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Revision as of 20:44, 20 February 2007 view sourceJd2718 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers5,682 edits tables should not draw on sources using different definitions; entire section assumes that there are two definitions of who is Black, contradicted in full by the rest of the article← Previous edit Revision as of 20:50, 20 February 2007 view source Muntuwandi (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users8,640 edits see talk pageNext edit →
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==Estimated population and distribution==

There is no agreed upon definition of who is black. The table gives figures on the African Diaspora and some information on peoples from the south pacific region. Not all people in the African Diaspora identify themselves as black but the numbers can serve as the upper limit of the population.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|+ African Diaspora
! Region !! Population !! Percentage
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.prb.org/pdf06/06WorldDataSheet.pdf population reference burea page six of report </ref>
| 760,000,000|| 83%
|-
! ] <ref>http://whgbetc.com/mind/black-latin-america2.html </ref>
| 100,000,000|| 11%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black/ppl-186/tab1ic.txt us census</ref>
| 40,000,000|| 4%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/cpd/ma/table39.htm caribbean population</ref>
| 15,000,000 || 1.6%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/12/world/main2356940.shtml</ref>
| 3,500,000 || 0.4%

|-
! Total
| 918,250,000 ||
|}



{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|+ African Diaspora, Melanesia, and Indegenous Australian people
! Region !! Population !! Percentage
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.prb.org/pdf06/06WorldDataSheet.pdf population reference burea page six of report </ref>
| 760,000,000|| 82%
|-
! ] <ref>http://whgbetc.com/mind/black-latin-america2.html </ref>
| 100,000,000|| 11%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black/ppl-186/tab1ic.txt us census</ref>
| 40,000,000|| 4%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/cpd/ma/table39.htm caribbean population</ref>
| 15,000,000 || 1.6%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/12/world/main2356940.shtml</ref>
| 3,500,000 || 0.3%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.spc.int/demog/en/index.html Pacific islands website </ref>
| 6,000,000 || 0.5%
|-
! ] <ref>http://www.aihw.gov.au/indigenous/ Institute of health and welfare.</ref>
| 500,000 || 0.05%

|-
! Total
| 924,500,000 ||
|}

=== Sub-Saharan Africa population===
* According to the UN the population of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2004 was 715 million <ref>http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdf page 2 of report</ref>
* The population reference bureau has 767 million in 2006.

===The Americas===

* ] - There are an estimated 40 million people of African descent in the US, ].
* ]- There are an estimated 100 million people of African descent living in Latin America. The bulk of whom are 80 million ]s who make up 45 % of Brazil's population<ref>https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/br.html cia factbook</ref>. There are also sizeable african populations in Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
* The population in the Caribbean is approximately 15 million. This excludes ], ] and ] which are included in the Latin american category. Significant numbers include ]- 8million and ] - 2.5 million, <ref>http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdf</ref>

===Europe===

*England - 1.6 million split evenly between afro-caribbeans and africans
*France - 2 million of sub-saharan african descent
*Netherlands- 300, 000 of surinamese descent.

===Melanesia===
This includes the populations of ], ] and other surrounding islands. Approx 6 million. ] was named by spanish explorer ] in 1545. He named the south pacific Island so because the local inhabitants resembled the peoples of the ] coast in West Africa<ref>http://www.deplu.go.id/download/the%20beginning.pdf page 3</ref>. The term Melanesia is derived from the French ‘Melanesie’ meaning ‘black islands’ and was first applied to the region by Dumont d’Urville during his 1832 scientific voyage<ref>http://humanities.cqu.edu.au/history/52148/modules/pacific_peoplesA.html</ref>.

===Australia===
has the indigenous population of Australians as 500, 000.

===Published estimates===

he charts assert that indigenous sub-Saharan Africans and their descendents around the globe number 918.75 million or roughly 14% of the now 6.555 billion people on Earth. Nigeria has the largest population with 134 million or one seventh of the global african population. Brazil is the second largest and the United States is the sixth largest country by afro-descendents.

Many Afro-descendents, particulary in Latin america are multiracial of black, amerindian and white lineage. In Brazil for example 45% of the population are Afro-Brazilian but only 6.2% identify themselves as black.

Currently the global black population is still less than the individual populations of China and India.

