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  Posted By:
  Motherof2 at 03/08/2008 1:25:37 PM
  Comment:
  Mr. McWhorter,
  I just listened to you on the CSPAN show BookTV. I was intrigued to learn more about you, so I searched on the internet. I have read a few of your articles, and I find this one quite limiting. I am an African-American. I disagree with your stance to return to Black. I slip every now and then back to Black. But, that isn't my point. I feel African-American distinguishes me from referring to myself as a color. Recently, my son (5 year being raised in Orange County, CA) heard the term "black man" spoken on the television. He turned to me and asked, "Mom, what is a black man?" This isn???t a term that he has heard from our family or at his Christian school. So, why do you feel returning to Black with a capital "B", will help the next generation of children see themselves as something greater than a color? I understand that as my son ages, he will come to an awareness that "Black man" isn't referring to the color of his crayon. But, I struggle to accept that Black with a capital "B" helps us as a people in America. When I refer to myself as an African-American, I am acknowledging that my heritage traces back to African. I am a descendent of African living in America. Granted, I haven't located or traced that heritage back to Africa, but, I believe in a connection beyond slavery.
  Therefore, I struggle even more with the term "black enough". Recently, I had a conversation with a Jewish co-worker who immigrated to America from Iran as a teenager. Our discussion was about black people using the word *** when referring to one another. He was confused as to why people would use this term. Well, so am I. Again, I feel as a people, if we want to move beyond color and degrading terms, we must come to a greater awareness of self. If we want the media to stop raising the issue of "black enough", we must move beyond the word Black with a capital "B". Can you write an article or discuss how to move beyond the conversation of "black enough". The last time I looked in the mirror it was apparent. I am ready and hoping that soon we as a people of African descendent will be seen as a person.
  Lastly, in the interview I was very pleased with your response to the Michelle Obama statement.
  Best Regards
  
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  Posted By:
  niyosoul at 03/06/2008 4:49:39 AM
  Comment:
  Black is very diverse...what I would like is for all people all over the world with Black African origins to understand the geography of their complexions, their roots... where they come from and what their true history is going back 10,000 years...it is only then that we can truly understand who we are, why we are the way we are, the differences amongst the many tribes..African American and African alike and finally where we are going.
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  Posted By:
  Aba at 02/17/2008 11:44:18 AM
  Comment:
  A pitfall of Mr. McWhorter???s thought process is to conflate, if you will, a black southern rural culture with "blackness." There is no one black culture, in fact, but many. Black people in the Un-united States, like those in the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa, make many classes and have lived in many regions of this UUS. Now, of course, McWhorter is really talking about descendants of slaves in this UUS, but shouldn???t he just say this? And isn???t he really talking about his problematic hierarchical understanding of assimilation, class, and ethnicity among, known nominally as, African Americans. To put this in a historical framework, were the slaves in the North, in West Africa, and Jamaica not black because they did not work on Southern plantations?
  
  But lets make this easier. Lets look at those slaves in the North in colonial British America:
  
  Were they, because they were closer to whites, primarily white women and men tanned in perpetuity or were they, I would claim, enslaved black people, who were culturally black but still different from the enslaved sisters and brothers in the South, and still culturally different from their own slaveholders in the North?
  
  A little reading on colonial slavery in the north would set this straight right quick!
  
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  Posted By:
  Aba at 02/17/2008 11:31:31 AM
  Comment:
  A pitfall of this thought process is to conflate, if you will, a black southern rural culture with "blackness." There is no one black culture, in fact, but many. Black people in the Un-united States, like those in the Caribbean, make up many classes and have lived in many regions of this UUS. To put this in a historical framework, were the slaves in the North not black because they did not work on plantations?
  
  Were they, because they were closer to whites, primarily white women and men tanned in perpetuity or were they, I would claim, enslaved black people, who were culturally black but still different from the enslaved sisters and brothers in the South, and still culturally different from their own slaveholders in the North?
  
