Just possibly that is because it’s not actually meant as a descriptor, but as a label. (Just as “black” is, I’ll might add – how many people do you know whose skin tones actually approach true black, anyway?) It came into use when “negro” and “colored” were going rapidly out of favor due to racist overtones and “black” was bouncing around that weird neverland between “could-also-go-racist” and “too tied to ‘black power’”. People were looking for something neutral to use instead, and you can’t get much more neutral than “place of origin for most of us”-American.
This sort of thing seems to be whined about much more often by white people who feel the need to pick at anything even vaguely “PC” like a teenager picks at a zit, than it is by people whom the label does not describe accurately.
Because “Kenyan-American” would be a better equivalent. Africa is a continent, not a country. If you referred to Pelosi and Kennedy as “European-Americans” then “African-American” for the President would be an equivalent.
The reason most black people in the US might choose to be called “African-American” is because slavery erased the knowledge of their more precise origins. Discussing the obliteration of such knowledge, not to mention rape of women and attempts to breed people like livestock, make the discussion of all that a minefield in the US.
I disagree. I’m annoyed when the clunky-ass descriptor is used when it is just plain wrong, but I don’t normally give a shit. In my experience, the people who do care have always been black.
I’ll always remember my friend Devron’s take on the phrase. I don’t think I can quite do it justice, but I’ll try:
Monkey: Hey, D., should I call you “African American”, now? Devron: NO. FUCK NO! I’m no goddamn African. I’ve never been to Africa. I don’t want to go to Africa. I can’t stand those clip talking motherfuckers. Every time I get in an argument with one of those assholes they turn their backs to me. I want to punch the motherfucker in the back of the head just so Djunababwe or whatever that guy’s name at the Citgo will sell me a fucking candybar. I grew up in Selma, Alabama. That means I’m American, and I don’t need a fucking bunch of white people telling me I’m fucking African. I’m fucking black! I … AM… BLACK!
And then he ranted in much the same vein for a few minutes until I made him drink a beer to calm down.
Children of African immigrants are in the same boat as Obama, and aren’t AA, but are black Americans. They might grow up in that culture, and as more immigrants of Africans come here, their culture will influence American and AA culture, just like the cultures of other immigrants, though. If I move my child to an area with lots of Polish Americans, they might absorb some of the customs, but they’d never be Polish American.
The fact that some people aren’t using it for the meaning it was meant for doesn’t mean that there’s no valid use for the term.
Why don’t you pit the average USA government form? It’s a standard question. I refer to my other colored friends (of any color) as I would address any other human being.
On the other hand I refer to anyone else as sir or maam.
The best we can do for those blacks,** myself included***, etc. etc. There. It wasn’t necessary to bring my race into that post, as I was talking about what America as a whole could do.
*sort of, since lots of my black relatives aren’t AA.
I would be happy if the term were not used for those who are not Americans. I have seen reference to “British African-Americans” who were not dual citizens. "
This is the reason the term African American bothers me, feels to me that it’s one step removed from calling people Slave Descendants. It’s an insidious, albeit involuntary mostly, way of putting people down.