===Population trends===
In recent history people of European descent have outnumbered people of African descent. However now for the first time, the global african population is about to equal and likely to surpass those of European descent. According to a , in the year 1750 Europe had 163 million and Africa had 106 million. Africa is 3 times larger than Europe which meant that Europe's population was effectively 5-6 times that of Africa by density. By the year 1900 Europe's population had tripled to 433 million while africa's remained fairly stable at 133 million, approximately 10 times less in density. The 20th century saw rapid growth in Africa and currently sub-saharan africa has the fastest growing population in the world and its total recently exceeded that of Europe. Population projections for the next 150 years indicate that the population of Africa will be greater than the population of Europe, and the Americas combined. From a black/white perspective caucasian people will be the ] and blacks will be the ].This scenario is bound to have a significant effect on race relations in the future.





Revision as of 20:50, 20 February 2007

A Kenyan man

Black people or blacks is a racial, political, social or cultural classification of people with naturally dark skin. In some cultures the term black also can refer to people with fair skin, owing to lineage. A variety of socio-political and biological factors are used to define categories of black people.

There is no universally agreed-upon definition for who is black. For example, some assert that only people of relatively recent African descent are black while others argue that black may refer to individuals with dark skin color regardless of ethnic origin.

Scientific issues

Further information: ]

Scientists now believe that first humans lived in Africa between 100,000 to 200, 000 years ago. About 80,000 years ago a group of them crossed the red sea and proceeded to populate the rest of the world. The early Africans were exposed to higher amounts of the sun's radiation and thus developed dark skin. This occurs due to an increased amount of melanin. Dark skin helps protect against skin cancer that develops as a result of ultraviolet light radiation causing mutations in the skin. Furthermore dark skin prevents Vitamin B folate from being destroyed. In short in the absence of modern medicine and diet, a person with dark skin in the tropics would live longer, be more healthy and more likely to reproduce than a person with light skin. Scientists point to the fact the white Australians have some of the highest rates of skin cancer as evidence of this . Conversly as dark skin prevents sunlight penetrating it hinders the production of vitamin D3. Hence when humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D3 levels became a problem and light skin color re-emerged. The people of europe, who lack melanin, have an almost colorless skin pigmentation. This allows the blood vessels to become visible and gives the characteristic pale pink color of white people. The difference in skin color between black and whites is however a minor genetic difference accounting for just one letter in 3.1billion letters of DNA. code

Historical context

Scientific racism and racial classification

Further information: ]

The modern concept of race has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment, which gave rise to biological classifications, scientific racism and the theory of evolution. At the end of the 17th century, a French doctor named Francois Bernier divided up humanity based on facial appearance and body type. He proposed four categories: Europeans, Far Easterners, Lapps, and blacks who he described as having woolly hair, thick lips, and very white teeth.

Swiss botanist Carolus Linnaeus divided humankind into four, main "races" loosely based on geographic distribution: europeaus, the white race; asiaticus, the yellow race; americanus, the red race; and afer (for Africa), the black race. According to Linnaeus' pseudo-scientific model, the black male could be defined by his skin tone, face structure, and curly hair. Today, Linneaus generally is widely regarded as a racist. He assigned various fanciful attributes to each of his four categories, clearly favoring the "race" europeaus. Linnaeus described blacks as cunning, passive, inattentive, and ruled by impulse. He pronounced black females shameless because, he reasoned, "they lactate profusely".

Agreement/Disagreement of Cultural
and Physical Anthropologists with the statement that
"There are biological races in the species Homo sapiens"
1985 vs. 1999
Cultural % Physical % Combined %
1985 1999 1985 1999 1995 1999
agree 30 14 50 24 39 18
neutral 17 6 10 7 14 7
disagree 53 80 40 69 47 75

Linnaeus's protege, Johann Blumenbach, considered the founder of anthropology, added the brown race, "Malay" for Polynesisians and Melanesians of Pacific Islands, and for aborigines of Australia. By the nineteenth century Georges Cuvier's more simplified threefold divisions of humans into Caucasians, Mongolians, and Negroes (the Spanish word for black) would achieve widespread popularity

By the time Carleton Coon published his more elaborate system of races (Capoids, Congoids, Caucusoids, Mongloids, Australoids) in The Origin of Races in 1962, anthropologists' adherence to theories of race were already in decline, and by the end of the 20th century, race was widely dismissed as a social contruction, in part because the recent single-origin hypothesis implied that human groups had diverged too recently for significant differences to have evolved.