  A little reading on colonial slavery in the north would set this straight right quick!
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  Posted By:
  liz at 02/17/2008 4:00:50 AM
  Comment:
  I think this article problematically presumes that "blackness" is a word that relates only to African American identity. What place does a Haitian America, Nigerian American, any other such people, or for that matter black people in alternative scenes like punk/goth etc ??? who are indeed black in the phenotypical sense but would be determined, by your standards, to fall outside of the margins of "black" in America. The consequence of this is a marginalization that???s ironic coming from a community whose experiences in America have been literally formed from a long exclusionary process.
  We can and ought to talk about what the substance of blackness is but not in such a way that hierarchically organizes which people constitute as black. It is contradictory to a progressive mindset, of which has been import to survival. Rather, we can and ought to expand the boundaries of the word to recognize the hybridizations of ???black???, which do not distill blackness as this article would claim. Growing differences in experiences of black people merely point to the ways in which "black" sustains a link to the past, since the word continues to be viable, but has a future because of its elasticity to move beyond a simple additive definition. We are more complex than that.
  
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  Posted By:
  liz at 02/16/2008 5:52:02 PM
  Comment:
  I think this article problematically presumes that "blackness" is a word that relates only to African American identity. What place does a Haitian America, Nigerian American, any other such people, or for that matter black people in alternative scenes like punk/goth etc ??? who are indeed black in the phenotypical sense but would be determined, by your standards, to fall outside of the margins of "black" in America. The consequence of this is a marginalization that???s ironic coming from a community whose experiences in America have been literally formed from a long exclusionary process.
  We can and ought to talk about what the substance of blackness is but not in such a way that hierarchically organizes which people constitute as black. It is contradictory to a progressive mindset, of which has been import to survival. Rather, we can and ought to expand the boundaries of the word to recognize the hybridizations of ???black???, which do not distill blackness as this article would claim. Growing differences in experiences of black people merely point to the ways in which "black" sustains a link to the past, since the word continues to be viable, but has a future because of its elasticity to move beyond a simple additive definition. We are more complex than that.
  
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  Posted By:
  annevilla at 02/16/2008 5:43:59 PM
  Comment:
  NEW - on YOUTUBE "OBAMA SONG PORTRAIT: WE ARE THE CHANGE by Bjarne O."
  
  As the composer, Bjarne O., writes:
  
  "I combined Latino Rhythms, Chinese Erhu, African- and Native-American Voices with the Contemporary Symphonic Orchestra - in the great spirit of Unity - for this Song in support of Obama's great and true message: "Our Time Has Come; We the People are the Change we've all been waiting for. We are the Hope for the Future - YES WE CAN."
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCQYTu8u7Sg
  
  
  YES WE CAN - ALL OF US TOGETHER
  
  Anne
  
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  Posted By:
  liz at 02/16/2008 5:39:29 PM
  Comment:
  I really think this article problematically presumes that "blackness" as a word relates only to African American identity. What place does a Haitian America, Nigerian American, or any other such people who are indeed black in the phenotypical sense but would be determined, by your standards, to fall outside of the margins of "black" in America.
  We can and ought to talk about what the substance of blackness is but not in such a way that heirarchically organizes which people constitute as black. Rather, we can and ought to expand the boundaries of the word to recognize the hybridizations of black, which do not distill blackness as this article would claim. Growing differences in experiences of black people merely point to the ways in which "black" sustains a link to the past but has a future because of its elasticity.
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  Posted By:
  abrelosojos at 02/16/2008 6:43:01 AM
  Comment:
  I think the difference is that in your comparisons - you're comparing ethnicities and not skin colors. I think that's what rubs people the wrong way - that you're measuring levels of blackness and not levels of "African-American"ness - that is, the characteristics of the African American experience. I think that description, which is not as easy on the tongue, certainly, is more acceptable in comparison to Russians, Jews, and whatever else.
  
