.S. Whites, Arabs, Asians, etc. from Africa aren't "African-Americans" in the way the term is used. In fact, sometimes it excludes black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean.
Quote from: Tacachale on February 28, 2016, 10:05:29 AM
Whatever it might logically be extrapolated to mean, "African-American" is only used for black Americans. It was created to replace older terms like "colored" and "negro" and to indicate they were from the U.S. Whites, Arabs, Asians, etc. from Africa aren't "African-Americans" in the way the term is used. In fact, sometimes it excludes black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean.
I understand that, absolutely.
I just think it promotes that all Africans are black which I disagree with.
Quote from: spuwho on February 28, 2016, 10:59:53 AM
I understand that, absolutely.
I just think it promotes that all Africans are black which I disagree with.
That's why I don't like the term African American (which pinpoints Sub-Saharan Africa); I'm fine with simply being called black. Just like the term 'Asians' (not that I'm a spokesman for Asians) it leaves out Russians, Kazakhs etc and singles out what were called 'Orientals' back in the day.
Quote from: I-10east on February 28, 2016, 12:57:56 PM
Quote from: spuwho on February 28, 2016, 10:59:53 AM
I understand that, absolutely.
I just think it promotes that all Africans are black which I disagree with.
That's why I don't like the term African American (which pinpoints Sub-Saharan Africa); I'm fine with simply being called black. Just like the term 'Asians' (not that I'm a spokesman for Asians) it leaves out Russians, Kazakhs etc and singles out what were called 'Orientals' back in the day.
As an aside:
In the UK, they call Jamaicans, etc "Afro-Caribbeans" - people of African decent are referred to as African or Black Africans. Of course, at some point they become "Black British."
Asian refers to people from the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. They refer to people from Japan, China, etc as Orientals. That's not considered offensive over here.
So it all comes down to where you live, I guess.
I've always used "black" but I am happy to call someone "African American" if that's what he prefers. I don't call white people anything other than white, though. That's just stupid!
Quote from: Adam White on February 28, 2016, 02:47:46 PM
Asian refers to people from the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. They refer to people from Japan, China, etc as Orientals. That's not considered offensive over here.
Nope, just the opposite. When Americans say 'Asians' it refers to Far Eastern people (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian etc) and not Central Asia and India. I hope that you are joking; People haven't been using the term 'Oriental' since the eighties; Most Asian people hate that term.
True, I haven't heard the term Oriental in decades.
Quote from: I-10east on February 28, 2016, 06:10:29 PM
Quote from: Adam White on February 28, 2016, 02:47:46 PM
Asian refers to people from the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. They refer to people from Japan, China, etc as Orientals. That's not considered offensive over here.
Nope, just the opposite. When Americans say 'Asians' it refers to Far Eastern people (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian etc) and not Central Asia and India. I hope that you are joking; People haven't been using the term 'Oriental' since the eighties; Most Asian people hate that term.
I'm not joking - in the UK they (sometimes, not exclusively) refer to people from Japan, etc as 'oriental' and it is not considered insulting. That was the point of my post - what is insulting in one culture may not be viewed the same in another. Asian-Americans don't like the word 'oriental' but Asian Britons don't have an issue with it.
That said, I think 'oriental' is falling out of usage - you're probably just as likely to hear the person referred to as 'Japanese' (or Chinese, etc) or perhaps 'East Asian'. I think it might be a generational thing. But the term 'oriental' isn't so politically-charged as it is in the US.
Quote from: spuwho on February 28, 2016, 10:59:53 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on February 28, 2016, 10:05:29 AM
Whatever it might logically be extrapolated to mean, "African-American" is only used for black Americans. It was created to replace older terms like "colored" and "negro" and to indicate they were from the U.S. Whites, Arabs, Asians, etc. from Africa aren't "African-Americans" in the way the term is used. In fact, sometimes it excludes black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean.
I understand that, absolutely.
I just think it promotes that all Africans are black which I disagree with.
There are problems with any conventional term. Most likely understand that not everyone from, say, Italy or France are ethnic Italians and French. There are other Europeans, Africans, Arabs, Asians, etc. But people understand what "Italian-American" and "French-American" conventionally mean. At any rate, the percentage of people of, say, black Italian ancestry in the U.S. is fairly low. Same deal with Africa. The vast majority of people in the U.S. with (comparatively recent) roots in Africa are black - specifically, they're mostly the descendants of black slaves from western Africa. A very small number are descendants of white colonists like yourself. There are an increasing number of Arabs from northern Africa, and the census is likely to add a new category for them. "African-American" as a term has its problems, but so does "black" and all the various historical terms.
I had an acquaintance whose parents came from Libya who used to claim to be "African-American" in surveys and job applications, thinking (probably incorrectly) that it would giver her some kind of leg up. It came off as pretty insensitive.