The role of the Bible

Further information: ]

According to some historians, the tale in Genesis 9 in which Noah cursed the descendants of his son Ham with servitude was a seminal moment in defining black people, as the story was passed on through generations of Jewish, Christian and Islamic scholars. According to columnist Felicia R. Lee, "Ham came to be widely portrayed as black; blackness, servitude and the idea of racial hierarchy became inextricably linked." Some people believe that the tradition of dividing humankind into three major races is partly rooted in tales of Noah's three sons repopulating the Earth after the Deluge and giving rise to three separate races.

The biblical passage, Book of Genesis 9:20-27, which deals with the sons of Noah however makes no reference to race. The reputed curse of Ham is not on Ham, but on Caanan, one of Ham's sons. This is not a racial but geographic referent. The Caanites, typically associated with the region of the Levant (Palestine, Lebanon, etc) were later subjugated by the Hebrews when they left bondage in Egypt according to the Biblical narrative. The alleged inferiority of Hamitic descendants also in not supported by the Biblical narrative, nor claims of three races in relation to Noah's sons. Shem for example seems a linguistic not racial referent. In short the Bible does not define blacks, nor assign them to racial hierarchies.

Historians believe that by the 19th century, the belief that blacks were descended from Ham was used by southern United States whites to justify slavery. According to Benjamin Braude, a professor of history at Boston College, "in 18th- and 19th century Euro-America, Genesis 9:18-27 became the curse of Ham, a foundation myth for collective degradation, conventionally trotted out as God's reason for condemning generations of dark-skinned peoples from Africa to slavery."

On the other hand, author David M. Goldenberg contends that the Bible is not a racist document. According to Goldenberg, such racist interpretations came from post-biblical writers of antiquity like Philo and Origen, who equated blackness with darkness of the soul.

Definitions

Social identification

According to Frank W. Sweet, the most controversial answer to the question "who is black?" is "whoever looks black." He writes that although most who use the label rationalize it in terms of physical appearance, there is little objective consistency in this regard, and that different cultures can assign the same individual to opposite "races": North Americans, Haitians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Barbadians, Jamaicans, and Trinidadians all have different subconscious and automatic perceptions of just what features define who belongs to which "racial" label.

According to Professor R Bhopal a black is "A person with African ancestral origins, who self identifies, or is identified, as Black, African or Afro-Caribbean (see, African and Afro-Caribbean). The word is capitalised to signify its specific use in this way. In some circumstances the word Black signifies all non-white minority populations, and in this use serves political purposes."

In sub-Saharan Africa, terms specifically describing black people are not as commonly used as in the western world. According to Sri Lankan activist Nirmala Rajasingam "I think the idea of a Black identity, was inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the US. Unfortunately, now Black is identified with people of African origin only, but it didn’t used to be that way. It was used as a political term of people of color uniting to fight racism".

According to psychologist Arthur Jensen, "American blacks are socially defined simply as persons who have some degree of sub-Saharan African ancestry and who identify themselves (or, in the case of children, are defined by their parents) as black or African-American"

One drop rule

According to the Untied States' one drop rule, a black is any person with any known African ancestry. Sociologist F. James Davis in his 1991 book Who Is Black? argues that this definition, is "inextricably woven into the history of the United States. It incorporates beliefs once used to justify slavery and later used to buttress the castelike Jim Crow system of segregation." "Most Americans," according to Davis, "seem unaware that this definition of blacks is extremely unusual in other countries, perhaps even unique to the United States, and that Americans define no other minority group in a similar way"

Not only does the one-drop rule not apply outside of America, but it often applies in reverse. Just as anyone with any physically recognizable sub-Saharan ancestry can claim to be Black in America, anyone with any recognizable Caucasian ancestry is considered White in Latin America. Even individual with enough African ancestry to make them as dark as Sidney Poitier can pass for White if they appear to have at least one physically visible Caucasian trait such as straight hair or narrow facial features. According to Jose Neinstein, a native white Brazilian and executive director of the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute in Washington, in America, "if you are not quite white, then you are black." But in Brazil, "If you are not quite black, then you are white." Neinstein recalls talking with a man of Poitier's complexion when in Brazil: "We were discussing ethnicity, and I asked him, 'What do you think about this from your perspective as a black man?' He turned his head to me and said, 'I'm not black,' . . . It simply paralyzed me. I couldn't ask another question."