  But then again, it could just be that blackness is tricky because there's no equivalent "brownness,"yellowness," etc. in America - unless, of course, there is and we just haven't embraced those ideas.
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  Posted By:
  mrgeorge at 02/15/2008 2:32:34 PM
  Comment:
  I yearn for the day when being black means...professional excellence, economically efficient, having pride in educational acheivement and having sincere concerns about the uplifting the status of the black race, globally!!
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  Posted By:
  nfamous at 02/15/2008 1:37:14 PM
  Comment:
  Race is all about culture. It is not anything inherent to any particular. Black people do different things from white people, largely because we have less money due to generational racism. It is this culture that many whites hate, not black and brown people themselves. Black would have no meaning if race had not been invented by whites based purely on the basis of skin tone instead of genetic composition, which is a more accurate measure of one's lineage. Whiteness in America is associated with financial success so that is why so many people that cannot ever become white spend their lives pursuing economic whiteness. Blacks, the poorest segment of America, are the biggest "whiteness" chasers on the planet. It is sad because we had a history before slavery that is worthy of remembering and preserving.
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  Posted By:
  cdineb at 02/15/2008 1:35:16 PM
  Comment:
  I think what you espouse here as "blackness" is "African-Americanness." I do not dispute your logic, nor that the sample list of traits you provide do speak to a cultural existence. However, if we accept blackness as also beginning with skin colour, the cultural traits of which you speak only relate to American blacks - Ebonics, Southern food, Juneteenth, these are things specific to the US. What percentage of the world's blacks have any relationship to these things? I cringe at the myopia coming out of a country whose population includes people from all over the world. There is a definite African-American culture, but it cannot be what we use as a measure of blackness.
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  Posted By:
  blackadept at 02/15/2008 10:32:19 AM
  Comment:
  My only problem with this analysis is that African Americans make the assumption that they are the definitive blacks. When in fact they are a tiny minority amongst the worlds population who are of African descent. Black Africans, West Indians, Europeans and South Americans visiting or arriving in the USA can see this. They also find is puzzling to be told that they are not 'black'. Barack Obama is as 'black' as any 'black' American he is just has a wider range of cultural influences and importantly a real and more recent link to Africa which many African Americans cannot boast. Black culture in America cannot be viewed as entirely separate from white American culture, since both are essentially American and a product of a shred environment and history. What you are talking about is 'black American' culture.
  
  Apart from Africa itself, a perhaps purer form of real black/African culture is more likely to be found in places where people of African descent gained their freedom earlier than Black Americans and in some cases they have gained complete independent rule.
  
  That narrows the choice down to the Caribbean and perhaps their place with the largest African population outside of the Mother continent, Brazil. It's ironic that black American culture has only spread throughout the world because of the economic, political and military strangely of the white culture with which it shares such a close, almost symbiotic relationship.
  
  I feel that the question most Americans may have been unconsciously asking of Obama boils down to "are you American enough?". This goes for both whites and blacks. Perhaps to some, he initially represented an unknown or alien package.
  
  (A black man born in London, of Guyanese parentage now living and working in Brussels, Belgium)
  
  
  
  
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  Posted By:
  blackadept at 02/15/2008 10:05:47 AM
  Comment:
  My only problem with this analysis is that African Americans make the assumption that they are the definitive blacks. When in fact they are a tiny minority amongst the worlds population who are of African descent. Black Africans, West Indians, Europeans and South Americans visiting or arriving in the USA can see this. They also find is puzzling to be told that they are not 'black'. Barack Obama is as 'black' as any 'black' American he is just has a wider range of cultural influences and importantly a real and more recent link to Africa which many African Americans cannot boast. Black culture in America cannot be viewed as entirely separate from white American culture, since both are essentially American and a product of a shred environment and history. What you are talking about is 'black American' culture.
  
  Apart from Africa itself, a perhaps purer form of real black/African culture is more likely to be found in places where people of African descent gained their freedom earlier than Black Americans and in some cases they have gained complete independent rule.
  
  That narrows the choice down to the Caribbean and perhaps their place with the largest African population outside of the Mother continent, Brazil. It's ironic that black American culture has only spread throughout the world because of the economic, political and military strangely of the white culture with which it shares such a close, almost symbiotic relationship.
  
  I feel that the question most Americans may have been unconsciously asking of Obama boils down to "are you American enough?". This goes for both whites and blacks. Perhaps to some, he initially represented an unknown or alien package.
  
