I’ve seen it spelled out on applications - “African-American” meaning “black, with ancestry hailing from Africa or Papua New Guinea, excluding those of Arab and Asian Indian decent, and whites from South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe/Rhodesia.” The description also went on to exclude those of European decent hailing from African colonial posessions, and Spaniards with roots in Ceuta and Melilla … but hey, then you’re Hispanic! If your father is Jan Boerwors, and he hailed from one of Jo’burg’s northern suburbs, you ain’t African American.
“Is it correct to call a “white” person who’s ancestors hail from South Africa or Zimbobwe an “African Anerican”.”
But wouldn’t a white person in Africa be called an ‘American-African’?
If your family and you were born in Egypt with light colored skin, but now you live and work in America what can you call yourself?
Egyptian American, American, Egyptian, African American …
I’ll guess I will be a limeyank if the Green card ever gets processed.
Noirmensch
I don’t have time to look it up, but I think it was the Sacramento Bee that did that. IIRC, it was done on purpose by a reporter who was trying to make a point. (i.e., it wasn’t really a poor choice by a spell-checker, but an intentional act.)
I think there might have been a post on Snopes about it.
It was – a monologue/soliloquy by the protagonist in Night of Power, a white man married to a black dancer.
BTW, to Unwritten Nocturne: Persons of sub-Saharan African descent are not the same things, ethnically/genetically, as aboriginal Australians – about the only physical traits they share are the dark skin and, IIRC, an unusually high proportion of people having Type “B” blood.
Aren’t whites who come from Africa called Afrikaners?
No, an Afrikaner is a white South African whose mother tongue is Afrikaans (i.e. predominantly, but not exclusively, of Dutch ancestry). White people from South Africa of British extraction, or white people born in other African countries are not Afrikaners.
They left out the BERBERS. Everybody always forgets the Berbers, dammit. According to this benighted definition, the Berbers are neither fish nor fowl. One thing I can tell you is: they are indigenous to the continent of Africa, since prehistoric times.
In Alsace-Lorraine, maybe. That reminds me of a combinatorialist called Schützenberger. The first two syllables are pronounced as in German, the last two as in French. Apparently, a math class with a substantial number of eastern Europeans found his name hilarious.
Police reports now frequently use AA for black. True about Jamaicans for sure. Although obviosly their roots are in Africa, they see AA as for American blacks & call themselves Jamaicans.
African Americans are called Americans (Amerikanar) where I come from.
If your talking about black ppl in general we have two main expressions.
“Svertingjar” is derigatory in nature but not many complained about it, the expression is not considered derigatory anymore.
“Negrar” is an offshot of the spanish word negro and simply states the color of the person and is not derigatory in nature but is in effect considered derigatory in English and Icelandic.
Question: My sister and brother-in-law were missionairies in TCNC Congo. Are my white nephews born there “American Africans”? 
I’ve heard that the term “African American” was invented by Jesse Jackson. White Americans took to using it as PC, because JJ is regarded to some degree as an authority. But there are blacks who don’t like using it 1) because it’s awkward; 2) they hold JJ in contempt.
I’ve seen newspaper stories about racial topics (quite common in The Washington Post) where they’ll use “African American” and “white” in the same paragraph. Why aren’t “whites” called “European Americans”? (And since my grandparents are from Irkutsk, Russia [almost dead center of Asia], am I Asian American? European Asian American? Asian European American?)
Not really - if you know the person’s ethnic origins that specifically, you’d say so in any context where you’d use an ethnic term at all. “African-American” refers more specifically to descendants of slaves, whose knowledge of their specific origins is lost and which is mixed after so many generations anyway. It’s a cultural term more than a genetic one.
I’ve seen it spelled out on applications - “African-American” meaning "black, with ancestry hailing from Africa or Papua New Guinea,…
Papua New Guinea? You’ve got to be kidding.
I overhead this on a bus in Nottingham England last week - this route was used by the drivers to get back to base:
Indian bus driver - So, you’re from Jamaica?
