Are we Black?

I'm not in the habit of telling other people who and what they are without divining for them first. That said I reject the racial designation, Black, and this is why; o Physically, it only describes my hair color. The inaccuracy of the assertion is nonsensical. Africans and people of African descent with or without mixed lineage come in a multitude of complexions. To describe all of us by an extreme in genetic expression so rare as to be definitively remarkable makes no sense. o It mutes the validity of my actual ethnic heritage. By calling me "Black", you shorthand my ethnic contributors, avoiding the questions like who are the Ewe, who were the Vi, who are the Akyem, who are the Anglo? What series of events conspire to blend these peoples into One Person? These stories are fascinating, incredibly humanizing, and completely silenced by calling me Black. o "Black" limits me in space and time, to the African diaspora. I have no distinctive identity before the Transatlantic Slave Trade and my entire historical narrative is defined by those societies that trafficked in my Tɔgbuiawo's bondage. My oppressor doesn't get to tell me who I am. But if I'm "Black" how the heck would I know who I was. How would a "Black American" know their lineage? A "Black American" can't be the descendant of TOGBUI MOGLO, because Black Americans are all the descendants of slaves whose ethnic origins are lost to the mists of time. I'd have to rely on the powers that enslaved me in the first place to tell me who I am. o The appellation presupposes ignorance, malfeasance, and innate opposition to people that call themselves white. Attempts to rehabilitate these associations ignore the 1000 year history of the English language. The worst part is that the title suggests that I must be in conflict with white people. I reject this. As a thinking, sentient being I reject the idea that I can't decide on my own who is friend or foe by objective analysis of the individual. I can't be Black because it doesn't describe me, hides who I am and instead demands I be who the former slave owner, and limits where I want to go and how I get there. Thanks for listening.