  (A black man born in London, of Guyanese parentage now living and working in Brussels, Belgium)
  
  
  
  
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  Posted By:
  alvajohnson at 02/14/2008 10:20:14 PM
  Comment:
  What I object to is how "blackness" is deemed to be a credible measurement of an individual's black experience, and by extension, also a judgement on whether somebody is really black at all. Rather than pointing fingers and judging others to get a leg up on cultural legitimacy, everyone in the black community should come together and embrace our own diversity. Jim Crow thinks we all look alike.
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  Posted By:
  nmarden at 02/14/2008 9:09:19 PM
  Comment:
  i am a white skinned person. i gotta tell you we are all lumped up so! i am of irish heritage, i proudly call myself irish american. i have little in common with norwegians, russians, italians and the french!, white as i am but so very different than me AND i speak a totally different dialect than those brits, i mean WTF are they saying. in my experience black culture is much the same. an aquaintance i thought was haitian was totally insulted because he is actually jamaican. similiarly, my neighbor is southern, he tells me this is totally different than being black and from boston. brothers and sisters of color, CLAIM your identity (if you know it) be an afro-latina from cuba or dominica! be a southern american black. stop with all blacks are the same, just as us white folks know that not all whites are the same. i mean, not for nothin', i am glad to be irish-american rather than german or italian american.
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  Posted By:
  mikepanula at 02/14/2008 4:58:35 PM
  Comment:
  Am I whiter than George Bush? Am I whiter than Nicolas Sarkozy, or Russel Crowe? Am I less white than Sean Connery, but more white than Tom Hanks? Am I less white than Phil Collins, but more white than Axel Rose? Or are you just completely and utterly full of sh*t? Have you any idea how utterly and desperately narrow-minded you sound?
  
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  Posted By:
  jms at 02/14/2008 4:56:38 PM
  Comment:
  What this article ignores in it's attempt to establish a black-o-meter is that, regardless of "cultural blackness" people of brown skin can be and often are reminded of their blackness everyday. Also, are awareness and diversity of interest trumped by a way of walking and talking? Attitudes like this within the race are far more destructive than what comes from without.
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  Posted By:
  alizoom at 02/14/2008 2:39:31 PM
  Comment:
  Im confrotable with Mr. McWhorter's assertions. If we are going to debate, either in openness or behind closed doors, who's mama's baby is blackest, then we have to re-consider ALL of us, where do every single one of us measure up on the Black scale.
  
  And BTW, the posters downstream who complained about Mr. McWhorter's presence on The Root? Wow, can you say how to give this piece major-league credibility? Kick him off because he's not black enough to speak to a black audience?
  
  Yish. Grow up.
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  Posted By:
  brooklyn dude at 02/14/2008 2:30:17 PM
  Comment:
  C'mon, you cannot assume there is ONE BLACK CULTURE. I am a second-generation Caribbean. Here in America, I'm considered less black than some dude from Alabama with a drawl who likes greasy food. However, if I take that same dude to my parent's homeland, where he is completely out of his element, I am far more black than he is because I fit into that culture better.
  
  Black people with long roots in America are so utterly provincial when they assume that THEIR black culture is more black than the black cultures of other black people in the world.
  
  Think how offended a person of Thai descent would feel if a Japanese person claimed they were less Asian because they don't eat sushi.
  
  Broaden your perspective, McWhorter!
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  Posted By:
  brooklyn dude at 02/14/2008 1:51:47 PM
  Comment:
  C'mon, you cannot assume there is ONE BLACK CULTURE. I am a second-generation Caribbean. Here in America, I'm considered less black than some dude from Alabama with a drawl who likes greasy food. However, if I take that same dude to my parent's homeland, where he is completely out of his element, I am far more black than he is because I fit into that culture better.
  
  Black people with long roots in America are so utterly provincial when they assume that THEIR black culture is more black than the black cultures of other black people in the world.
  
  Think how offended a person of Thai descent would feel if a Japanese person claimed they were less Asian because they don't eat sushi.
  
  Broaden your perspective, McWhorter!
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  Posted By:
  gregpomeroy at 02/14/2008 12:13:46 PM
  Comment:
  So is a disdain for education and an embrace of ignorance traits of Black culture?
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  Posted By:
  aja at 02/14/2008 11:23:00 AM
  Comment:
  how incredibly narrow. perhaps this is a set of parameters to define a very narrow segment of black american culture, but since black america is, infact, comprised of people of different nationalities (that being the nature of america) who speak different languages/dialects, listen to different music, dress according to different trends/traditions/styles, and maybe, just maybe don't eat chicken, or any meat for that matter, then they must be on the low end of the blackness scale? my, i find this to be really, egregiously (purposefully?) uninformed.
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  Posted By:
  naaadei at 02/14/2008 10:05:39 AM
  Comment:
  Having read your provocative article it would seem, then, that when one asks "are you black enough"? Or, more pointedly, "what is blackness" the inevitable conclusion is that blackness, both as a construct and as a racial, ethnical, or political concern is primarily American blackness -- at least by the definitions your article posits. What place /role does the black Diaspora serve? Further, how often, I wonder, do those born and or raised on the African continent ask that question of themselves?
  
