Tiffany B. Brown

a mish-mosh of stuff

On being black and American abroad

I know that when Americans travel abroad that we lose the hyphen and become the sum total of the expectations that “foreigners” have of what Americans are like. Then depending on the country (and time of day) the question of the gradations of one’s Americanhood come into play…race, region, which generation, command of other languages, liberal, conservative, etc.. So my query now in this post 9-11 post Obama election period is what and who am I representing when I step off that plane/boat? I really can’t say that I know but find myself enjoying the ambiguousness [sic] of the moment.

From Upchuck Understanding and the Upcoming Uber Underground Undertaking by Boston Fielder, founder of the Urbalt festival.

misterjt

And, in maybe this sense and this sense alone, are we post-racial. If Black folks are unclear about what role they are supposed to play--and maybe that means no role at all except the one you choose--then we've moved just a little bit beyond the classic chains of American Blackness and moved on to new identity challenges.

blog comments powered by Disqus