"African American"

[Marilyn Monroe]

Quote by: ruksak "Negro" has always been a far more accurate term. "African American" is about as ignorant as the term "Ebonics".

I agree. African-American just doesn't sound right.

[ruksak]

Quote by: Marilyn Monroe I agree. African-American just doesn't sound right.

There just seems to be a real disconnect. My great grand father came here from Poland. I, however, would find issue with being referred to as a Polish American.

Now, if your name is Nigel Zutumba and you actually friggin came here from Zaire, than yes, you are an African American.


P.S. Why don't we refer to whites as "European Americans"?

[Marilyn Monroe]

Quote by: ruksak Would you prefer "darkies"? A negro is black skinned. I will not argue over the semantics of skin tone. Frankly, in the long run, blacks today are far better off than they would have been had Whites not brought them here. Look at it as if their ancestors paid a dear sacrifice for them to be Americans today. Otherwise, Shaquille O'Neal would be Shaquille Motumba and he would likely live in a hut made of cow dung.

I was gonna say this, but you beat me to the punch. I'd say a very high percentage of us wouldn't be alive today if our ancestor's hadn't migrated here.

[freedom13]

Urban Dictionary: darkie

Quote by: ruksak Would you prefer "darkies"? A negro is black skinned. I will not argue over the semantics of skin tone. Frankly, in the long run, blacks today are far better off than they would have been had Whites not brought them here. Look at it as if their ancestors paid a dear sacrifice for them to be Americans today. Otherwise, Shaquille O'Neal would be Shaquille Motumba and he would likely live in a hut made of cow dung.

Yes, African American Ancestors paid a painful sacrifice through slavery indeed. White American Racists are indeed responsible for African American slavery, injustice, exploitation, and denial of their human rights. Certainly, you wouldn’t dare to say that black and white Americans are equal.

This evil mindset that you have to trivialize Shaquille O'Neal “name” in comparison to African American slavery is sicken and racism.

[ruksak]

Quote by: freedom13 Urban Dictionary: darkie Yes, African American Ancestors paid a painful sacrifice through slavery indeed. White American Racists are indeed responsible for African American slavery, injustice, exploitation, and denial of their human rights. Certainly, you wouldn’t dare to say that black and white Americans are equal. This evil mindset that you have to trivialize Shaquille O'Neal “name” in comparison to African American slavery is sicken and racism.

Are you serious?

Facts are facts. Go to Africa, or at least educate yourself about their self-disparaging history. And then comprehend the FACT that if they (black Americans) hadn't been brought here, the black culture in America wouldn't exist. Rather, they would be living a typical African life. A life that is often quite miserable.

[grandpa]

Quote by: ruksak Are you serious? Facts are facts.

In reality, 400 years of slavery was probably just as miserable, to say the least.

Grandpa h.

[ruksak]

Quote by: grandpa In reality, 400 years of slavery was probably just as miserable, to say the least. Grandpa h.

Agreed. But the point is inescapable. Had the savagery of the white man not lead to the importing of human beings, than American black culture would never have been what it is. Hell, American culture wouldn't be what it is/was. We may have never had Jazz music, rock 'n' roll, rap (for those of you whom like hip-hop), fried chicken. Sh*t, the list is extensive.

Whats more is the family trees of black Americans would have taken root on a continent that is plagued with countless shortcomings. From rampant starvation and disease, AIDS, ethnic cleansing.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that blacks should be thankful for the slave trade. However they should recognize their slave ancestors as having made a sacrifice for their current status as an American.

I just find the title of African American to be yet another attempt at isolating themselves from the national community. We can all trace our roots back to origins that begin outside of the Americas. Even American Indians did not originate here. They came here as journeyman as well.

[freedom13]

Quote by: ruksak Would you prefer "darkies"? A negro is black skinned. I will not argue over the semantics of skin tone. Frankly, in the long run, blacks today are far better off than they would have been had Whites not brought them here. Look at it as if their ancestors paid a dear sacrifice for them to be Americans today. Otherwise, Shaquille O'Neal would be Shaquille Motumba and he would likely live in a hut made of cow dung.

Quote by: Marilyn Monroe I agree. African-American just doesn't sound right.

Doesn’t the following information sound right?