  
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  Posted By:
  naaadei at 02/14/2008 10:04:26 AM
  Comment:
  Having read your provocative article it would seem, then, that when one asks "are you black enough"? Or, more pointedly, "what is blackness" the inevitable conclusion is that blackness, both as a construct and as a racial, ethnical, or political concern is primarily American blackness -- at least by the definitions your article posits. What place /role does the black Diaspora serve? Further, how often, I wonder, do those born and or raised on the African continent ask that question of themselves?
  
  Naa-Adei K
  
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  Posted By:
  southsiderosie at 02/14/2008 1:19:16 AM
  Comment:
  I think the comment about the niece of a Russian immigrant is interesting because the immigration experience shows us how fluid identity is. Look at Europe today: yes, first-generation North African immigrants in France may try to assimilate, but among second-generation youth, many turn to their country of ancestry to define their identity - even though they have never even been there, and do not speak the language. Unfortunately for many young women, defining what it means to be "Algerian" or "Moroccan" or "Turkish" means embracing religious orthodoxy that is more extreme than in their historical homeland.
  
  As so it is maybe with "blackness"; we define it vis-a-vis our parents or our living situation, rather than some national yardstick. So the school that is 5% black may have students who define themselves in a much more militant, pro-black way than the students at HBCU who don't have to "prove" how black they are, and can therefore listen to the Dave Matthews Band or Paula Cole without feeling guilty (and yes I am dating myself here!).
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  Posted By:
  djcwaters at 02/13/2008 11:44:37 PM
  Comment:
  Alan Keyes is blacker than Barack Obama? My first thought: "God! Where do I begin?" My second thought: "Well, why not w/God?" While I'm not sure on what level you're basing your estimation of Keyes' blackness, I find it interesting that you find a black ultra-conservative Catholic blacker than a man who discovered his faith in the black church. I am both Catholic and an ardent supporter of Barack Obama. I'm an Illinoisan who cast my first vote for Obama in the primary of '04, and found it sadly comic that Keyes was the person the Republicans finally trotted out to run against Obama after their original candidate was doomed by a sex scandal. As a black Catholic, I find Keyes offensive in the ways that I find Clarence Thomas and Rick Santorum offensive: the former rejects a black identity that claims an affinity w/those in the margins, and the latter rejects a Catholic identity that cherishes the ideal of social justice. The black church is neither monolithic nor w/out its issues (e.g. homophobia, anti-semitism, etc.). Nor, to be sure, is the Catholic church. But Barack Obama seems to have found the same themes in his faith that I've found in mine--and I wonder if our blackness isn't the common thread. In your litany of black "characteristics", I don't see anything along the lines of a shared worldview, or a consensus on matters of human rights and social justice. Are these too lofty to be shoehorned into "a quick and dirty primer"? I can tell you that I consider Barack Obama blacker than Condoleeza Rice in much the same way that I consider Thurgood Marshall to be infinitely blacker than Clarence Thomas. Not because of dialect or music or culinary tastes, but because blackness is also about recognizing a shared heritage fo triumph over suffering and oppression that informs our commitment to those who continue to suffer unjustly. Absent that heritage, absent that recognition, your litany of blackness seems not only "quick and dirty", but very silly indeed.
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  Posted By:
  blackinamerica at 02/13/2008 11:41:05 PM
  Comment:
  So if I understand you correctly, if I'm 5th generation African-American from Madison, Wisconsin, very grounded in a small, tight-knit Black community but don't speak with a dialect, don't eat southern soul-food and attend a Lutheran church - my Black American experience is not as "valid" or as "true" as those who more obviously demonstrate the characteristics you list? I am so sick and tired of Black people buying into the madness that is the mainstreams desire to define us as a monolithic tribe. We cannot continue to invalidate the diversity of the cultures we came from, the diversity of our experiences in America (albeit with common themes - not charateristics) and rejecting the diversity that is our strength and our beauty. Your arguments are vacuous. Obama, Woods and Ifill have lived very real African American experiences that have more in common with all of our realities and values than the trite"charateristics" you offer.
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  Posted By:
  rtprose at 02/13/2008 11:39:30 PM
  Comment:
  In response to your comparison of two hypothetical Jews, one Orthodox, one Reform, I offer this observation: living a Jewish life is a multifaceted experience. I agree that different Jewish lifestyles can be described as more or less observant of our traditions. However, many of us non-Orthodox Jews also define our Jewishness by our connection to nonreligious Jewish activities including literature, poetry, secular intellectual inquiry, music, cooking, political and/or social activism, and study of "Jewish" languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish, or Ladino. I'm sure I've left out something...
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  Posted By:
  djcwaters at 02/13/2008 11:27:33 PM
  Comment:
  Test
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  Posted By:
  djcwaters at 02/13/2008 11:26:20 PM
