What will replace "African-American"?

Great Debates
1

We’ve gone through a lot of terms to designate our sub-Saharan-African-descended population in the United States – negro, nigger, colored, black, Afro-American (for about two weeks), and in the 1980s Jesse Jackson started insisting on “African-American”. I can see his point. Leaving aside its history and cultural associations, “nigger” is a word which, owing to phonetic happenstance, has a much different and nastier sound than, say, “bigger or chigger.” Put an “n” at the beginning and – “nigger” – it’s a word you just can’t say without sneering a bit. “Negro” is a bit less sneering but, well, technical – it sounds kind of like saying “feces” instead of “shit.” “Black” is no more than a little harsh phonetically – but it’s so short and curt that it sounds dismissive. “African-American” is an unwieldy seven-syllable compound word and seems to have been chosen for that reason; it incorporates the names of two continents – you can’t say it without briefly recapitulating in your head the whole history of slavery and the civil rights movement. (It’s not exactly fair to use this term in a way that excludes immigrants from Egypt, Morocco, etc., but that’s a detail.) “African-American” . . . well enough . . . I’m not trying to open a debate on that choice . . . assuming we have to have any particular word for an ethnic or racial group, and I guess we do. But:

If we’re going to continue to have meaningful discussions of race and ethnicity in America, then someday we will have to come up with a new term, or pair of terms, to distinguish those American negroes who are descendants of slaves and free blacks who were living here in 1865 from those who have come here from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean since the old racist immigration quotas were abolished in the 1960s. Because these are two very different groups. They might look similar but their speech, history, and everything else are different. Our older African-American culture is unique to this country, it is nothing like any culture to be found in Africa or anywhere else. Furthermore, I once read in Tony Brown’s Journal that studies show black immigrants to America have moved up the economic ladder at the same rate as earlier generations of immigrants – while the majority of our older African-American culture remain mired in poverty. Whatever are the particular problems of “black America,” the post-1960s black immigrants are not really part of those problems, and should be separated out in any serious discussion of them.

So – what terms will we use? The most obvious choices are “Old African-Americans” and “New African-Americans,” but either of those is just too unwieldy – we have to draw the line at eight syllables. Any ideas?

2

I have a problem with “African-American” for a multitude of reasons.

First, people are considered African-American base solely on color. No matter if they come from Panama (like a friend of mine, and she never hesitates to correct people who call her African American) or even parts of Mexico, Brazil and other countries.

After a few generations, it seems kind of stupid to associate your “American” with a culture you might not even know anything about. I never hear anyone called “Norwegian American” or “German American”.

Let’s face it…the only need for the label is in description. Unless you hear a slight Ugandan accent, how in the hell do you know someone is “African” American. They could just as easily be from Egypt, which is both African and Arab?

Then there is Charleze Tilton(sp?) who won the Oscar for Monster. She is from South Africa, but I doubt anyone would call her African American…so we get back to the fact that we are, in reality, describing someone based on color.

And if I am not mistaken, colors don’t match countries. Even among African-Americans, there is a stigma as to how “dark” or “light” someone is.

I happen to agree with the old 60’s mantra, “Black Is Beautiful” and do not consider it racist or a slur when I refer to a friend of mine as a black woman. And it seldom happens that I need to even add that adjective. She is a smart, attractive woman who is a lot of fun to be with. Enough said. Once you meet her, you will notice she is black…but who gives a damn.

But as to your OP…I can only think that color descriptions will always be in terms of color, and only necessary when it is important: Can you describe the man?
Yes. He was about 6 feet tall, moustache, short hair and was white/black/brown skinned…

3

Louis Farrakahn gave a speech once saying that at the rate Black Males are dying due to drugs, AIDS and internal violence, the amount of babies produced by black women will begin to decrease rapidly due to a lack of ability to find strong functional mates. This (he says) is why you see so many African American women today with fatherless children who were all born out of wedlock by different men who are all either dead or in jail. Especially in America’s inner cities,

Therefore…

This is expected to cause a population decrease so strong that by the year 2020 the African- American population Nationwide will have decreased down to less than 1/2 of what it is right now,

and…

By the year 2050, Black America will all but disappear. He says that this is all part of a plan derived by the CIA to rid America of the African American population by Genocide.

Genocide - Defined by Websters Dictionary as a systematical extermination of any race or religion of people

Soooo… If he (Louis Farrakahn) is correct … I guess that within the next 50 years or so, we’ll all be called…History :frowning:

4

Now… for the rest of you…LET THE FLAMING BEGIN… :eek:

5

They’re too busy enforcing the Cuban embargo to bother with exterminating the blacks anymore.

