What is an African American. Most people would say it is a black person. So, a black guy living in Argentina whose ancestors came from Africa is an African American right. He lives in South AMERICA. Then why aren’t white people called European Americans. The term black is becoming more and more frowned upon while nobody has a problem with the word white. My white cousins lived in Africa for a number of years (until the government kicked them out after a coup{I can’t remember which specific country}.) I have a friend who is half japanese and half white. He was born in Hawaii and now lives here in Oregon(Eugene). He is Hawaiian right? So if a white(or any other race) person is born in Africa and moves to either South or North America, that person is African American. But, people wouldn’t recognize that.
I think the whole thing is stupid. The word black is no more racist than the word white. Think of how upset people would be if we used the official words. Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. I think that last one would make people very upset. LOOSEN UP!!!
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Because most white Americans use phrases like Irish/American, German/American, Italian/American, or just plain WASP.
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I haven’t noticed the use of the word black to be frowned upon in general.
Marc
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MGibson *
Because most white Americans use phrases like Irish/American, German/American, Italian/American, or just plain WASP.
Most white North Americans do NOT use phrases such as Irish American, Polish American, or German American on a REGULAR BASIS!!
Also, I have heard people refer to Nelson Mandela as an African American which is totally asinine and ignorant.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by kgriffey79 *
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An awful lot of them do. Ask someone about their family background and they’ll say “I’m Irish, German, and English.” Not just “I’m an American.” Why, some unpatriotic Irish/Americans even go so far as waving the Irish flag around St. Patrick’s day.
In real life situations I don’t think I’ve ever heard a black person refer to himself or others as African American.
Marc
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[/QUOTE]
An awful lot of them do. Ask someone about their family background and they’ll say “I’m Irish, German, and English.” Not just “I’m an American.” Why, some unpatriotic Irish/Americans even go so far as waving the Irish flag around St. Patrick’s day.
In real life situations I don’t think I’ve ever heard a black person refer to himself or others as African American.
Marc **
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I am talking about RACE not background. They are two seperate yet related things!
Yeah, that is one of my favorites. I’ve heard this quite a bit on news casts. It usually causes the talking head to stumble a little bit right after reading something like “AIDS is a serious problem among heterosexual African-Americans in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
One thing we have to keep in mind: if tomorrow I awoke and my heritage had been changed from Mostly Irish to Mostly Italian, besides a sudden interest in the Olive Garden, not much would be different. If I woke up mostly African-American, it damn sure would be different. There is still much too be done, we are still doing it. (Yes, Virginia, there is an MLK…) I am confident that as our society progresses, the brief sociological twinges that are part of the ‘two steps up, one back’ dance of assimilation will simply fade away.
Or at least thats this peckerwood’s opinion.
I am not big on ordering people to search the board before posting, and this discussion could, I suppose, have merit on its own. However, this topic comes up so frequently, (usually with so many misconceptions attached to it), that I’m almost willing to tell people they need to prove they have something new to offer before they are allowed to post on it.
Race Classifications by geography
Regarding this thread:
Since, in the last poll anyone bothered to take, over 60% of the people living in the U.S. whose ancestors were imported to this country as slaves prefer the word “black,” I have no idea where you have gotten the notion that it is increasingly frowned upon.
As I have noted on a couple of occasions, I think Jesse Jackson made an error (philologically and culturally) by proclaiming his preference to be called African American and I think the news media was dumb to simply accept his proclamation without looking to see whether the black community supported him.
However, the fact that Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee prefer African-American hardly indicates that black is generally frowned upon. Broadcasters calling Nelson Mandela “African-American” is about on the same par as broadcasters advertising a suit of furniture when they should be advertising a suite of furniture. Lots of them are hired for their voices, smiles, and hair while intelligence (or the willingness to exercise it) is pretty low on the list of hiring qualifications.
For the overwhelming majority of people whose ancestors were imported as slaves, race and “background” are identical. The slavers rather ruthlessly suppressed any attempt by their merchandise to maintain any identity other than “black slave.” They were not allowed to recognize themselvews as Ibo or whatever. It seems pretty harsh for white people to put them all in the one group and then complain that they should not be allowed to identify their ethnic background because that is “really” a “race.”