  Comment:
  Alan Keyes is blacker than Barack Obama? My first thought: "God! Where do I begin?" My second thought: "Well, why not w/God?" While I'm not sure on what McWhorter's basing his estimation of Keyes' blackness, I find it interesting that he finds a black ultra-conservative Catholic more black than a man who discovered his faith in the black church. I am both Catholic and an ardent supporter of Barack Obama. I'm in Illinoisan who cast my first vote for Obama in the primaries of '04, and found it by turns tragic and comic that Keyes was the person the Republicans finally trotted out to run against Obama after their original candidate was doomed by a sex scandal. As a black Catholic, I Keyes offensive in the ways that I find Clarence Thomas and Rick Santorum offensive: the former rejects a black identidy that claims an affinity w/those in the margins, and the latter rejects a Catholic identity that cherishes the ideal of social justice. The black church is neither monolithic nor w/out its issues (e.g. homophbia, anti-semitism, etc.). Nor, to be sure, is the Catholic church. But Barack Obama seems to have found the same themes in his faith that I've found in mine--and I wonder if our blackness isn't the common thread. In McWhorter's litany of black "characteristics", I didn't see anything along the lines of a shared worldview, or a consensus on matters of human rights and social justice. Are these to lofty to be shoehorned into "a quick and dirty primer"? I can tell you that I consider Barack Obama blacker than Condoleeza Rice in much the same way that I consider Thurgood Marshall to be infinitely blacker than Clarance Thomas. Not because of dialect or music or culinary tastes, but because blackness is also about recognizing a shared heritage of triumph over suffering and oppression that informs our commitement to those who continue to suffer unjustly. Can that too be a measure of blackness?
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  Posted By:
  djcwaters at 02/13/2008 11:11:04 PM
  Comment:
  Alan Keyes is blacker than Barack Obama? My first thought: "God! Where do I begin?" My second thought: "Well, why not w/God?" While I'm not sure on what McWhorter's basing his estimation of Keyes' blackness, I find it interesting that he finds a black ultra-conservative Catholic more black than a man who discovered his faith in the black church. I am both Catholic and an ardent supporter of Barack Obama. I'm in Illinoisan who cast my first vote for Obama in the primaries of '04, and found it by turns tragic and comic that Keyes was the person the Republicans finally trotted out to run against Obama after their original candidate was doomed by a sex scandal. As a black Catholic, I Keyes offensive in the ways that I find Clarence Thomas and Rick Santorum offensive: the former rejects a black identidy that claims an affinity w/those in the margins, and the latter rejects a Catholic identity that cherishes the ideal of social justice. The black church is neither monolithic nor w/out its issues (e.g. homophbia, anti-semitism, etc.). Nor, to be sure, is the Catholic church. But Barack Obama seems to have found the same themes in his faith that I've found in mine--and I wonder if our blackness isn't the common thread. In McWhorter's litany of black "characteristics", I didn't see anything along the lines of a shared worldview, or a consensus on matters of human rights and social justice. Are these to lofty to be shoehorned into "a quick and dirty primer"? I can tell you that I consider Barack Obama blacker than Condoleeza Rice in much the same way that I consider Thurgood Marshall to be infinitely blacker than Clarance Thomas. Not because of dialect or music or culinary tastes, but because blackness is also about recognizing a shared heritage of triumph over suffering and oppression that informs our commitement to those who continue to suffer unjustly. Can that too be a measure of blackness?
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  Posted By:
  Many50 at 02/13/2008 7:56:28 PM
  Comment:
  Wow. This is easily the most racist, misinformed and ridiculous thing I have ever read in my life. My hope is that you are person who no university has ever confered a degree upon because you, my dear, are a buffoon.
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    Posted By:
    blessinggirl at 02/14/2008 3:18:17 PM
    Comment:
    Amen to that--the article is as foolish as all of the "thoughtful" analyses of race, gender and politics repeated ad nauseam on cable news. What an idiot. And anyone who doesn't see non-standard English as crippling to the speaker and a cultural characteristic doesn't really love black folk.
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  Posted By:
  Soldier's Mom at 02/13/2008 7:38:20 PM
  Comment:
  How Black is Kofi Anan?
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  Posted By:
  jw78 at 02/13/2008 5:28:41 PM
  Comment:
  Who was blacker Malcolm or Martin? The two did not exhibit similar speech patterns or diets (as a Muslim, Malcolm would no longer be diggin' on swine). Post-conversion, Malcolm probably gave up the jump n' jive of his Zoot suit days. Come to think of it, he certainly started speaking a whole lot "whiter" once he joined up with the Muslims. But, wait. Wasn't Malcolm, stickin' it to the man and telling us that we were to defend ourselves by any means necessary? Surely this fearless condemnation of the abuses by whites made him a whole lot blacker than Martin who spent his days telling us to love our white brothers in spite of their shortcomings? But the list goes on: Zora Neal Hurston v. Dorothy West? Richard Wright v. Ralph Ellison? Was Langston Hughes black enough? What about W.E.B. DuBois? Everett LeRoi Jones v. LeRoi Jones v. Imamu Ameer Baraka v. Amiri Baraka? Sure, they're all the same person, but did he become blacker with each name change?
  
