Are Black Folks REALLY a Minority?
I always detested the word minority because of its not so hidden connotation of being minute, as in insignificant. The word is more often than not assigned to classify all individuals who are not of the Anglo persuasion. But is the term misleading? I think so.
Census data is collected every decade and people are urged to classify themselves under any number of arbitrary racial categories, but if we look more closely at the numbers, particularly of those who are of mixed heritage and Latino or Hispanic who come from an African background, the number of African descendant people in this country would be well above the 12.5% recorded in the latest 2010 census data. But what’s more, the terminology of being categorized as a minority is misleading on a global scale.
The truth is White/Anglo/European people make up less than 5% of the world’s population, making them the real ‘minorities’ on the planet. While there are nearly 1 billion people alone currently living in Africa, there are untold millions of Blacks living throughout the world and within the African Diaspora. Take Brazil for instance, which is the home to more Black people outside of the country of Nigeria. That means there are more Blacks living in this South American country than countries in Africa, thanks to the transatlantic slave trade. In fact Brazil is home to an estimated population of nearly 95 million Blacks and mixed race persons of African ancestry.
Are you keeping count here? So far I have only counted 1 continent and 1 country and the figures of Black folks who are assumed to be minorities, is at 1.1 billion.
Haiti boast just over 9 million Black people on the tiny island, Cuba nearly 1.5 million, Jamaica is home to 2 million plus African descendants, and Venezuela has an estimated population of 3 million African identified people. So let’s break this down so that we have a more accurate picture of the total number of Black people in this world, lest we continue to be mislead about our so called minority status.
According to global census reports there are just over 22 million African descendants living in the Caribbean. More than 110 million residing in South America, close to 45 million who make North America their home, and just over 7 million in Europe. So according to these simple calculations the worldwide population of Black people on the planet, including inhabitants on the continent of Africa and throughout the Diaspora and Europe is (drum roll please)…over 1.4 billion African and African descendant people on this planet. Good Lord that’s a lot of Black folk!
It’s important that we understand semantics, and how certain terminology is used to dupe us into believing foolishness. And as Jay-Z says, “Men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t lie.”
A lot of us “black” people you listed might not think of ourselves as “black” or if we think of ourselves as “black” , we might not mean “black” in the way that you mean “black” . In fact, in our eyes, dating you might be similar to interracial dating.
And its not necessary true that we don’t want to be “black” or “black” in the same way that African Americans are “black.” In fact, a lot of us like to appropriate aspects of African American culture. It just that we have our own cultures, our histories, and our own concept of our identity. Yes we share some struggles and we should team together to conquer those struggles.
But please stop speaking/writing is ways that make us feel like our distinctness is being wiped away and replaced with identities that we did not create. As always, not all of us feel this way, but enough of us do for it to be a problem.
How many of the 1 billion living in Africa are ‘black’? Just curious.
Say what?
I didn’t know it wasn’t common knowledge that not every African is black. How many of the 1 billion people living in Africa are black? or of Arab descent? White? Asian descent?
Nathalie, if you are serious about increasing the number of blacks in the corporate world, how about we start praising entrepreneurs instead of celebrities and athletes?! How about we fight against ridiculous regulations that are designed to keep minorities and poor people from entering some industries and providing for themselves. Furthermore, how about we tell the IMF and World Bank (including world governments) to stop sending aid to Africa but to allow investments to flow there. If you are truly serious, these are the various ways to make sure that we become a stronger force not only in the United States but in the world