The Washington Post described a woman named Martins, a Brazilian who, for 30 years before immigrating to the United States, considered herself a morena -- a woman with caramel-colored skin that is roughly equated with whiteness in Brazil and in some other Latin American countries. "I didn't realize I was black until I came here," she explained. The same racial culture shock has come to hundreds of thousands of dark skinned Latino immigrants to the United States from Brazil, Colombia, Panama and other Latin nations. Although most lack the degree of African ancestry required to be considered black in Brazil, they have enough to be seen as black the second they foot on U.S. soil. According to the Washington Post their refusal to embrace America’s definition of black has left many feeling attacked from all directions: Many African Americans believe they are denying their blackness; white Americans profile them in stores or on highways instead of treating them like whites; and lighter-skinned Latinos dominate Spanish-language television, even though a majority of Latin people possess some African or Indian ancestry. Many feel it is hard enough to accept a new language and culture without the additional burden of transforming from white to black. "It's overwhelming," explained Yvette Modestin, a dark-skinned native of Panama who works in Boston. "There's not a day that I don't have to explain myself." Martins expresses the same discomfort: " 'Where are you from?' they ask me. I say I'm from Brazil. They say, 'No, you are from Africa.' They make me feel like I am denying who I am."

According to professor J.B. Bird, Latin America is not alone in rejecting the American notion than any visible African ancestry is enough to make one black:

In most countries of the Caribbean, Colin Powell would be described as a Creole, reflecting his mixed heritage. In Belize, he might further be described as a "High Creole," because of his extremely light complexion. So which is he, black or Creole? It depends on the culture making the distinction. Ethnicity purports to be based on human biology

Even the U.S. itself is increasingly rejecting the one drop rule and even question whether even as much as 50% black ancestry should be considered black. Although Barack Obama self-identifies as black despite having a white mother, 55 percent of whites classified him as biracial instead of black after being told of his maternal descent, and 61 percent of Hispanics did so as well. Blacks were less likely to acknowledge a mulitiracial category, with 66% considering him black.

Although America’s one drop rule originated as a racist attempt to keep the white race pure of any black contamination, today some of it’s biggest defenders are African-Americans such as professor Jon Michael Spencer. According to Spencer, who teaches American studies and music at the University of Richmond, attempts to relinquish the one drop rule in favor of multiracial categories is "the postmodern conspiracy to explode racial identity". Spencer, who claims that blacks and whites in Africa view him as 'colored' rather than black because he happen to be very brown in complexion , worries that Federal relief funds for blacks will dwindle if their officially registered population declines. He also fears that new multiracial classifications will sap the black community of skill and vigor. In an New York Newsday article about the nascent multiracial movement he stated: "If the multiracial movement had taken root, or a 'mulatto' category had been kept throughout the 20th century, black progress might have been no progress at all." Spencer denigrates the motives of his opponents in this debate:

As some multiracialists begin down the road of racial bigotry by cock-a-doodling about their alleged specialness, certainly in part to bolster the identity and self-esteem of themselves or that of their mixed-race children, they subtly assault the identity and self-esteem of black Americans.

Right-wing publication American Renaissance argues that one-drop-rule also serves "Afrocentric" interests too, arguing that "without the one drop rule, not even the most brazen of them can claim that Nefertiti, Jesus, Rameses, and Beethoven were "black." According to Martin Bernal the ancient Egyptians were black in the sense that they wouldn’t be served coffee in a restaurant in the segregated South. Cheikh Anta Diop goes further, arguing that the French, the Spanish, the Italians, and the Greeks, may all be considered black.

Legal definitions

U.S.

