“I’m not black,” they would say, “I’m Somali

[Prlnce]

Growing up as a Somali Canadian in Winnipeg and Toronto, the concept of “black” was largely absent from my life. The first-generation Somalis around me rejected the concept entirely: “I’m not black,” they would say, “I’m Somali.” There was no subtext to this declaration – it was earnestly felt. They tended to think of themselves through the lens of culture and nationality, not race and skin colour.

But many people of my generation have had to navigate our way through the maze of race in North America. No one can escape the blunt scythe of the U.S. concept of race, both its privileges and its oppressions. These implications have been thrust back into the limelight this week, with the case of Rachel Dolezal of Spokane, Washington, who was born “white” but has strongly identified – some would say deceptively – as black.

Race, as we currently understand it, has a lot to do with the United States. The forced migration of African slaves from their homelands to the Americas over the course of centuries created a new world of “white” races and “black” races. It is in America that the “one-drop rule” – the notion that even a fraction of African ancestry made you “black” – could have had cultural and legal currency, or that something like the “paper-bag test” – the idea that African-Americans with skin lighter than a shopping bag could get away with being almost white – could have caught on.

It is this tradition of racial “passing” into which Ms. Dolezal has been thrust. The Internet’s outraged have seized on her reverse-passing, categorically declaring that black women could never escape the reality of their identity. This belies the historical record on passing: Americans with some African heritage, failing the one-drop rule, did pass as white, gaining the privileges that came with that label. The “mulatto” who passes until being found out seems like the only role black women could get in Hollywood in the 20th century. Philip Roth wrote a novel, The Human Stain, on the topic. Passing is simply in the water in the United States.

On one hand, Ms. Dolezal’s easy transgression of the colour line only serves to confirm that race is a fiction. How else could one concept, “black,” link the disparate peoples from Somalia and South Africa, the Congo and Libya, Canada and Europe?

On the other hand, most of the commentary I’ve read says that Ms. Dolezal was wrong to pass herself off as black, as if black is a real thing. So those who are outraged about this are invested in the concept of “black” as if it were real – otherwise there wouldn’t be any outrage.

Why are we so invested in identity built around the oppression and marginalization of people of African heritage, to the extent that the mere possibility that someone of a different ethnicity could surreptitiously occupy this category causes such revulsion?

This episode indicates that there is still some currency to the concept of race. Perhaps America is moving toward the postracial era that some felt Barack Obama’s election seemed to promise. It might not be so easy: the bell of transatlantic slavery can’t be un-rung. The black experience, created through the extraction of dark-skinned people from their myriad and complex identities in Africa, is a fact of history.

What remains to be seen is whether it will soften into an aspect of identity, alongside gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, and other data points, or whether it will retain a certain alchemy. Perhaps it will take some final and monumental payment of reparations before this process can be dissolved by the waters of restitution.

Idil Issa is a writer based in Ottawa

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[TheMightyNomad]

North American somalis have it tough frickin people duped in identity complex and adopted narratives from the United States!
confused groupe of people!

im glad i live in europe where everyone identifies as simply theyre ethnicity & nationality! Calling people black or white is offensive over here!
North America is truly an irritatting disgusting continent who threatens to poisened other countries & people with theyre filth!

[McD30]

I agree with MightyNomad, these North Americans are pathetic af. Jesus christ, why are you trying to erode your own Somali identity and falsely relate it to African American culture, you got a beautiful culture you stupid mother... The world is trying to move beyond race and these people are picking up struggles that aren't theirs left and right. You won't see this stuff anywhere else in the world.

[Prlnce]

Somalis in North America that claim black or get offended when a fellow Somalis says "i am not black" have identity issues. Simple as that they can cry all they want about being denied their blackness whatever that means.

We are not the only group that refuses to be identified as black look at every other africans that migrated to North America. Nigerians,Sudanese Ethiopians and so on all refuse to be categorized or label as blacks. You hear time after time "i am african" We don't share anything with the blacks or african american or whatever you want to call them.

Jews in America don't want to label caucasians. Arabs don't want to be labeled as caucasians that they are petitioning the US census bureau to add new category so they don't get grouped together with somebody they have nothing in common with.

Now the United States Census Bureau is testing a new category, “Middle East-North Africa” or MENA, in response to more than three decades of lobbying by Arab American organizations for a designation that better represents them. The testing, to start in September, will refine wording and sub-categories for the 2020 census. Nineteen options will be offered under the MENA designation, among them Israeli and Palestinian, as well as Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Turkish, Iranian, Moroccan and Algerian. Even Sudanese and Somali are being considered.

[PrinceNugaalHawd]

Black people don't consider us black enough, we don't consider ourselves black, and other races say we are black & we are black. we are like stuck. I am black and proud.

