The thread on Ebonics (or AAVE) got me thinking about this. My friend brought it up months ago and I didn’t give it a whole lot of thought. He wondered if they called them African-Brits or African-Englishpeople or something in the UK. I said they probably just called them black. It seems like you guys in the UK are much more sensible about these things. I’m white, but I’d probably get laughed at if I said I found that term offensive and I wanted to be called Caucasian-American.
So, how do they refer to people of African descent in Europe?
In the UK the terms Black and Afro-Caribbean are most common.
There are also some older Black communities in port cities such as Cardiff, Bristol and Liverpool, who did not arrive in the UK via the Caribbean, as well as the more recent immigration from African countries such as Nigeria.
Black:
He’s black
They are black
Those Black people over there
‘Black people’ or just ‘blacks’ In the same way that people with pale yellow hair might be called ‘blonde people’ or ‘blondes’ - for some reason I feel it necessary to explain that the term itself is a mere descriptor; it becomes racism when there is some kind of negative connotation attached to the descriptor.
Also, the term ‘Asian’ tends to describe a person of (approximately) Indian ethnicity, whereas I believe the same term often encompasses Chinese people in the USA.
In America, black is reserved to describe people of sub-Saharan African descent. I have heard black used to describe Roma, Arabs, Pakistanis, Australian Aborigenes, Polynesians, and East Indians in other English-speaking parts of the world. I don’t know if that usage is archaic or not.
I saw a newspaper article from Isreal referring to an African-British artist.
I’m not exactly a world traveller but have had several friends from around the world. Generally speaking they all use black to describe most people of African descent. However, most of the African people I’ve met and even many non-Africans will make the distinction and identify themselves or others according to their nationality.
I’m still surprised at how many people forget Africa is a continent. I watched “Roots” on DVD the other day and was surprised when Alex Haley referred to Africa as a country.
If you discover that I am an American. What color do you assume that I am? Why?
relevance: I’ve met lots of Africans who weren’t black.
This would be seen archaic, or racist, in the UK or Ireland.
In Ireland it’s almost always ‘Black’ for people of African descent, though someone might specify ‘Black African’, ‘Black American’ or ‘Black Englishman’. This is going to change, I predict, as African immigrants become a larger part of the community, probably to African-Irish.
Here in Japan, (at least in the mass-media) people whose skin color makes them appear to be from the African continent, or appear to have descended from people from the African continent are referred to as kokujin (literally: ‘black person’).
‘Caucasians’ are referred to as hakujin (literally: ‘white person’).
Depends on the context, news outlets usually refer to the persons nationality “an ethiopan man blahblah etc”. Even if the person is swedish news outlets will often say “a man of ethiopian descent/background” where relevant (or not).
Most regular people would also refer to the persons nationality or if swedish just say black “You know john, john, the black guy, you know who I mean”.
Since I have been living down the country I have noticed the habit of using the equivelant of negroe and negress (neger/negress) in normal conversation in a value-neutal manner “which one is Monica? Is she the negress?”. Throws me for a loop every time, it just sounds very wrong in my ears, but is (usually) at worst archaic.