Template:2000 Race US Census map

Mostafa Hefny is white under US law, due to his national heritage

The U.S. census race definitions says a black is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or provide written entries such as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian. The Census Bureau however notes that these classifications are socio-political constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature. Self-identifying as Black is not enough to be considered Black under U.S. law. This was discovered by Egyptian immigrant Mostafa Hefny, who describes himself as dark skinned with kinky hair, but nonetheless is legally White not Black. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget, which defines Blacks as having origins with the Black racial groups of Africa and Whites as having origins with original peoples of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt. Mostafa insists that he is more black than Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and retired Gen. Colin Powell. "I was born and raised in Africa and they were not," he said. "And yet they are classified as Black and I am classified as White." Although Mostafa admits the region of Africa he comes from is North of the Sahara, he claims his ancestors from the ancient kingdom of Nubia, now part of Egypt and Sudan, qualifies him as Black. Mostafa has attempted to sue the U.S. government to get his racial identity changed. Mostafa's case is part of the larger controversy concerning the degree of black blood in ancient Egypt.

South Africa

This extended family has too much non-African descent to have been classified as Black under South Africa's former Apartheid laws

In South Africa during the apartheid era, the population was classified into four groups: Black, White, Asian (mostly Indian), and "Coloured". (These terms are capitalised to denote their legal definitions in South African law). The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria at the time that the Population Registration Act was implemented to determine who was Coloured. Minor officials would administer tests to determine if someone should be categorised either Coloured or Black, or if another person should be categorised either Coloured or White. When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance whether someone had enough black blood to be considered coloured or black, the pencil test was employed. This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck.

When asked to explain the difference between Blacks and Coloureds a South African official replied: “Well, Coloureds are always mixed bloods . . . and you know them by their language and by their looks.” When it was suggested that Blacks can also be mixed, he replied:

Er, yes but . . . not really. They may be mixed with other Black 'tribes,' but they are not mixed with whites, because if they were mixed with white they would be classified as 'coloured.' and up until now a person with any mixed blood would certainly 'go' for the coloured classification. It would be impossible for him to pass as white, and there would be no reason to try and pass as Black because being colored naturally gave a person more opportunities--better schooling, better housing, social mobility . . . all those material benefits . . . But there are also real differences in culture between the two groups.

Black as an "African race"

Some people take the view that Black people are a definable "racial" group, these people routinely use the term Black when they mean "of recent African origin", for example Psychiatrist Sally Satel has stated that

The entities we call ‘racial groups’ essentially represent individuals united by a common descent — a huge extended family, as evolutionary biologists like to say. Blacks, for example, are a racial group defined by their possessing some degree of recent African ancestry (recent because, after all, everyone of us is out of Africa, the origin of Homo sapiens).

Satel has written for the politically right wing Policy Review, and is a fellow of the right wing American Enterprise Institute.

The company "DNAPrint Genomics "analyzes DNA to determine the exact percentage of Indo-European, sub-Saharan, East Asian, and Native American heritage someone has and assigns the to the categories White, Black, East Asian, Native American, or mixed race accordingly.

University of Ontario psychology professor J. Phillipe Rushton states: "In both everyday life and evolutionary biology, a 'Black' is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in sub-Saharan Africa" Rushton has been accused of being an "academic racist," and has posited an inverse relationship between brain and penis size; arguing that Asians are smarter than whites, who are in turn smarter than blacks. Rushton heads the Pioneer Fund, which has been accused of misusing social science to fuel the politics of oppression, of funding specialized research that seeks to prove the inferiority of blacks, and of advocating a new eugenics movement.

People who support the view that Black people are an "African race" have often been accused of applying their definitions less than objectively in order to support racial stereotypes. In a book review of Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It professor Stephen L Sniderman criticizes author Jon Entine for his lack of consistency:

The most significant flaw in Entine’s argument, though, involves his use of black, a problematic word that he should have handled much more carefully. From the title to the final sentence, that term, unfortunately, means whatever suits Entine’s purpose. He ostensibly defines the term in his introduction: "Elite athletes who trace most or all of their ancestry to Africa are by and large better than the competition" (emphasis added). But that's certainly not the definition he uses to identify black athletes throughout the book. When he includes superstars with light brown skin (such as Muhammad Ali, Maury Wills, Joe Louis, and O.J. Simpson) in the category he labels black, he offers no evidence that they "trace most or all of their ancestry to Africa."

The idea that race or ethnicity can be anything other than a social construct is disputed, for example Arash Abizadeh, an assistant professor of Politics states

Neither ethnicity nor race is genealogically or biologically determined; they are both social constructs. Shared genealogy cannot by itself determine ethnicity or race because one must arbitrarily choose which genealogical line to trace and how far back to locate the first ancestor. Similarly, shared biology must be arbitrarily fixed by picking out which particular traits are the relevant markers of difference. Racial categories are thus produced sociopolitically, via power-relations and social practices that offend human dignity. The transformation of these practices requires a positive anticipatory undertaking, centred on a vision of the oneness of humanity, that addresses the political, economic, and spiritual dynamics of racial production.