[Idman702]

I am not black. Why should I label myself something I am not. Somalis especially Canadian Somalis need to give it a rest. Jamaicans don't even consider themselves black. They will tell you that they're not black. For God's sake we shouldn't limit ourselves to a race that don't even want to be themselves. You actually think if blacks had a choice they would choose to be black?

[Robotic]

Any somali who don't consider themselves to be black is self hater. I put it the nicest way I could.

Yes we are somali and we should be proud of where we come from, but we also belong to the black race. Don't fool yourselves.

It's like every somali and most black people run from being labeled as "black" because it's associated with negative connotations.

[Idman702]

Any somali who don't consider themselves to be black is self hater. I put it the nicest way I could.

Yes we are somali and we should be proud of where we come from, but we also belong to the black race. Don't fool yourselves.

Self hater? Chill you're not even American. I believe only North American Somalis should have a say in this topic.

[Robotic]

Any somali who don't consider themselves to be black is self hater. I put it the nicest way I could.

Yes we are somali and we should be proud of where we come from, but we also belong to the black race. Don't fool yourselves.

Self hater? Chill you're not even American. I believe only North American Somalis should have a say in this topic.

LOL! So? I have a say too. Why only north Americans? Black people exist all over the world and not only in north America.

[iandi]

Somalis like to underscore the fact that people of african descent in the west had their names, culture etc stolen from them which is true. African descended people in the west also have no knowledge of what tribe or country their forebearers came from. They may have a general idea but there is no definitive historical documentation to guide individuals in this regard. They know their ancestors were taken from african and that is the extent of it. In that context then the only unifying factor for afro-descended people in the new world was the fact that they were of african origin and they were of darker skin....black. It really is that simple why the term "black" has endured in the west and why it encompasses people of african descent as a whole.

Moreover black people in the west, be they from the caribbean or from the US, have developed their own cultures....music...food...even language...that are separate and apart from africa. Yes those cultures have african foundations....but they also have other building blocks in the mix as well. So you have music like calypso, soca, reggae, salsa, merengue, zouk, bachata, blues, rock and roll, jazzz....and sooo sooo many more styles of music that this people have given birth to...music that is very much a part and parcel of the cultural domination of world by the US. The same goes for the plethora of cuisines that these people have come up with over the decades.

So it is also quite understandable that people from the african continent who are new arrivals to the west would find this concept of "black" foreign. You will even find argument among western blacks as to whether the term should be used as well. I totally support somalis, sudanese and whoever else who do not wish to subscribe to the "black" moniker.

The term "black" is more social, cultural construct than anything else and as such it shouldn't be forced down anyone's throat to accept it.

[Methylamine]

When it comes to applying to scholarships/jobs that have affirmative action/equal opportunity guidelines, you can say I'm a mugdi madow

[Prlnce]

Any somali who don't consider themselves to be black is self hater. I put it the nicest way I could.

Yes we are somali and we should be proud of where we come from, but we also belong to the black race. Don't fool yourselves.

It's like every somali and most black people run from being labeled as "black" because it's associated with negative connotations.

I think you are suffering from the Rachel Dolezal syndrome....

[sahal80]

Any somali who don't consider themselves to be black is self hater. I put it the nicest way I could.

Yes we are somali and we should be proud of where we come from, but we also belong to the black race. Don't fool yourselves.

Self hater? Chill you're not even American. I believe only North American Somalis should have a say in this topic.

these eurotrash somalis act as wannabe gangsters

[iandi]

Just as i support those newly arrived africans who do not subscribe to term "black", i equally support those who do. They should be respected for that choice.

It should be an individual's choice and one should be all-in or all-out...no half-stepping.

[TheMightyNomad]

Somalis in North America that claim black or get offended when a fellow Somalis says "i am not black" have identity issues. Simple as that they can cry all they want about being denied their blackness whatever that means.

We are not the only group that refuses to be identified as black look at every other africans that migrated to North America. Nigerians,Sudanese Ethiopians and so on all refuse to be categorized or label as blacks. You hear time after time "i am african" We don't share anything with the blacks or african american or whatever you want to call them.

Jews in America don't want to label caucasians. Arabs don't want to be labeled as caucasians that they are petitioning the US census bureau to add new category so they don't get grouped together with somebody they have nothing in common with.

Now the United States Census Bureau is testing a new category, “Middle East-North Africa” or MENA, in response to more than three decades of lobbying by Arab American organizations for a designation that better represents them. The testing, to start in September, will refine wording and sub-categories for the 2020 census. Nineteen options will be offered under the MENA designation, among them Israeli and Palestinian, as well as Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Turkish, Iranian, Moroccan and Algerian. Even Sudanese and Somali are being considered.

i knew somalis wouldnt be for being labeled under black or classified as such! i hope they win just like how somalis did in the uk

Somalis want to only be referred to as Somali