To the Editor:
Uncle Tom! Sell out! Oreo! Ever wonder about these names? Ever use these names? Chances are you have or know someone who has. These words stem from ignorance more than anything else. Right? If so, how come even educated people use them?
These words are used to divide an already fragile black community. I've heard these words used to describe Oprah Winfrey, Bryant Gumble and even Colin Powell. Why does being black mean you have to talk a certain way, dress a certain way, act a certain way or associate with certain kinds of people (other blacks). The fact is no matter how you talk, dress, act or who you associate with, the first thing people see is the black face, anyway.
Maybe that's the problem with society in the U.S., African-Americans are expected to act alike, think alike and behave the same way. It's gotten to the point that African-Americans often think that way about themselves. Everywhere I go, I hear about how black unity is falling apart, about how we are not one people. Of course, we're not one people, why should our race be limited to that? We're many different kinds of people, who often have only one real thing in common, the fact that we're black.
I've always been an individual, I never really hung out with any crowd, white, black, or whatever. To tell you the truth, I've always thought of myself as a man, a human being, first and a black man second.
Society likes to divide its people, while I think of myself as a man first, black, white, hispanic and oriental society will be quick to point out that as far as they're concerned, I'm a black man, first, foremost and always. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we as a society always have to divide and limit each other, not only by race but by everything? White, black, Uncle Tom, White trash, Liberal, Conservative, Democrat or Republican, does it really make a difference? Why not call each other what we are: people.
You don't have to like, agree or respect what I've said, but at least think about it (but then again, this being Oberlin, you probably have, already).
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 7; November 1, 1996
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