To the editors:
African Americans have ceaselessly tried to escape that dual categorization. Today’s young (as well as the not so young) black professionals are burdened with the insistence by society that they are not just American, but black and American, or African and American; whether they like it or not. The maintenance of white supremacy demands it. Many of the black professionals are extremely unhappy with the situation; even though, individually and in the aggregate, in much better position throughout the society, than their predecessor African Americans ever were. But society keeps pushing the modern black professional to have to ask, in varying degrees of intensity, who and what are they? Are they Americans first, as some would like to insist? Are they blacks or African heritaged first? Some would even like to insist that those names are not important; that they are human beings, period. But Du Bois’ proposition still holds them in an ironclad grasp. They are judged by the dominant white supremacy to be something different than whites; that difference being from the beginning one that could justify the subordination imposed on black people by white people.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But is the more cool journalist Page any more influential? Perhaps. But if he is, what is his identity? Whatever it is, it is certainly enigmatic, and thus comprising of his credibility. In either case, it would be interesting to hear those two journalists engage in a symposium on the issue of the quandaries of African Americans who work in the world of the white media (along with, of course, a couple of blacks working in Black media).
