York University’s “Y-Life” reports of a lecture by University of Ontario Institute of Technology professor Christopher diCarlo arguing that we are all Africans in that our humanity’s origins are in Africa.
What I like most about this story – because really there is nothing particularly new about the theory – is how it undermines one of our generation’s more annoying euphemisms: African American. The current use of that term to describe all black/negroid Americans, even for those whose ancestors have resided in North American much longer than the five generations of white Anglos who preceded me, is one of the stupider products of political correctness. Most so-called African Americans couldn’t survive past the first day where they suddenly dropped into rural Africa (any more than I could), while a first generation white immigrant from South Africa could never be described as African American. Like most aspects of political correctness it’s dumb and it’s also abusive of the language.
While I am sure it’s not diCarlo’s intent to battle political correctness, maybe I will start referring to myself as African Canadian to take another blow at the silliness.
What I like most about this story – because really there is nothing particularly new about the theory – is how it undermines one of our generation’s more annoying euphemisms: African American. The current use of that term to describe all black/negroid Americans, even for those whose ancestors have resided in North American much longer than the five generations of white Anglos who preceded me, is one of the stupider products of political correctness. Most so-called African Americans couldn’t survive past the first day where they suddenly dropped into rural Africa (any more than I could), while a first generation white immigrant from South Africa could never be described as African American. Like most aspects of political correctness it’s dumb and it’s also abusive of the language.
While I am sure it’s not diCarlo’s intent to battle political correctness, maybe I will start referring to myself as African Canadian to take another blow at the silliness.