African, Colored, Negro, Black, Afro-American, African American… The terms used to refer to Black Americans change with time, because times change and words have to change along with them. Brought over from Africa to serve as slaves, Blacks eventually found freedom eventually came but not equality. Treated as second-class citizens, Blacks were finally granted equal rights but not equal privileges, and the search for a common term - a name they can use to describe themselves - continues today, raising important questions: Who chooses the names? What meanings do they carry? What is the historical progression that they reflect? What does the difficulty of finding and keeping a name reveal? Certainly it's more than just a linguistic debate; but maybe less than the passionate reactions it spurs. The changes in the names Black Americans wish to be called express a complex search for a cultural and racial identity. During slavery, Blacks arriving from Africa naturally chose to call themselves Africans, whereas colonists often used the adjectives slave or free, or else the Portuguese word negro. The term African can still be found in the names of religious congregations such as the First African Baptist Church, the African Episcopal Church or the African Masonic Lodge… However Blacks soon lost touch with the traditions of their homeland as a result of a policy that often separated children from their families at birth. Furthermore, their exposure to racist representations that portrayed Africans as heathen, ape-like savages running naked in the jungle soon led Blacks to reject a term whose negative connotations when used by Whites became obvious. Hence African fell into disuse. With the end of the slave trade -which remained intense until 1833 despite its abolition in 1807- the absence of massive new arrivals rendered the term obsolete. African became an insult. The 1991 film Boyz 'N The Hood illustrates the harsh consequences awaiting those who use it when ten-year-old Tre gets into a fight for telling his classmate they are both Africans, and is suspended from school. While negro was used by all, the word Colored (often spelled Coloured) soon became prevalent in the Black community. Miscegenation was common, which resulted in a wider spectrum of skin complexion. White men had full power over their slaves and rapes often occurred; impregnating female slaves was one way of increasing a precious commodity, among other things. Widely used until the beginning of the 20th century, the term Colored allowed America, a slave society that would later become an institutionally racist nation-state, to create a category encompassing all non-Whites. Colored could include Blacks, Native Americans, Mexicans in the Southwest, and later Asians and Latinos, though it referred primarily to Blacks as the name of the largest Black political association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded in 1909, still attests. This is, however, probably the only context in which the use of the word is appropriate today. In the Sixties Colored took on racist connotations, and Colored boy was the insult that tipped off Sidney Poitier in They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970). The evolution of the use of negro is linked to that of Colored, which was the preferred term in the 19th century. But with the Jim Crow laws and the "separate but equal" ruling in 1896, the word appeared on every public entrance, every fountain, every restroom: White / Colored. Signs saying No Dogs, No Colored were common. The Black community therefore chose an alternative word, negro, which was capitalized in the 1930s and used by newspapers as a mark of respect for the Black community. Like Colored, Negro refers to race (rather than the ethnic origin or culture as the term African does) in a country where a "drop of black blood," to repeat a popular expression, was enough to cast one out of white society. Functioning as a neutral term until the 1950s, Negro disappeared along with Colored in the 1960s and today only older Americans whose vocabulary dates back to that era use the two terms. The 1960s were years of revolution. In a time of collective awareness when Afros were in vogue and the "Black is Beautiful" movement was born, many Blacks rediscovered their African roots. In spite of heated arguments, black became the preferred term, sanctified by the Black Panthers and James Brown's song "Say it Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud!" (1968). Used until then only as an adjective, it became a noun in the 1980s. Like Colored and Negro, Black describes skin color, technically, though it includes only people of African descent regardless of skin color: it cannot be used in reference to very dark Italian or Mexican Americans for example, but applies to very light-skinned Blacks. It also includes recent immigrants from the Caribbean, a people of a different culture who are nevertheless expected to blend in within a generation. Many Blacks were hostile to the new term because of the direct reference to the blackness of their skin (hidden by the foreign sound of Negro), and Black had long been an insult equivalent to African. "If you're white - all right, if you're brown - stick around, if you're black - get back." However, Black became the accepted word, and still is today. The 1970s and 1980s gave birth to the many hyphenated terms that describe modern America's ethnic minorities (Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, etc.). Words such as Eurasian or Afroeuropean had long been used by anthropologists. The Black community chose Afro-American, which had been used in writing since the beginning of the century. In an attempt to put the two components of the term on equal footing, Afro-American gave way to African-American and later African American. The hyphen was deleted as it implied the idea of a sub-category. Other suggestions did not catch on, such as AfriAmerican, AfraAmerican, Afrikan or even more creative inventions such as Afrindeur American (short for "African-Indian-European" in reference to the multiracial origins of most Black Americans) or Dobanian (short for "Descendant of Black African Natives in the American North"), which found few supporters. African American did not gain acceptance without arousing debates, even if these disputes aroused less passion than those surrounding the change from Colored and Negro to Black. African Americans were quick to adopt the term. Problems arose with the 1990 census since many Blacks did not identify as black and added African American as a category instead. Jesse Jackson defended the new term, which he used and explained at a press conference in December 1988: compared to Black, African American expresses a sense of belonging to a culture and, more important, creates a bridge with the African continent. It evokes slavery and acculturation while claiming an African heritage. African American emphasizes an African Diaspora rather than an American minority. Roughly ten years after the new name was first promoted, it is now accepted and used by all. Africa is once again part of the name of Black Americans, as if the quest for identity had ended where it began. Returning to cultural origins that should never have been renounced, Black Americans have come full circle. But does this new term resolve all issues of identity? Have we truly stopped looking for new names? Although most people use African American, many Blacks argue that there is nothing African about them, and that the term does not represent them. Others however, such as Toni Cade Bambara, writer, cultural analyst and filmmaker, keep pushing for a redefinition of the term, suggesting for example the use of Amero-African rather than African American to emphasize the African rather than the American identity.

