I consider myself to be an American, but due to “political correctness” I have been labeled an African American. Why am I an African American? I was born in the United States; I have never been to Africa. Judging by my hair and skin I may be of African descent from generations ago. But I could just as easily be of Jamaican descent as I share many traits with Jamaicans as well. But Jamaicans were originally brought from Africa as slave generations ago, so would they not be African Jamaican.?

By labeling a person based on their heritage, you classify them as being different from you. Americans with darker are constantly referred to as African Americans and Americans with lighter skin are referred to as Caucasian. Thus, when speaking in general terms, you can say “African American people” or “Caucasian people”. However, often one may refuse to acknowledge two facts: 1) In both phrases is a common word, people. Both groups are people, so cannot both groups be put into one group and just call them people? 2) By saying “African American” and “Caucasian” often the word, American, is forgotten on the end of Caucasian. Should it not be “Caucasian American”? And by calling somebody a “Caucasian American” of and “African American” the “African” and “Caucasian” become excessive as both groups of people can be classified as one group of people, Americans

Dr. Martin Luther King jr. once said “We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools”. This is a profound statement; not only did it apply to the Civil Rights Movement forty years ago, but it applies to society today. No matter how often somebody expresses this message, it never really seems to stick. So for the time being, I will skip past the boxes on surveys labeled African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, or any other space consuming label and simply check the box next to other.