In a Name

Throughout the ongoing disputes over self-identification of minority groups--whether Black or African-American, American Indian or Native American, Asian or Asian-American, Mexican-American or Chicano--runs a common thread of the problem of cultural or ethnic identity.

Though issues of identity perennially form the base of minority agendas, renewed attention upon it may signal the new assertiveness of ethnic groups 25 years after the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The question, frequently a subtle one for outsiders, signifies in many ways the rise of a new understanding of racism and racial insensitivity. However, different groups seek different answers for themselves.

American Indians face problems of identity because they are often not recognized as a minority, says Eric Fox Tree, who is president of American Indians at Harvard.

In part of the Native American Conference this Saturday, Harvard Ed School graduate and former president of the Wampanoag tribal council Russell Peters says that his tribe lost its land at Mashpee on Cape Cod when the Federal government refused to acknowledge it as a tribe.

But he says he grew up in Mashpee when it was still an Indian community. "We took advantage of [the land]," Peters says. "We learned a lot of things about our culture, about our history. We had a lot of pride. I find it very difficult to accept the fact that we've lost this thing. It makes me feel very sad."

"We need to tell the story in our own way and not wait for other people to tell the story for us," he adds.

Jesse Jackson's proposal that Black Americans be re-identified as African-Americans sheds additional light on the need for place and cultural identification, conference attendees say.

"There was a time and need for the term Black after being called Negro by white people in power," explains Charles Witt, a Cornell senior. "There was a need for us to define who we were in our own terms," he says.

Witt echoes Jackson's thoughts about the need for Blacks to be more connected with Africa. "Jesse says that it's important to have that land mass connection and it in no way implies that you want to separate yourself when every other ethnic group does that. It just reaffirms our heritage."

In the face of Florida laws that declare English the state language, Chicano students reemphasized the importance of language in affirming cultural identity.

"You need English in order to do what needs to be done. But why must we forget what we know in order to be good Americans," says Samuel Betances, a sociology professor at Northeastern Illinois University. Betances advocates maintaining Spanish among Chicanos in America. "We're going to define what being American is all about because we are people who know what the world is about in two or three different languages."