Second-class African-Americans?

Due to the title of this blog, it attracts a fair amount of visitors who are searching for racially-themed websites. While this is inadvertent, it can nonetheless lead to some interesting insights. Today, however, the White Man will take on a racial topic, with what will be, for many readers, an unexpected twist.

The White Man is an African-American.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure, let it be known that the White Man traces his ancestry back to hundreds of first-generation Americans, all of whom arrived directly or indirectly from Europe between 1620 and 1870. So he is not an African-American in the classical sense.

Neither, it appears, are millions of first generation American immigrants from Africa.

In this article, the author, himself a Minnesotan of African origin, quotes a Minnesota government official referring to AIDS-infected residents of Minnesota who originate from specific African countries as "Africans." Not "African-Americans." In another article, she differentiates between "African-American men," "African-born residents," and "young gay men" (presumably white) who are at risk for AIDS.

So, it appears that African-born African-Americans are of a different class than the others. Which is the superior class is not clear--except that when it comes to AIDS, being born in Africa is definitely considered to be a risk factor by the Minnesota Department of Health.

But how does this affect the White Man? He wasn't born in Africa.

But one does not have to be born in Africa to be considered an African. Just ask the Minnesota Department of Health.

OK, so maybe I'm not really an African-American. Just an African who was born in America.

That, and being born ex-gay, should keep me from being at risk for the AIDS virus.

Unfortunately for the Minnesota Department of Health, neither of those categories are options on their forms.

Neither do they appear to have any clue, as The White Man does, as to the real reason why AIDS is so prevalent among peoples of African origin (hint: it has nothing to do with race).