He is therefore claiming that any racial classification is inherently socially based. In addition U.S. sociologist Troy Duster and ethicist Pilar Ossorio say:

Some percentage of people who look white will possess genetic markers indicating that a significant majority of their recent ancestors were African. Some percentage of people who look black will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European.

Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop argues that Black people historically have had a global presence: "There are two well-defined Black races: one has a black skin and woolly hair; the other also has black skin, often exceptionally black, with straight hair, aquiline nose, thin lips, an acute cheekbone angle. We find a prototype of this race in India: the Dravidian. It is also known that certain Nubians likewise belong to the same Negro type...Thus, it is inexact, anti-scientific, to do anthropological research, encounter a Dravidian type, and then conclude that the Negro type is absent." Although Diop agrees that blacks are an African race, he refuses to confine the term "black" to only dark skinned ethnicities of relatively recent African descent, instead arguing that all dark skinned groups are Africoid. Runoko Rashidi also views all dark skinned ethnicities as part of a "global African community"

Criticism of definitions

Some feel the term sub-Saharan is rooted in racism

There are objections to the standard definitions of black people, as well as criticism of the term itself.

Cultural writer and filmmaker Owen 'Alik Shahadah says "as a political term it was fiery and trendy but never was it an official racial classification of peoples who have a 120,000 year old history. Indians are from India, Chinese from China. There is no country called Blackia or Blackistan. Hence, the ancestry-nationality model is more respectful and accurate: African-American, African-British, African-Brazilian, and African-Caribbean." 'Alik Shahadah also objects that "in addition, because it is a term placed on us, we have no bases for its control, and hence they are able to say; 'Ancient Egyptians weren't black.' Black has no meaning; except the meaning they place on it, if and when they chose."

Owen 'Alik Shahadah states "the notion of some invisible border, which divides the North of African from the South, is rooted in racism, which in part assumes that a little sand is an obstacle for African people. This barrier of sand hence confines/confined Africans to the bottom of this make-believe location, which exist neither politically or physically". Shahadah argues that the term sub-Saharan Africa is a product of European imperialism, "Sub-Saharan Africa is a byword for primitive African: a place, which has escaped advancement. Hence, we see statements like 'no written languages exist in Sub-Saharan Africa.' 'Egypt is not a Sub-Saharan African civilization.'

Activist Nirmala Rajasingam considers most standard definitions of black too narrow: "It was a failure because it divided the Black community into its constituent parts.. into Jamaican or Punjabi or Sri Lankan Tamil and so on, rather than build up Black unity.. But you know, there are young Asians who would like to call themselves Black, but the African youth will say 'You are not Black, you are Asian. We are Black'. Similarly, there are young Asians who will say 'We are not Black, we are Asian.'. So it has all become diluted and depoliticized."

Lewis R. Gordon (Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University) says "Not all people who are designated African in the contemporary world are also considered black anywhere. And similarly, not all people who are considered in most places to be black are considered African anywhere. There are non-black Africans who are descended from more than a millennia of people living on the African continent, and there are indigenous Pacific peoples and peoples of India whose consciousness and life are marked by a black identity".

Psychiatrist Ikechukwu Obialo Azuonye says "being dark skinned is a widespread phenomenon which does not define any specific group of human beings. The tendency to reserve the designation black to sub-Saharan Africans and people of their extraction is manifestly misinformed".


Estimated population and distribution

There is no agreed upon definition of who is black. The table gives figures on the African Diaspora and some information on peoples from the south pacific region. Not all people in the African Diaspora identify themselves as black but the numbers can serve as the upper limit of the population.

African Diaspora
Region Population Percentage
Sub-Saharan Africa 760,000,000 83%
Latin-America 100,000,000 11%
North America 40,000,000 4%
Caribbean 15,000,000 1.6%
Europe 3,500,000 0.4%
Total 918,250,000


African Diaspora, Melanesia, and Indegenous Australian people
Region Population Percentage
Sub-Saharan Africa 760,000,000 82%
Latin America 100,000,000 11%
North American 40,000,000 4%
Caribbean 15,000,000 1.6%
Europe 3,500,000 0.3%
Melanesian natives 6,000,000 0.5%
Australian natives 500,000 0.05%
Total 924,500,000

Sub-Saharan Africa population

  • According to the UN the population of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2004 was 715 million
  • The population reference bureau has 767 million in 2006.

