FWIW, I think because of where and how I grew up, calling me a Black person and expecting me to understand 'blackness' is akin to calling a Spanish person Italian or someone from Malaysia, Chinese or a German to relate to being British.
I know it makes it easier to class people into groups but it breeds laziness in many cases as people are treated as a homogenous group rather than individuals.
I don't find the word itself offensive or negative (Why should I?) and if it was just about skin colour, then fine but it's also about culture and experience and it's not my culture. Black culture (as I've heard a million times from Black people online and offline) is foreign to me. There are stereotypical similarities but I have a completely different culture and experience and some Black people who've travelled to my country experience it as foreigners. It's new to them, it's different and some of them talk about their experience on youtube. There, they're as much foreigners as any White person, the difference is that we share similar skin colour and they won't experience racism. They'll actually be treated better by most people once they speak ('foreign accent') and some will refer to them by the same (non-derogatory) term we use to describe any foreigner from the west, regardless of colour.
I find it amusing and sometimes frustrating that I'm expected to know, understand, relate to and accept being black just because I happen to have a similar skin colour. I, too, learn what it means to be "black" in the west but I didn't have the same 'struggles'. Our struggles are different. Yes, in the west, we share the same 'racist people' struggles but there, we don't (for example) have the struggle of black fathers not being around (families are usually intact with parents often playing traditional, conservative roles. The absent father concept, unless where a father has died, is an exception), black people being incarcerated more (we're all "black people" there so those who are incarcerated are mainly because they've committed a crime. Nothing more), black people having less opportunities when it comes to education, finance, employment (again, it's not so there. Less opportunities, employment, education is to do with class/money and connection - people you know. Nothing more); black women dying more from childbirth or being affected more by a disease (same principle), etc.
We're both the elite and the dirt poor. We both live in mansions and slums. We're both multi billionaires and paupers, educated and uneducated, well-traveled and not, have access to the best facilities/systems and not. We're both the celebrities and the outcasts, the ones in power and the powerless, the police force and the public, the CEOs and the cleaners, the kings/queens and the subjects...and everything else inbetween (We mustn't forget those somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. I'm just referring to both extremes). We just don't have middle class, lower class, working class, upper class systems the way it is seen in the UK. The UK class system seems to be like checkpoints (I could be wrong) but there, it's like a ladder. The more money you have the higher you are and vice versa. There are people on every rung and you can move up or down anytime you gain or lose your financial status.
Here, I find that the 'black experience' is put on me instead and I'm expected to feel downtrodden, oppressed, marginalised, etc....usually by Black people who don't wish to accept that I don't have to have had that experience and some White people assume I have the 'black experience' until they get to know me. I know many Black people face this and I'm not disputing that experience. I stand against racism completely as well as prejudice of any kind.
Another unpopular opinion is that we experience the equivalent of white privilege where I'm from. Any problems we have there isn't because of skin colour. I can relate to it. In a way, I've also been oblivious to it here but have had to be drawn in and learn simply because I'm not anything else to a stranger other than a Black person and have lived here seeing myself from the perspective of being a minority. It still doesn't erase the core part of me who isn't used to it. I've not been shaped by racism.
I also know there's money privilege (which I've had to realise because of this), and connection privilege.
Is there colourism, yes but it isn't anywhere near as prevalent and insidious as it is in the west or as racism is. I'm of the darker-brown shade and I've had 1 or 2 people say (unintentionally) colourist statements to me but it didn't affect me till I moved here and realised what it was. I've known two or 3 people who bleach their skin to look 'lighter' or 'brighter'...not to be white. The same way white people tan. I've never had a problem just because I'm dark-brown and I've never known or heard of anyone who lost an opportunity because of that (except in the sex/escort industry, and it goes both ways but that's another topic). It's the same as being ginger or 'ghostly pale' (no offense meant please). Some people may take the mickey and depending on who and how it's said, the recipient even finds it funny and joins in the banter but it doesn't affect lives in a serious way. Those who're ginger or very pale also talk about themselves in a self-deprecating way just like those who are very dark there but it's not something that makes them fear for their safety or mental health in general.
There, dark brown, medium brown, light brown and very fair skinned people all have the same opportunities and are all seen as equal and either gorgeous or not (depending on personal preference) and our standard of beauty is not exactly the same as the western's.
