We also thought of ourselves in racial and largely ethnic terms.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
More often than not, we think of ourselves as black, white, Asian, or Hispanic pretty much in this country, but the real America is much more than that.
Also, of course, for most of this time most Americans thought of America as a white country with, at best, only a very segregated and subordinate role for blacks.
We were not treated by our own government as proper human beings and consequently, some outsiders did not regard us as the same kind of humans as themselves.
Think of all the different features from Asian to African to Aboriginal to Caucasian. But we are all within the same species, Homo Sapiens.
OUR history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us.
Our true nationality is mankind.
The idea is, we're still a society where we recognize and see and even sometimes seek members of our own tribe, whatever that tribe is. It could be ethnic, religious, geographic, political.
It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.
We're not separate races. There's only one human race.
We must focus on people as people, regardless of race, creed, color or gender.