The Americas

  • African Americans - There are an estimated 40 million people of African descent in the US, Canada.
  • Afro-Latin American- There are an estimated 100 million people of African descent living in Latin America. The bulk of whom are 80 million Afro-Brazilians who make up 45 % of Brazil's population. There are also sizeable african populations in Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
  • The population in the Caribbean is approximately 15 million. This excludes Dominican Republic, Cuba and puerto rico which are included in the Latin american category. Significant numbers include Haiti- 8million and Jamaica - 2.5 million,

Europe

  • England - 1.6 million split evenly between afro-caribbeans and africans
  • France - 2 million of sub-saharan african descent
  • Netherlands- 300, 000 of surinamese descent.

Melanesia

This includes the populations of Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and other surrounding islands. Approx 6 million. New Guinea was named by spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez in 1545. He named the south pacific Island so because the local inhabitants resembled the peoples of the Guinea coast in West Africa. The term Melanesia is derived from the French ‘Melanesie’ meaning ‘black islands’ and was first applied to the region by Dumont d’Urville during his 1832 scientific voyage.

Australia

The institute of health has the indigenous population of Australians as 500, 000.

Published estimates

he charts assert that indigenous sub-Saharan Africans and their descendents around the globe number 918.75 million or roughly 14% of the now 6.555 billion people on Earth. Nigeria has the largest population with 134 million or one seventh of the global african population. Brazil is the second largest and the United States is the sixth largest country by afro-descendents.

Many Afro-descendents, particulary in Latin america are multiracial of black, amerindian and white lineage. In Brazil for example 45% of the population are Afro-Brazilian but only 6.2% identify themselves as black.

Currently the global black population is still less than the individual populations of China and India.

Population trends

In recent history people of European descent have outnumbered people of African descent. However now for the first time, the global african population is about to equal and likely to surpass those of European descent. According to a UN publication, in the year 1750 Europe had 163 million and Africa had 106 million. Africa is 3 times larger than Europe which meant that Europe's population was effectively 5-6 times that of Africa by density. By the year 1900 Europe's population had tripled to 433 million while africa's remained fairly stable at 133 million, approximately 10 times less in density. The 20th century saw rapid growth in Africa and currently sub-saharan africa has the fastest growing population in the world and its total recently exceeded that of Europe. Population projections for the next 150 years indicate that the population of Africa will be greater than the population of Europe, and the Americas combined. From a black/white perspective caucasian people will be the minority and blacks will be the plurality.This scenario is bound to have a significant effect on race relations in the future.


Capitalization

There is some controversy as to whether the word black should be capitalized when referring to a racial group. Section 8.43 of the Chicago Manual of Style calls for the use of lowercase letters when referring to race by color (e.g. black people, white people). Some scholars feel that such racial terms denote a special significance, especially the term black, and thus elect to capitalize.

Gallery

These are photographs of individuals who have been labelled as black by a significant number of people. In some cases the label is highly controversial. For example, Cathy Freeman would be classified as a Pacific Islander according to the U.S. census. In some cases some of these individuals might be considered multiracial.