  Your article brings up a lot of questions.
  
  Can one be less black, as your Russian niece example is less Russian? I think your analogy falls a little short. Unlike immigrants who adopt new cultural norms or who stubbornly calcify in a cultural identity their old country may long have evolved beyond, Black culture is American born. Any derivation of the culture is not a reflection of deviation from a cultural norm, but rather an expansion upon that culture, which is something we all need to be aware of as we fall prey to this notion of an authenticity quotient and being authorities on the boundaries that define blackness.
  
  Case in point: On our way to a black friend???s birthday brunch, I told my white boyfriend that I didn???t think that Bloody Marys would be part of the special since Bloody Mary???s are a ???white drink.??? Then he and the black woman he was seated next to both ordered Bloody Marys and spent the next 15 minutes ooo-ing and awww-ing about how much they loved the drink.
  
  Abandoning a black identity because we don???t feel ???black enough??? or denying someone else claim to that identity because we don???t see him (or her) as ???black enough??? is a bit like the American political left abandoning the American flag (or the political right claiming they???re its true representatives) because Bush happens to be the president currently defining what that flag means at home and abroad.
  
  Deep down most of us have, at some point, looked ourselves in the mirror, stared into whatever shade of black we saw reflected back, and wondered, "Am I black...enough?" If we could all be a bit more honest and own up to that fact, then maybe, just maybe we???d stop torturing each other with "blackness??? primers. If Obama does not shepherd in-- as is ridiculously expected--a post-racial America, perhaps he will *at least* be the impetus for us to give up all the posturing and find more substantive reasons for what defines us.
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  Posted By:
  jw78 at 02/13/2008 5:08:34 PM
  Comment:
  Who was blacker Malcolm or Martin? The two did not exhibit similar speech patterns or diets (as a Muslim, Malcolm would no longer be diggin' on swine). Post-conversion, Malcolm probably gave up the jump n' jive of his Zoot suit days. Come to think of it, he certainly started speaking a whole lot "whiter" once he joined up with the Muslims. But, wait. Wasn't Malcolm, stickin' it to the man and telling us that we were to defend ourselves by any means necessary? Surely this fearless condemnation of the abuses by whites made him a whole lot blacker than Martin who spent his days telling us to love our white brothers in spite of their shortcomings? But the list goes on: Zora Neal Hurston v. Dorothy West? Richard Wright v. Ralph Ellison? Was Langston Hughes black enough? What about W.E.B. DuBois? Everett LeRoi Jones v. LeRoi Jones v. Imamu Ameer Baraka v. Amiri Baraka? Sure, they're all the same person, but did he become blacker with each name change?
  
