The question is not a frivolous one. To explain it, I have to take you back by 32 years, to 1988/89. Let us go there.
I
was thirty four years old and I had by then understood certain aspects of lives
in the US. One such aspect was how different lives of blacks were vis-à-vis those
who came to that land of their own volition. Many, or should I say most descendants
of slaves brought to the US, before the land became the US, were treated less of
human beings than the others. Melania Trump, anyone?
In
the university, in the cafeteria, till about the middle 1980s, there was a
space that looked like a cordoned off area, though there was no such cordon.
There were a number of seats and I had seen no white American sit there with
his/her food ever. None, not a single one. It was almost equally true that in
the “non-cordoned off area” – much bigger - I could hardly see any black
Americans. I understood.
In a
way to show myself that I understood, I used to sit there for my lunch or
in-between snacking (French fries, what else), coffee … I also noticed that the
black Americans used to look at me askance. I ignored their looks.
The
above detailed background is necessary for the readers to follow this post to
its end. That exactly was the time the Associate Justice (just means he was not
the Chief Justice) of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Justice
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1994) said something like he prefers the term “African-American”
to “Black”.
I
did not like the suggested switch in the collective name, even though it was
coined or promoted by a man of highest calibre born to descendants of slaves. I
said so in a guest piece in the college newspaper, a full 800+words column. I
put everything I had to say in that piece. There was a severe response that
mentioned something like “looking at a room through a window”. The gist of the
criticism was that I have not lived the life of a descendant of slaves. That is,
of course, true.
As
fate would have it, in my homeland, I am born to parents of high caste =
Brahmin. So, I responded asking whether I am unqualified to comment on the
lives of the “dispossessed” – collectively the “Dalits” – in my home land,
because and solely because I have not “lived” the life of a dispossessed. There
ended the argument in the paper, which, if you remember started with the
proposed change to “African American” from “Black”.
Oh,
I forgot. The main reason cited by the responder to my column, echoing what the
respected jurist had said, was that “Blacks”, being a statement on the color of
the skin, does not signify the continuity of culture, African American. One
must understand that in those days, “Roots” the story of how Alex Haley
came to be, carried a lot of heft.
Now,
are we back to “Blacks”? It appears so. Why else, “Black Lives Matter” and
across the Atlantic, “BAME”?
My
argument then was names do not matter. I stand by it, and over the nearly four
decades my stance stands vindicated.
I am
not thumping my chest in victory. I only assert that no matter the color of
your skin, your culture, your heredity or any other feature that “defines” you as
anything less than a “human being”, if injustice is being done to you, my
voice, however feeble it may be, will join yours.
I am
justly proud that I realized the wholesomeness of humanity by myself.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
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