We really didn’t. We thought you meant “African American”.
Yes, I did! And I’m thankful for the straightforward answer. Then everyone latched onto “African American”.
Geez…
Because it was the question you asked in the OP? I mean, “How Did African Americans Fare Outside America In the 19th Century?” is a legitimate question, with some interesting answers: in early New Zealand before Europeans really got a toehold, American whaling ships used to call, and a number African American crew found that they were much more readily accepted into Maori society, and chose to jump ship and stay. I and probably most other readers assumed that that was the kind of information you were looking for.
The OP acknowledged his error in post #8 several days ago. I don’t think it’s very productive to continue to harp on it.
I’m a white American and it drives me absolutely bonkers. It seems to be the epitome of American self centeredness and “lets not bother to think before we insert our foot firmly down our throat” However, what it really points to is a gap in American English.
It’s not a gap, we have a perfectly fine word for it: black.
Thank you!
AIUI the UK term today is “Afro-Caribbean”.
That term exists, but refers only to black people from the Caribbean, or who can trace their recent ancestry there. It doesn’t refer to people of African descent in general.
Actually, you’re off a couple hundred years. it was 19th century. Long after Elizabeth kicked out the Moors. Of course, maybe you’re referring to a different episode.
I’ll give it a pass though, because 1) it’s a fantasy show and 2) it’s not like they’re were NO blacks in 19th century London. Maybe they just all decided to show up that day.
No, it was the episode “The Shakespeare Code”. London, 1599.
Eh, my same pass would apply.
Unless a show is really trying to sell itself as being historically accurate (which is laughable in the case of Doctor Who), I really don’t mind a cast’s racial composition.
Black Panther is great, I loved it, but a lot of the American coverage is “African-American views”… “African-American cast”… African-American this and African-American that.
Fuck’s sake. One of the best things about that movie is, precisely, that it includes African-African views and actors, but the coverage apparently can’t do that.
Notice that not every single African is swarthy, even in countries where some might expect that. So, if one [I don’t mean the OP necessarily] is going to express a particular obsession with skin color, it is better to come out and use terms that say so.
“African-American” is a special category that doesn’t even always overlap with blackness; see Pudd’nhead Wilson.