You destroyed your own argument in this post... and you don't even realize it.
I highlighted the bold so you can pinpoint exactly where you made everyone else's point for them.
Labels have existed since the dawn of man. Labels are about as "artificial" (as you put) as language itself.
You act as though the label "black" has any less relevance, meaning, significance than "Igbo, Anambre, Zulu, Man, Woman."
You act as though when "the system is not around" that labels do not exist
Let me break this down in a way that everyone can understand.
- Labels will exist as long as there is more than 1 human being alive. As long as there are 2 people who are not completely identical to each other, there will be labels used to point out the differences. As long as not everyone in the world is the same skin tone, you will be black.
- Self-appointed Labels are not inherently a bad thing. As I said above, labels are integral with language itself. Solidarity and strength can be found in labels. A strong black woman is a label. We cannot have a black community if we cannot even find solidarity in our own race. Also if I label something to show that I am not part of it, I am also in turn labelling myself to show that we are not one in the same. Example, a white person cannot say shyt about "black people" without, by virtue of that statement, admitting that he is not black.
- We didn't need white people to teach us how to be black. This one kills me. You remedials in here always stay on this shyt about "Africans didn't know any better until the white man started calling them black" FUKK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT NONSENSE. Africans knew damn well that they were very different than white people. You acting like brehs couldn't tell the difference between them and a white man prior to Jim Crow laws. The only difference is white people used these differences as a means to degrade us, but we use these differences as a means to uplift ourselves and promote our excellence. I don't want white looks, white hair, white features, white skin. Those tactics don't work on proud black people (oh look, another label
)
- This mindset only helps white people. Despite what any white person passionately declares and exclaims in a 2 minute video
... they know they are still fukking white
. At the end of the day, you shedding all of your labels doesn't make you any less susceptible to Systematic Oppression, Corporate racism, police brutality. These realities are not reliant upon whether or not you believe them or not. A cop doesn't need you to sign an affidavit saying "I am really black" for him to discriminate against you.
I could go on but you get the gist... i hope