African American Labels

In light of  a recent interview with Raven Symone this past October (http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/showbiz/raven-symone-gay-labels/index.html) ,Raven dismissed the use of the label, African-American. Stating  " I know where my roots go to; I don't know how far back they go. I don't know what country in Africa I'm from. But I do know that my roots are in Louisiana. I'm an American, and that's a colorless person, because we're all people. I have lots of things running through my veins." this in itself raised a question in my head,Who exactly are the "African American" people?  and When is it necessary to categorize blacks using that particular label? Here's my opinion...


Refusing to identity with societal terms is completely and respectfully the  individual's choice. Society should not and will dictate to how Black people navigate themselves. It is like telling a person who is from Greece or Poland that they cannot present themselves as White. It is utterly their choice.

Raven is a mixed race women and evidently so.Should we be calling mixed race people that have a connection to black culture through ancestry and genetics, African American/Canadian? Well.. we certainly don't call them African-Mexican-Italian, it simply isn't a norm in the way we refer to mixed race people. Sticking to one category of being is contradicting to everything else that runs through their blood and going by African-American or even considering yourself a Black individual completely (in my opinion) is choosing to ignore the other if not many other cultures and genetics that you've been blessed with.

What gets really complicated is regardless of whether you identity with Mixed Race, in society eyes you are still and always will be black. If you have the curls, the light skin, or even a round nose and big lips and what are considered "black features" (because we suddenly all look the same) you are, black or if you wish African-American. Society ignores the secrets we hide in our skin...they are overlooked..blatantly ignored. What of a black women who (as Raven implies herself) doesn't even know what part of Africa she is really from? Is she still considered an African? Do" white" people in South Africa have the privilege of calling themselves African-American? Why does it matter because we're coloured?

These questions will probably never be answered truthfully and probably not without bias and stereotype but let me you know what you think about Racial Labels.