6

Why not just “black” like the rest of the world?

7

Something about “African-American” strikes me as patronizing (as well as being outright incorrect in some cases as others have pointed out). Personally, I like “Black.” I know that black people aren’t black in color, but I think the word has been used in good faith and it seems MOST blacks AND whites are comfortable with this word. I’d be happy to call them whatever they want, but lumping darker skinned people together by assuming they are all from Africa seems more presumptious then merely commenting on the color of their skin. Black is far from ideal, but I like it more than African-American. I’d be happy to hear a third option.

8

Starguard, the only problem with that post is the words “Louis Farrakhan.”

I think our nomenclature is getting pretty picky already, so I don’t see anything replacing African-American… it’s probably better to just explain what you mean than to make up a hip term for it.

9

I was under the impression that the PC police had designated “African American” the good and proper term to be used, even in preference over “black”, due to all the evil and pejorative connotations the sinister color of night illicits.

I mean, shouldn’t we call people what they want to be called?

And I don’t see this “lumping together” that the OP claims is rampant. Typically, myself and folks I know don’t put a label on somebody if they can help it until they’ve gotten some kind of idea of their background. For instance, dark-skinned person over here may be West Indian or Jamaican. Over there, Senegalese. This lady might be African-American (which means, in essence “descendant of Southern slaves”, doesn’t it?), while that guy might be Haitian. I had a friend in college who prefered Puerto Rican to black, so that’s what I called him. Me, I’m almost totally of French Canadian extraction, descendant of laborers who emigraited to Maine around the turn of the century. My boss is Chinese. My boss’ boss is of Chinese extraction, but he was born and raised in Malaysia. Hence he’s Chinese, not Malaysian, according to him, though he barely speaks Cantonese and cannot speak Mandarin. Another guy at work was born in Buffalo, mother from Malaysia, Father from Guangdong. He’s an “ABC”. I call people what they want to be called. Seems like a pretty good plan. If I hear that African-Americans want something new, so be it. That, for me, will determing need for a replacement.

10

Well, white people aren’t white in color either. :wink:

11

As has been pointed out above, “African-American” is often inaccurate. I have white friends who are African-American, and black friends who are neither African nor American. Most of my black friends just prefer “black.”

I never understood why “colored” went by the boards, especially as “people of color” seems to be a growing phrase. If anything, it seems a positive, complimentary word (if they’re “colored,” that would make me “blank,” I guess).

“Nigger,” on the other hand, was always used as an insult (or at least slighting) phrase, even in the 18th and 19th centuries.

12

You’re all missing the point of this thread. If we want a word to designate the African race (one of many African races, be it noted) that anthropologists call “negroid,” then “black” is good enough, and so is “negro.” Such a term would apply to all persons of that extraction whether they hail from Africa, the United States, Brazil, etc.

But what we need is a word that designates a particular racial cultural group, that of African Americans who are descended from the 400,000 black slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic to North America before the slave trade was shut down in the 1820s; and who evolved their own distinctive American subculture merging African and Anglo-Saxon elements (with emphasis on the latter, believe it or not); and whose status in our society and social conditions have posed intractable problems from Independence to the present day. We need a word that can be applied to those people and which expressly does not apply to negroes from other countries or cultural backgrounds, who do not share that history and its distinctive problems.

13

And, I should add, another thing that distinguishes our Old African-Americans from their racial cousins from other countries is that many, probably most, black Americans are lineal descendants of white Americans who owned their ancestors and used their slave women as concubines – which is one reason why modern black Americans come in such a wide range of colors. Another reason is that many of them are descended from American Indians, some of whom also owned black slaves and used them as concubines, and some of whom intermarried with blacks. No other black cultural group in the world has quite this combination of backgrounds.

14

I am not black, but I thought African-American was introduced to distinguish American blacks who come from mostly southern slave ancestors from later immigrants and people from other countries.

For instance, “black music” can be all sorts of music (and is a silly a label as “white music”) - but “African-American music” would specifically be Blues, Jazz, R&B, and other similar genres that do share a common cultural origin.

This goes to the difference between “Race” and “Ethnicity”. Black or white are terms which describe “race” to some degree. “African-American” like Hispanic or Arab, describes an ethnicity and culture.