See also

References and notes

  1. No humans are literally black in skin pigmentation.
  2. Negritos and Australoids have dark skin, but do not have recent African ancestry. Some members of these groups consider themselves, or have been considered by others, black.
  3. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_Australia_Struggles_with_Skin_Cancer.asp
  4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501728.html
  5. ' George M. Fredrickson. The Historical Origins and Development of Racism, backgrounder to RACE - The Power of an Illusion, PBS. Accessed online 4 November 2006.
  6. D'Souza D. (1996) The End of Racism, Free Press; New Ed edition (ISBN 0684825244)
  7. Gould, Stephen J. "The Geometer of Race." Discover Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 11. November 1994. Retrieved 02-17-2007.
  8. Adams, Don and Goldbard, Arlene."Race and Redemption: Notes for a National Conversation." Webster's World of Cultural Democracy, Institute for Cultural Democracy, 1995. Retrieved 02-17-2007.
  9. Akintunde, Omowale. "White racism, white supremacy, white privilege, & the social construction of race: Moving from modernist to postmodernist multiculturalism." Multicultural Education, Winter, 1999. Retrieved 02-17-2007.
  10. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview (Westview, 1999), excerpted online at library.marist.edu. Accessed online 4 November 2006.
  11. Bindon, Jim. University of Alabama. "Post World War II". 2005. August 28, 2006.
  12. Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry, (Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 28-117
  13. The Descendants of Noah (bible-truth.org)
  14. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), pp. 23-87; Goldenberg, D. M. (2005) The Curse of Ham: Race & Slavery in Early Judaism, Christian, Princeton University Press
  15. Goldenberg, op. cit.
  16. ^ Felicia R. Lee, Noah's Curse Is Slavery's Rationale, Racematters.org, November 1, 2003
  17. Goldenberg, D. M. (2005) The Curse of Ham: Race & Slavery in Early Judaism, Christian, Princeton University Press
  18. Frank F. W. (2005) Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule, Backintyme (ISBN 0-939479-23-0)
  19. R Bhopal, Glossary of terms relating to ethnicity and race: for reflection and debate, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2004;58:441-445
  20. ^ Interview by Ahilan Kadirgamar Lines. August 2002. Retrieved on 2006-10-08 Cite error: The named reference "Kadirgamar" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  21. Jorion, P.J.M. (1999). , Psycoloquy 10(064)
  22. Who is Black? One Nation's Definition (PBS), by F. James Davis
  23. ]
  24. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38089-2002Dec25?language=printer
  25. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38089-2002Dec25?language=printer
  26. ]
  27. ]
  28. ]
  29. ]
  30. ]
  31. ]
  32. ]
  33. ]
  34. The End of Racism by Dínesh D’souza pg 380
  35. The African Origin of Civilization, pg 117, by Cheikh Anta Diop.
  36. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_309540.htm Quickfacts: U.S. Bureau of the Census
  37. ]
  38. http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/publications/hongkong/scheper.htm
  39. Medicine's Race Problem By Sally Satel. in Policy Review, December2001-January 2002. Retreived 14 February 2007.
  40. http://www.racesci.org/in_media/canadian_police.htm
  41. Rushton J. P. (2000) Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective, Charles Darwin Research Inst. Pr; 3rd edition (ISBN 0965683613). Abstract available here
  42. "Into the Mainstream: Academic Racists' Work Inching Toward Legitimacy." Intelligence Report, Southern Poverty Law Center, Winter 2005. Retrived 02-17-20007
  43. ]
  44. Ethnicity, Race, and a Possible Humanity. by Arash Abizadeh. World Order 33.1 (2001): 23-34.
  45. http://www.racesci.org/in_media/canadian_police.htm
  46. The African presence in Indian antiquity by Runoko Rashidi
  47. ^ Linguistics for a new African reality by Owen 'Alik Shahadah, first published at the Cheikh Anta Diop conference in 2005
  48. African-American Philosophy, Race, and the Geography of Reason
  49. Azuonye I. O. Who is "black" in medical research?, British Medical Journal 1996;313:760
  50. http://www.prb.org/pdf06/06WorldDataSheet.pdf population reference burea page six of report
  51. http://whgbetc.com/mind/black-latin-america2.html
  52. http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black/ppl-186/tab1ic.txt us census
  53. http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/cpd/ma/table39.htm caribbean population
  54. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/12/world/main2356940.shtml
  55. http://www.prb.org/pdf06/06WorldDataSheet.pdf population reference burea page six of report
  56. http://whgbetc.com/mind/black-latin-america2.html
  57. http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black/ppl-186/tab1ic.txt us census
  58. http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/cpd/ma/table39.htm caribbean population
  59. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/12/world/main2356940.shtml
  60. http://www.spc.int/demog/en/index.html Pacific islands website
  61. http://www.aihw.gov.au/indigenous/ Institute of health and welfare.
  62. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdf page 2 of report
  63. https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/br.html cia factbook
  64. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdf
  65. http://www.deplu.go.id/download/the%20beginning.pdf page 3
  66. http://humanities.cqu.edu.au/history/52148/modules/pacific_peoplesA.html
  67. http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?49+Duke+L.+J.+1487
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