  Your article brings up a lot of questions.
  
  Can one be "less black", as your Russian niece example is less Russian? I think your analogy falls a little short. Unlike immigrants who adopt new cultural norms or who stubbornly cling to a cultural identity their old country may have long evolved beyond, Black culture is American born. Any derivation of the culture is not a reflection of deviation from a cultural norm, but rather an expansion upon that culture, which is something we all need to be aware of as we fall prey to this notion of an authenticity quotient and being authorities on the boundaries that define blackness.
  
  Case in point: On our way to a black friend???s birthday brunch, I told my white boyfriend that I didn???t think that Bloody Marys would be part of the special since Bloody Mary???s are a ???white drink.??? Then he and the black woman he was seated next to both ordered Bloody Marys and spent the next 15 minutes ooo-ing and awww-ing about how much they loved the drink.
  
  Abandoning a black identity because we don???t feel ???black enough??? or denying someone else claim to that identity because we don???t see him (or her) as ???black enough??? is a bit like the American political left abandoning the American flag (or the political right claiming they???re its true representatives) because Bush happens to be the president currently defining what that flag means at home and abroad.
  
  Deep down most of us have, at some point, looked ourselves in the mirror, stared into whatever shade of black we saw reflected back, and wondered, "Am I black...enough?" If we could all be a bit more honest and own up to that fact, then maybe, just maybe we???d stop torturing each other with "blackness??? primers. If Obama does not shepherd in-- as is ridiculously expected--a post-racial America, perhaps he will *at least* be the impetus for us to give up all the posturing and find more substantive reasons for what defines us.
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  Posted By:
  Nspades at 02/13/2008 2:18:55 PM
  Comment:
  Come on! Alan Keyes is NOT blacker than Barack Obama. Hell Alan Keyes isn't blacker than Tiger Woods!
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  Posted By:
  rhporter at 02/13/2008 11:27:26 AM
  Comment:
  McWhorter should not be given a platform here. He has plenty of others among his right wing white friends, among whom he made is name. I am disappointed in The Root.
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  Posted By:
  bringbackmalcolm at 02/13/2008 11:19:47 AM
  Comment:
  Here we go again. 'Blackness' is a measurable quality/quantity based on our culture? Am I less (or more) Black because I am steeped in the excellence of Duke Ellington and lukewarm (I won't bother you with my true feelings) about 50 Cent? Our culture is magnificently varied, which makes it all the more rich. Do we talk different? Yes. Do we walk and dress different? To quote 'Mister' from 'The Color Purple', Sho. But is Mister mo' Black than Martin Luther King? If we start identifying ourselves by behavior, don't we run the danger of caricaturizing and button-holing ourselves? Won't White people (as usual) appropriate and control the 'rules' to their advantage? A couple of years ago I heard a White writer say that Joe Frazier was 'Blacker' than Ali because he was raised poor. Hmmmm.... Hey, we didn't invent the term "acting White". They did.
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  Posted By:
  dds at 02/13/2008 9:51:33 AM
  Comment:
  An example of how insignificant the definitions and degress of Blackness matter: Jada Pinkette Smith is Blacker than Will Smith and what a great Black family they make!
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  Posted By:
  dds at 02/13/2008 9:45:01 AM
  Comment:
  The definitions of Blackness converge; Jada Pinkette Smith is Blacker than Will Smith!
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  Posted By:
  trene at 02/13/2008 7:38:42 AM
  Comment:
  You almost had something going until you tripped over Alan Keyes.
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  Posted By:
  dnA at 02/13/2008 12:19:01 AM
  Comment:
  John...over the years, as you've mellowed out, I've come to respect what you have to say.
  
  But really, what is your unending beef with Michael Eric Dyson?
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    Posted By:
    LadyLove78 at 04/15/2008 5:08:30 PM
    Comment:
    I am a fan of all black culture critics (Dyson, McWhorter, Cosby, Nelson George, Erroll Louis, etc) but it seems as if the "beef" started when Dyson, who imposes a bilateral stance to the challenges of the black community (both internal issues along with societal biases) challenged the "personal responsibility" critics (like McWhorter and Cosby) to open debate.