I don’t think it is meant to be a replacement for “black” - though some people seem to think “black” is no longer polite or something. Has anyone ever seen or heard of anyone being angry over being called “black” instead of “African-American”? I am curious.

It reminds me of something I went through in college. I grew up in New Mexico, and I knew many Indians. Some were Apache, others Navajo - but they were Indians. I went to school and actually had teachers cross out “Indian” in my papers and write in “Native American” on top. Yet I have never heard any actual Indian use that phrase to this day. I know part of the problem is that “Indian” can refer to two different groups of people - yet I think some people (cough white liberals cough) are far too quick to take offense on behalf of others.

15

I think the reason “colored” is considered pejorative is that it’s like saying someone is “filled in”, as in a coloring book. It is as if to say there are “regular” people (whatever that means) and “colored” people. Negro with a capital “N” is unacceptable because it sounds as if one is describing a separate species. Even more egregious is the use of “Negress” to describe a black woman, as if she were an animal like a lioness. I always found that construction shocking.

In normal conversation I don’t refer to color at all unless, as DMark suggest, I’m asked to describe someone physically. In that instance, I use black. Otherwise color is just not important to me. I absolutely refuse to be politically correct.

16

German-American? Oh hell yes. For example:

http://friends.peoria.lib.il.us/community/germanamericansociety/
http://www.intelab.com/gad/bristol.htm
http://home.att.net/~gastulsa01/introduction.htm
http://feefhs.org/frg-sgas.html
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/
etc., etc.

During WW I the National German-American Alliance ( dissolved as a group in 1919 under intense pressure because of perceived anti-patriotism ) was a major lobby to stay out of the war.

And did you know that October 6 is national German-American Day, as passed by congress in 1987?

See, Jesse Jackson did not come up with this idea in a vacume. As has been explained many times before in these sort of threads, African-American was created in deliberate emulation of the widespread use of hyphenated-American terminology in the old rust-belt. Unfortunately for Jackson outside of these areas, like say the west coast or the south or southwest, these identifiers were uncommon and pushing African-American sounded a little weird or off-putting.

At any rate most black folks I know in California, in fact all of them that I have ever heard, use “black”, not “African-American”. But it’s not terribly important. As I’ve said before, call folks whatever they prefer.

  • Tamerlane
17

I think there are more instances of confusion between “indian” and “native american” than there are between “black” and “african-american”. That’s why, despite the fact that those descended from peoples who crossed the Bering Ice Bridge are probably more likely to refer to themselves, in the general, as Indian, I refer to them, in the general, as Native American, so as not to confuse them with people from India. On the other hand, if you are referring to a specific tribe, you can just use that tribe instead.

The problem with African-American vs. Black is, yes, if there were a preferred term for Americans descended from those with a color common to sub-saharan Africa, I would use it, but there isn’t. I have a sense that the majority of black people either don’t care, or prefer “black”. However, if I were to use that term, I would then be on the receiving end of offense from the vocal PC activists, both black and white. So there doesnt seem to be a general consensus. Personally, I try to refrain from referring to that race at all, due to the fact that I am bound to offend someone no matter what I say.

So unless it’s necessary in order to identify someone in a group, I don’t use it. Then I use “black”, since it refers to skin characteristics.

18

Really? I always found it mildly amusing. Same with “Jewess,” although it is not a word I would use in daily conversation with Jews or Gentiles. (I think the PC term is “Shebrew.”)

19

But what we need is a word that designates a particular racial cultural group, that of African Americans who are descended from the 400,000 black slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic to North America before the slave trade was shut down in the 1820s; and who evolved their own distinctive American subculture merging African and Anglo-Saxon elements (with emphasis on the latter, believe it or not); and whose status in our society and social conditions have posed intractable problems from Independence to the present day. We need a word that can be applied to those people and which expressly does not apply to negroes from other countries or cultural backgrounds, who do not share that history and its distinctive problems.

You are correct. There’s no term in common usage to identify native born black Americans descended from the pre Civil War slave population. Antebellum blacks? Antebellites? Antes?

I doubt if most non black Americans are willing or able to make distinctions between different types of black people. It’s along the lines of “I don’t care what you call yourself or where you come from, I don’t want you living in my neighborhood, eating in my restaurant, working in my office, dating my kid,” etc.

20

Huh. There must have been some breakthroughs since I took anthropology 101 in college. The professor spent a few days on why the term “race” is without scientific meaning and actually laughing out loud at terms like “negroid”.