African American Questions

[Eve]

I have black friends who are neither African nor American, and African-American friends who are white . . . So I do not use the “A-A” term, and I don’t let them usen it in my magazine unless it’s within quoted material . . .

[DiLLiGaF]

*Originally posted by Major Kong *
**Slight Hijack: Should I have used the term African American or Black? **

My feeling is that the term should be Black and not African American, unless of course the person that you are talking about just came to America from Africa and obtained citizenship. I just heard a newswoman the other night talking about a suspect in a carjacking was an African American woman and I remember thinking to myself, how does this woman know where the suspect is from? I think black is black and thats it. But thats just the feeling of a white boy in the midwest (or should that be a German Italian American? )

[Biggirl]

*Originally posted by Major Kong *
**Ok, did I do something wrong asking these questions? **

Wrong? No. But the question of motive a sticky one. You see blacks in the US have this stigma attached to them. It’s a burden that we all have carried on our backs for centuries. The stereotype of the poor, stupid, oversexed criminal that absolutely sticks in the craw of ever black person ever born or who has ever spent more than 10 seconds in the United States.

So when someone asks questions that reinforce these stereotypes it gets our hackles up and we immediately get defensive.

And that’s all I’m going to say 'cause if I don’t stop now manny’ll start yelling at me and probably curse when he closes this thread (and boy can manny curse when he closes a thread!)

[Gyrate]

Speaking of reinforcing stereotypes, and highlighting cultural differences between groups of blacks in different countries:

KFC is running a series of ads on UK TVwhich show a group of people at a party dancing around and eating fried chicken. Most of the people involved are black. And the tagline? KFC: Soul Food.

While this is no big deal in the UK, I can’t help but feel that were the same ad to run in the US there’d be rioting in the streets (or at least a mass boycott of KFC). Interesting.

[Duckster]

HOUSTON — About 80 percent of African-Americans have earned at least a high school diploma and 65 percent are in the labor force, according to a report released today by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau. The report also shows that 52 percent of African-American married couples had incomes of $50,000 or more in 2001.

Source: Census Bureau Press Release - April 25, 2003

You can read all the details in the report, The Black Population in the United States: March 2002.

For more racial-based news releases see US Census Bureau

According to the poverty report, about 1.3 million more people were poor in 2001 than in 2000 – 32.9 million versus 31.6 million. The number of poor families increased from 6.4 million in 2000 (or 8.7 percent of all families, a record low rate) to 6.8 million (or 9.2 percent) in 2001.

For non-Hispanic Whites, the poverty rate rose from 7.4 percent in 2000 to 7.8 percent in 2001. But poverty remained at historic lows for African Americans (22.7 percent), Hispanics (21.4 percent) and Asians and Pacific Islanders (10.2 percent). Among these groups, only non-Hispanic Whites (up 905,000 to 15.3 million) and Hispanics (up 250,000 to 8.0 million) saw an increase in the number of poor.

Source: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-124.html

You may want to check with the Census Bureau for more stats.