It is impossible to prevent a person from noticing differences in others: We tend to evaluate people by hair color, eye color, skin complexion and size. White Americans tend to have an acute sense of certain people's attributes. They will inevitably notice that someone is black, sooner or later.As we recognize February as Black History Month in the United States, we should attempt not only to acknowledge the contributions of black Americans, but also to reevaluate how we perceive one another in this country. A police blotter always tends to sound racist, because it describes some people as black, but not others as white. Well, that's just how people report it. Being black in America is apparently an important mark of distinction from the rest of society. Or, at least, being white is normal and being black is not.

In 2003, it is time Americans begin to look inwardly and find out what they truly believe about race in this country. It has been 138 years since the end of slavery and 47 years since the Brown v. Board of Education decision. After nearly half a century of a general ambiguity about race, Americans need to ask themselves why the first thing they notice about someone is whether or not he is black. What does being black imply? Is it different from being any other shade of human?

History would answer that question in the affirmative; post-slavery segregation laws defined as black anyone having one drop of black blood. As absurd as this notion sounds -- no one would claim someone with a Japanese great-great-great grandfather was Asian -- most people still believe it today. It is this blood law that has led people in our society to be able to exclaim, "I didn't know he was black!" Out of the context of American history, someone who made that claim would sound pretty stupid. But, alas, in the United States, even those with the whitest skin can be black.

It is time we Americans give up on calling anyone black. If anything, attempting to define who is black will forever segregate millions of Americans into a ghettoized community. This is because as multicultural a society as we think we have become, in the United States you're either white or you're not, and one's status in the racial hierarchy depends on how white or how black society considers a person. The United States census has redefined its racial questions to ask if a person is white, black or Asian and then asks if the person, of any race, is Hispanic. Americans don't yet know where to put Latin-American immigrants and their descendants, and the census reflects that, but sooner or later, they're going to be either white or black also.

Many black Americans would (and will) take issue with my argument. There certainly are black Americans, self-defined as a group of Americans that came to this country against their will in bondage. Wherever they came from in Africa, these individuals were united by slavery and white society's need to put all darker people in a segregated category. This history created an ethnic group, but it is white prejudice that has maintained it as a racial group. It is also white prejudice that has grouped many other individuals of darker complexion into that supposed race. And, as with every other race in this country, it is prejudice that will preserve it.

During this Black History Month, let us look forward collectively to a future in which only a self-defined black ethnic group remains. One day, police blotters will truly describe suspects, and not simply separate those whom society calls black. This Black History Month, let's celebrate the great history of black Americans and the bright future of all Americans.

-- Matthew Bettinger '05 submits a column to the Justice.