Wait a Minute, Before You Call Me Black

Abstract

Wait a Minute, Before You Call Me Black challenges the definition of culture. In particular this inquiry examines the cultural alchemy of Blackness through a personal, meta-narrative. Much of contemporary society associates Blackness with people of African descent, however the term is not ahistorical. Blackness as a word, description, and concept has a connection to people of European and Asian descent-a connection that rests in the 19th Century immigration of their ancestors to America. Two hundred years later, people of European and Asian descent have been able to transcend their Blackness, while people of African descent remain with its realm.