Quote from: Tacachale on February 29, 2016, 10:30:08 AM
Quote from: spuwho on February 28, 2016, 10:59:53 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on February 28, 2016, 10:05:29 AM
Whatever it might logically be extrapolated to mean, "African-American" is only used for black Americans. It was created to replace older terms like "colored" and "negro" and to indicate they were from the U.S. Whites, Arabs, Asians, etc. from Africa aren't "African-Americans" in the way the term is used. In fact, sometimes it excludes black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean.
I understand that, absolutely.
I just think it promotes that all Africans are black which I disagree with.
There are problems with any conventional term. Most likely understand that not everyone from, say, Italy or France are ethnic Italians and French. There are other Europeans, Africans, Arabs, Asians, etc. But people understand what "Italian-American" and "French-American" conventionally mean. At any rate, the percentage of people of, say, black Italian ancestry in the U.S. is fairly low. Same deal with Africa. The vast majority of people in the U.S. with (comparatively recent) roots in Africa are black - specifically, they're mostly the descendants of black slaves from western Africa. A very small number are descendants of white colonists like yourself. There are an increasing number of Arabs from northern Africa, and the census is likely to add a new category for them. "African-American" as a term has its problems, but so does "black" and all the various historical terms.
I had an acquaintance whose parents came from Libya who used to claim to be "African-American" in surveys and job applications, thinking (probably incorrectly) that it would giver her some kind of leg up. It came off as pretty insensitive.
Yes, it's not really that difficult. It's not about the literal definition of the words, it's about the understood meaning. People who make an issue of it are likely doing so not because of an honest mistake so much as an attempt to take offense.
Quote from: Adam White on February 29, 2016, 11:41:52 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on February 29, 2016, 10:30:08 AM
Quote from: spuwho on February 28, 2016, 10:59:53 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on February 28, 2016, 10:05:29 AM
Whatever it might logically be extrapolated to mean, "African-American" is only used for black Americans. It was created to replace older terms like "colored" and "negro" and to indicate they were from the U.S. Whites, Arabs, Asians, etc. from Africa aren't "African-Americans" in the way the term is used. In fact, sometimes it excludes black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean.
I understand that, absolutely.
I just think it promotes that all Africans are black which I disagree with.
There are problems with any conventional term. Most likely understand that not everyone from, say, Italy or France are ethnic Italians and French. There are other Europeans, Africans, Arabs, Asians, etc. But people understand what "Italian-American" and "French-American" conventionally mean. At any rate, the percentage of people of, say, black Italian ancestry in the U.S. is fairly low. Same deal with Africa. The vast majority of people in the U.S. with (comparatively recent) roots in Africa are black - specifically, they're mostly the descendants of black slaves from western Africa. A very small number are descendants of white colonists like yourself. There are an increasing number of Arabs from northern Africa, and the census is likely to add a new category for them. "African-American" as a term has its problems, but so does "black" and all the various historical terms.
I had an acquaintance whose parents came from Libya who used to claim to be "African-American" in surveys and job applications, thinking (probably incorrectly) that it would giver her some kind of leg up. It came off as pretty insensitive.
Yes, it's not really that difficult. It's not about the literal definition of the words, it's about the understood meaning. People who make an issue of it are likely doing so not because of an honest mistake so much as an attempt to take offense.
I don't think that fits Spuwho's MO at all. I can also see why people from/recently descended from Africa the continent might be confused or miffed by the phrase "African-American" being applied largely to people with a much more distant connection. But at that point just use a different term and move on. In my friend's case if she'd just said "Libyan-American" or "North African" or even just "I've got roots in Africa", it wouldn't have come off so poorly.
No one in our family is neither miffed nor offended. It is the reality of the day, nothing more. I was just singling out a unique aspect of Mr Jackson's article.
Adam White did highlight a problem with these cultural titles that get assigned. They dont mean the same things everywhere and just what is accurate or the best to use can vary.
For what its worth, I am heading back to the family "homeland" in Africa later this year. The house my grandfather built is still standing and I will visit the family cemetery as well. It will be a fun trip!
izikhathi Great!
Quote from: spuwho on February 29, 2016, 01:32:04 PM
No one in our family is neither miffed nor offended. It is the reality of the day, nothing more. I was just singling out a unique aspect of Mr Jackson's article.
Adam White did highlight a problem with these cultural titles that get assigned. They dont mean the same things everywhere and just what is accurate or the best to use can vary.
For what its worth, I am heading back to the family "homeland" in Africa later this year. The house my grandfather built is still standing and I will visit the family cemetery as well. It will be a fun trip!
izikhathi Great!
I didn't mean to imply that Spuwho was looking to be offended. Sorry about that. I was thinking in more general terms.
FWIW, I get irritated by all the "Irish-Americans".