as for my personal experience, i’m happy to refer to individuals by any respectful term of his or her preference, for example black, african-american, or person of color. my hesitation about using the term “people of color” is that it’s still just a generalization. ananda leeke was there last weekend, and during one conversation she paused to ask me if i’m white before using me as an example of a white woman. if you’ve seen me, there’s no doubt i’m white. but i appreciate her sensitivity. we shouldn’t be making assumptions about how people self-identify by our own perceptions of their skin tone.

Peggy ~www.3minutecharity.com~ ~www.nonprofit.nu~

I had a great professor in college that taught me ,or rather illustrated, that the best way to handle diversity is to celebrate it. If feelings of xenophobia control our daily lives, politics, socioeconomic status, etc…it’s time to break the cycle and embrace a collective reality–Regardless of the color of your skin, we are all human beings, and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

Also want to say that I enjoyed reading through everyone’s comments, and found it more interesting than most classes I’ve taken on race or identity politics.

you say “this groups identity and results from something that hasn’t happened to any other ethnic group in world”
- well I’m sorry to inform you that you are absolutely Wrong, –
look at some history in Asia, and India please. Many countries in those parts of the world are affected by a class system, (either still now, or in the past) and a byproduct of that is a stigma of how dark your skin is. The stigma is, that if your skin is darker than an “accepted tone”, then that means that you spend your time outside doing manual labor (skin darkened by the sun) – and therefore, you are of a lower class – a clear mark of being identified by the color of you skin.

& “Although Europeans are fair skinned or White” Oh my god – are you serious? and you say you need facts to be present?
Have you been to parts of Italy (south) – some parts of Spain – have you been to Albania – ?
– many groups of peoples in those areas and more, and not “fair skinned” and “white” – please get acquainted with the world that you think you know so well…seriously ! ..
- –

I must state though that I am not trying at all to diminish your feelings in regards to slavery and the effects it has on one’s psyche and how the lingering effects can affect one’s life… I know and (try) to understand as best i can since my relatives were not slaves, but (just as side note- my fathers father was adopted, and we are still trying to find out our history ourselves…. This is in every humans “being” to know where we came from)))))

But you must see that You need to research some facts yourself.
How do you feel about the Irish who were enslaved (uh-oh, they’re white) – - and how about the Jews who were enslaved in Egypt. And how about the Eastern Europeans and Russian women who are being enslaved as we speak!
And how about Africans still enslaving other Africans to this day! Look it up!

how do you feel about the “white” people who were born in Africa, or people of other ethnic origins? Are they African to you?
Can they be truly African if they have white skin or would you deny them that – and insist on calling them European-African or something stupid like that?

And as for white people calling themselves “German American, Irish American, Bosnian American” – This only came around after Jesse Jackson coined the phrase African-American. Before that, people were just “American” and proud of it!
If you asked someone their heritage, they would tell you, but it wasn’t part of their outward identity.
And even now, I hardly ever hear anyone say those sorts of things. This is primarily a non-white/caucasian trend.

Again, I am not trying to say that you are wrong in trying to identify where and what your heritage is – but i would urge you please to do your own homework as well…
And please think about how you see others who are not like you, and is that the way you wish to be seen yourself….

I find this topic fascinating, and am always willing to learn new things and allow those things to (the facts only) shape how i view the world..
I watch a lot of Discovery and Science channel, – they have a lot of programs that address these (and similar) issues, – with Facts… And i do plenty of research on the internet for things that i am interested in . (with multiple sources – not just one biased one) –

On another note – a question –
wouldn’t it be true to say, that if we take a time-line back far enough, – then wouldn’t we ALL be Africans?

I know you are referring to a time-line of only the past 3-400 years, but do you get my point?
There’s more to the world than just the thing that you are aware of……