Nothing prevents Irish Americans from celebrating St Patrick's Day. Nothing prevents Italian Americans (like my wife:-) from preparing and sharing her traditional cuisine. Nothing prevents my Dutch relatives in Holland Mich. or Pella, IA, from holding their wooden shoe parades. But all these folks are primarily simply Americans first with a heritage they honor as a 'secondary' identity. I agree with Greg Thomas--there is no need for deracialization to be seen as stripping the unique heritage away from black people just because their blackness is no longer held to be their 'primary' identifier but merely a pointer to their ancestry like any other hyphenated American. I really don't hear any convincing argument against this any more compelling than say, an Italian American separatist movement, which would be ridiculous. Quit focusing on race!
Nothing prevents Irish Americans from celebrating St Patrick's Day. Nothing prevents Italian Americans (like my wife:-) from preparing and sharing her traditional cuisine. Nothing prevents my Dutch relatives in Holland Mich. or Pella, IA, from holding their wooden shoe parades. But all these folks are primarily simply Americans first with a heritage they honor as a 'secondary' identity. I agree with Greg Thomas--there is no need for deracialization to be seen as stripping the unique heritage away from black people just because their blackness is no longer held to be their 'primary' identifier but merely a pointer to their ancestry like any other hyphenated American. I really don't hear any convincing argument against this any more compelling than say, an Italian American separatist movement, which would be ridiculous. Quit focusing on race!