"Black" is Alright

I didn't remember. However, it is nice of this tweeter to bring us a video in which Don Lemon takes April Ryan to the cleaners.

Remember that time that Don Lemon argued Kamala isn't African American? pic.twitter.com/JfMDBeeJGf

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) August 2, 2024

Whenever it was that this discussion took place-  Lemon parted ways with CNN over 15 months ago- it has taken on added significance as Kamala Harris' ascension to the presidential nomination of a major political party is celebrated as the first African-American woman, first Asian-American woman, or first black woman. (Rarely is she identified as the "first biracial woman....."  I don't make the political rules.).

The vice-president's father, divorced for decades from his wife, was a somewhat prominent economics professor at Stanford University. He was raised in Jamaica- not Africa- where he became an "economic consultant" to the government. He came to the USA and attended UC-Berkeley where, according to Kamala's older sister, he and his girlfriend from India "fell in love... while participating in the civil rights movement." They got married, had two children, and divorced.

April Ryan stated "many Africans landed in Jamaica and these other Caribbean islands," to which Lemon Lemon correctly noted "Jamaica is not America."  It is not in the USA and not in Africa, but instead is located in the West Indies..

 

Scratch someone whose parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents came from Italy, and she will tell you that she is "Italian" or "Italian-American." Someone whose ancestors hail from Poland will tell you that he is "Polish" or "Polish-American" and someone who is Irish will.... well, you get the point. The descendants of these individuals may at one time have hailed from Asia or another continent but they are, for almost all relevant purposes, of Italian, Polish, or Irish descent. Ryan must know this.

And the same principle applies to persons whose immediate ancestors hail from the West Indies. Thus exists the Harvard Generational African-American Students Association, which does not posit a distinction without a difference. While the US Supreme Court was considering Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, an editor at the Harvard Crimson wrote

I wish I had the statistics to describe the feeling of otherness that stems from being a minority within a minority. Therefore, the first step to improving representation among Generational African American students is to offer a more specific breakdown of Black identities. Then, the schools can quantify the disparity and potentially understand the drivers and as a Generational African American at Harvard myself, I wish I had the statistics to describe the feeling of otherness that stems from being a minority within a minority. Therefore, the first step to improving representation among Generational African American students is to offer a more specific breakdown of Black identities. Then, the schools can quantify the disparity and potentially understand the drivers and its connection to the legacy of slavery. its connection to the legacy of slavery. "best practice."

As she understood, not all blacks are identical. Descendants of Africans brought to the shores of what became the USA possess a different heritage, and occupy a somewhat different space, than the sons and daughters of immigrants from Nigeria (or elsewhere in Africa) or the offspring of parents from Jamaica.

The latter includes the two Harris daughters, Maya and Kamala. As Lemon told Ryan, "all she had to say is 'I'm black. I'm not African-American.' That's it." Instead, in the wake of the vice-president's impending nomination for President, there has been a concerted attempt at creating a Kamala Harris who does not exist. Bi-racial, she is commonly and legitimately characterized and identified as black. However, the attempt to convert her to "African-American," whether for inter-sectional or other purposes, is not compatible with the facts and trivializes the legacy, often misery, of descendants of people brought to the American shore by European slave traders. 

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