Black bus driver - No mate, I’m from Nottingham.
IBD - Are your parents from Jamaica?
BBD - Yep.
IBD - So you’re Jamaican.
BBD - No, I’m British.
Does there remain a General Question here?
Possibly not, manhattan, although I did want to chime in.
Whether you’re black, brown, yellow, white or albino, being born in Africa does not automatically make you African-American once you come to America. Which is why every African-descended immigrant, tourist, expatriate and student has every right to be pissed when they get lumped in with us.
Jinn. This is only an accurate description when applied to black U.S. citizens working/living abroad who have not given up U.S. citizenship.
Omnipresent. Good thing your name isn’t “Omnipotent.” The description is perfectly accurate when used correctly for the easily identifiable group of descendants of U.S. slaves. It honors our heritage, both lost and known, and our struggles for social equality and historical experiences, which are unique from most every other American ethnic group.
GaryM. Presumably, being white, their white ancestors were never enslaved, subjected to the black codes, Jim Crow, denied rights to property, equal treatment under the law – so no.
Dogface. People immediately descended from Libyan, Berber or Egyptian parents are either immigrants or first generation American-born citizens. In either case they would not be African-Americans. They do not share our cultural history.
Bippy the Beardless. If you intend to return to Egypt, or remain here as an illegal alien, you’re Egyptian. If you were born here, or have at least ONE U.S.-citizen parent or have become a U.S. citizen through the naturalization process, you’re American. If that American-born parent is also a black descendant of slaves, you’re African-American. There is no official ‘Egyptian-American’ designation that I’m aware.
MDM.President Cute. But what if it’s WHITE chocolate, hah? HAH? What then?
AWB. Jesse didn’t invent “African-American.” To be perfectly fair, he’s never claimed that, although that is a misconception. It’s a semantic drift from Afro-American, which was coined way back in the 19th century. I personally don’t find African-American awkward, or hold Jesse Jackson in comptempt (although he has disppointed the hell out of me), but I don’t speak for every Negro. Every cultural name shift describing American descendants of slaves has met with resistance for some reason or another within and outside our ethnic group. My grandmother has, in her 78-year lifetime, gone from Colored to Octaroon to Negro to Black to African-American. At some point you could conceivably say, “I’m American Chocolate Cream. Let’s put it to a vote.”
In the academic community (American History), the term “black” was used to describe people of negroid ancestry in general. African American tended to be used only for black Americans who had slave ancestry, as Elvis and Askia said. Therefore, African Americans were a subset of blacks. If the person was not a descendant of U.S. slaves living in the U.S., the specific ancestry was described if relevant.
I’m actually very interested in the issues regarding blacks in America who are not U.S. slave descendents. The ones that I’ve known have often said that they sometimes run into problems with people making assumptions about them because they assume that someone with brown skin must be culturally similar to the majority of brown-skinned people around. I’m trying to find more information about that.
Of course, the many issues of African Americans are relevant to all blacks who are here in the U.S. If a racist cop sees a brown guy in a Lexus, he assumes the car must have been stolen. He doesn’t know that that brown guy moved from Nigeria to London when he was 5, grew up and was educated there, and is here on a trip to advise a U.S. law firm on a crucial international legal issue, so the law firm hooked him up with the nicest rental car they could get. So, that British-Nigerian guy gets caught up in the issues of the African American community.
Moving on to the white South African in the U.S. issue: I know many white South Africans, and none of them ever refer to themselves as Afrikaaners. As everton explains, most of the people that I know have English as their primary language, (although many of them are also fluent in Afrikaans). Also, I think they do not really want to be associated with the former ruling class that enforced Apartheid. True, many of them benefitted from the Apartheid system, but these people chose to leave the country long before Apartheid ended and move to countries with (ostensible) racial equality, like the U.S., Canada, and the UK, partially because they were opposed to Apartheid.
But what would you call East Asians? Butterscotch?