Yes, we copy the west a lot because they influence everything but things are significantly different in majority of places where I'm from.
We also have the problem of tribalism and while this is an effect of British colonisation, it's still among people of the same colour. It's similar to the issues Scottish, Irish and English people have.
My ethnicity is African. I don't tick Black. I may tick the box because they're usually placed together or tick 'other' or leave it empty or write 'African' depending on my mood. If I have to describe myself, I say brown or brown-skinned and have no problems with people saying that (Colour or shade description isn't a loaded concept where I come from and I don't find it so. I know some people here do use it in a derogatory way but the intended offense is lost on me, like water off a duck's back. I'd just look at the person in a 'I have no idea what you're on about' way or say something like 'Yes you're correct, my skin is literally brown. May I help you?' and go about my day. I find that it disempowers the person and they have nothing more to say. I rarely experience this though and have mainly done so twice online for the latter. The former reaction was once offline.
Where I'm from, Black people (usually from the US but also those in the UK - they are the most visible in the media) are seen as a different group of people and we watch their movies like we watch White people's. They call themselves Black or Black-Americans or African-Americans, so we refer to them as that. Otherwise we'd just say Americans, etc. It's just easier to align with being Black in the west because everybody else sees you that way but among ourselves (or people who come close to us), we don't. We're [insert country] or Africans who have different cultures and do things differently.
This is not a slight against Black people (as some often think it is), it's not in a bid to disassociate from blackness (We're happily all of it). It's just facts. We know about the slave trade (We sold them) and there are no words to describe how horrible it is to have displaced people from their place of origin for them to become slaves but slavery honestly still happens where I'm from, in a milder way though but since it's "black on black", it's not racism or seen as slavery. It's classism, which has everything to do with money and connection. Nothing else. It's not even colourism as anyone fair or dark can be rich or poor or somewhere inbetween and there are as many fair 'slaves' and bosses as there are dark ones. Colour doesn't come into it. If you have money, you're treated better. Simple. If you have enough money (not necessarily rich), you can also own a "slave'. In fact, as long as you have someone who's poorer than you or in a less favourable position than you and they're willing to come work for you, you're in. It isn't something left for the rich alone. How they're treated is up to you and it's often not good which is why I say they're 'slaves'. They're often treated like scum in some places and ignored in the background in others. This isn't the case for all of them but it's significant enough to be generalised.
This is part of my work where I'm from - to get people to be treated with respect and dignity regardless of how poor they are; to give 'slaves' in the guise of domestic workers (people there will vow to the ends of the earth that it isn't what they are) rights as official work employees. Because they come from much poorer families (usually from more rural places/villages or urban slums) and are often in domestic roles doesn't mean they should be treated as third class citizens who are receiving favours from their Sirs/Madams, when they're the ones doing the actual work, often back breaking ones. Someone's welfare should not be left in the hands of luck - whether you get treated well or not by the family you're working for. They should be a protected group but this will be a while before it changes. Those in power benefitting from their services will not agree to this.
That some of these bosses are their family members or help their family members and they're expected to grovel and be thankful for anything given to them, doesn't mean they don't deserve to be paid what they're actually worth nor do they deserve to be physically, mentally, verbally, emotionally and sexually abused (which many go through).
I say all this because while we know slavery happened in the west and black people are still feeling the effects (hence the 'black experience'), some people are actually still going through it where I'm from and it's often seen as normal. As I said, we have different struggles.
FWIW, when I say "We", I mean those I've known, those I've seen or come across and those I've met through them. Others may think differently. I don't speak for everyone as it's too diverse a place to dare.
Why not refer to people by their skin colour or actual country or continent of origin? (Asians have managed to have this, why not Africans. Where I'm from, an asian person is basically a white person from Asia but Asians don't accept being White because they have a remarkably different culture and experience and they aren't referred to as such. It's the same as Africans).
I know it won't happen anytime soon because the history of 'White' and 'Black' people is more than just being convenient and able to identify someone's medical needs, etc. It's a form of division (which possibly stems from when they first landed in Africa) and a bid to continue dehumanizing others by putting them in polarised categories.
I do wonder why so many negative things have black or dark attached to their names.
