The Psychology of Identity and How It Has Affected African-Americans

A few years ago, I was at my Uncle's house and he was telling some story about how a guy was talking about black people and how we're descendants of Africans and whatnot. I can't remember the particulars, but I do recall my Uncle's response as if he had said it just five minutes ago. He yelled out, "I ain't from Africa, I'm from Alabama!". This stuck with me because here was this college educated man basically denouncing his ancestors and proclaiming that he was an American first and foremost. This prompted me to think about how we as a people view ourselves, not just individually, but collectively, and as ideas and thoughts swirled around in my head, I discovered a shocking truth that no one has truly realized because the issue is never a topic of conversation.
We all know of a certain word that has been the subject of much debate for it's degrading nature and roots of origin. It is now used more frequently by those who were the targets of it's degradation with connotations that range from the same hateful inflections, to a term of endearment and comradery. People think this word was created by the devil himself because at one point, it was the worst thing you could call a person. But with all that this word has done to inflict negativity on the human spirit, there is another term that is used everyday, by every race, and it has been overlooked to the point where it has been accepted by us all as proper classification of an entire race. The word I am speaking of is none other than the term "Black".
You may think to yourself, "What is he talking about? That's what I am", but you'd be missing the psychological and subliminal aspects of what it means to say "I'm Black". Contrary to popular belief, Black is not a race. Not now, nor has there ever been a race of people called Black. People from China are Chinese, people from Europe are European, people from Russia are Russian etc. So how is it that the people in this country, whose ancestors were undoubtedly from Africa, are known as "Black" people. I understand that our skin color is one of the reasons for this classification, but it goes so much beyond the issue of skin color, that we've not even been able to detect the mental devastation this term alone has caused us as a people.
What they have done is totally disconnected us from our history by convincing us that the people of color in this country have nothing to do with the people in Africa when this couldn't be any further from the truth. My uncle made the statement he did because for his entire life growing up in Alabama, they weren't calling him "African-American", they were calling him "Black", as with every other person of color in this country. Slaves were disassociated with their roots in Africa, given completely new identities, and psychologically brainwashed to believe that a slave is all they were ever meant to be. Slaves now took on this new identity as a "Black" person rather than an African person and as so much time has passed, we have now accepted this label as if it is who we really are.
To fully understand how this labeling has helped to deny people of color their true history as well as imprint negativity into the subliminal conscience, you have to realize two things. One: they've split a race of people into two seemingly seperate factions (Africans and Africans in America who do not identify with the country from which they came)and Two: the definition used to describe what "black" really means in this country.
I know about African history because I wanted to find out what our "true" story was beyond the boundaries of slavery. I knew that, while I am the descendant of slaves, the first slaves were from Africa, and that is where the real story begins. After learning about the abundant wealth (gold, diamonds, ivory, etc.)of the country, I dicovered the motivation behind the invasion of a country that was self-sustained. Of all the natural resources Africa had to offer, none would prove to be more valuable than the people themselves. With this knowledge, a plan was initiated that would change the course of history, and the fate of the world. I leave it up to you to discover the truth in detail but I will say that this is one of the most horrible atrocities ever inflicted upon humanity.
Next, you have to find out just what was the literal definition of the term "Black" in this country during those times and how the ramifications of those definitions still haunt us today. One read i found interesting can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/yfkx8k8 It shows how they determined who was "Black" and who wasn't. The absurd "one-drop rule" was one such method used to determine if you were considered black. It stated that if you had even "one drop" of blood in you, you were "Black" and therefore open to any discrimination whites wanted to place upon you. If you opened a dictionary during those times, this is what you would find:

Black = Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness; destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible.

By contrast, let's look at the definition of white from the very same dictionary.

White = Having the color of purity; free from spot or blemish, or from guilt or pollution; innocent; pure

Now, if this was the definition of black and white in an "Actual" dictionary, this means that white students here in America were being taught these definitions on a daily basis. These same white kids are the grandparents of today, so not only were they being "programmed" to view the term "Black" in a negative way and "White" in an "always positive" way as children, once the definitions changed in the books, people were already passing these definitions down from generation to generation. What's even worse is that African-Americans weren't allowed to read and write, so they had no idea of the brainwashing occurring on either side. If all you know about the word black is that it means wicked, destitute of goodness and something horrible, what do you think will be the view of a race of people you give the label "Black"? And how would you view your actions towards them if you believed that because you are white, it makes you exempt from guilt? These definitions are part of the reason for the classification of our two races by color - so that an immediate judgement can be made based on ethnicity alone, regardless of moral or social standing. Black is automatically percieved to be bad and white is automatically percieved to be good.
Once you disect the causes, rather than dwell on the negativity of the effects, you can begin to understand what needs to be done to reverse and resolve those effects that perpetuate our current circumstances.