Americans of African Descent : Names and Identities

[Cephus]

Quote by: freedom13 Negro means black in Spanish and not all African American have black skins. African American means that their ancestors were brought here in America as slaves from Africa immorally and unjustly. African heritage represent “Birth Right” and they have the “God giving right” or “by any means necessary right” to claim what have been lost and stolen from them.

There is no "African heritage", there's no such goddamn thing. Blacks need to get the hell over it and deal with reality. This is 2008, not 1808, the only ones responsible for their current situation is themselves.

Enough with this birthright crap already, nobody is impressed.

[freedom13]

Quote by: Chancellor There is no such thing as an "African" heritage. There are numerous indigenous cultures in Africa and it is from those cultures that the heritage of various people descended from African slaves is derived.

Yes there is such thing as to claim their “African Heritage” which means “birthright” that represents the whole Africa continent and their cultures.

In fact, because these uncertainties and inventions stem from the demand for recognition and respect at the heart of the social and political struggle of the Black community, there is no reason why it should stop here. Each term remains unsatisfactory because there are always individuals who cannot identify with them. Tellingly, the use of the word biracial is gaining, since children of mixed parentage have no reason to deny the non-Black half of their identity. Because biracial remains vague, some prefer to use terms such as AfroAsian, AfroEuropean, EuroAsian, AfroHispanic, African Latino, etc. But what about a child whose four grandparents are Black, Asian, White and Hispanic? An easy way out is to use the term multiracial, which like multicultural recently came into vogue. Yet, who in America cannot be said to be multiracial? Don't the terms used to describe Blacks refer to a culture, after all, rather than a race? If we look at recent academic literature, the articles written by cultural scientists make use of evocative names that designate the multiple facets of identity. When discussing the position of artists or writers, one does not merely speak of eurocentrism and afrocentrism anymore. bell hooks (who does not capitalize her name) is a particularly accessible critic of popular culture. In her many books, she identifies herself as an Afrofemcentric - that is, afrocentrist and feminist. Michele Wallace, working on similar issues, calls herself an Afrofemlezcentrist, meaning an afrocentrist, a feminist and a lesbian (referring to her sexuality but more important, to lesbian culture). The late Black poet Essex Hemphill spoke openly of his homosexuality before the term afroqueercentric was coined. Will these words influence the way we speak of ourselves? It is hard to say, but they are signs of the growing difficulty of finding satisfying terms which reduce the identity of a group, and by extension of the individuals who compose it, to their race, even if the racial terms refer to a people's culture, history, or roots. Race is not the simple concept it once appeared to be; the world is not just black and white. In the end, what can be said of all these terms of diverse origin, whose usage leads to their systematic condemnation by subsequent generations who view them as racist, limiting, or generally unsatisfactory? In fact, the fundamental paradoxical intentions behind the search for names account for their creation and disappearance. Those who invent them are trying to name a race, a black (Negro, Black) or non-white (Colored) race, when races do not exist in these terms: all Americans, particularly Black Americans, are racially mixed. Or they are trying to name a culture, whether more African (Afrikan, Ameri-African) or American (Afro-American, African American) when all Black Americans, like their fellow citizens, belong to a mixed culture which both standpoints minimize. Finally and most important, these terms aim at expressing a sense of identity when the identity of each individual is manifold and comes from one's experience as a Black person, a sexual being, a member of a social class, a region, a church, a political party. How can one word ever contain so much information? How can one feel justly represented by a word that must bring together millions of individuals and therefore erase individual idiosyncracies? Individuals must therefore define themselves in relation to certain currently accepted terms - Black, African American, or other - which might lose their acceptable status in a matter of decades. Despite the apparent triviality of these changes in vocabulary given the vast political issues that divide America, these semantic shifts shed light on the ways in which language reflects the power struggles in society. In a note to its readers following the decision to use the word Negro to refer to Black Americans in 1930, the New York Times explained: "[This] is not only merely a typographical change, it is an act in recognition of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations in the 'lower case'." Words carry meaning. From African to African American it has been a long and difficult road. The result does not strike us immediately as revolutionary, though it hides many battles waged over hundreds of years.

[grandpa]

Quote by: freedom13 Yes there is such thing as to claim their “African Heritage” which means “birthright” that represents the whole Africa continent and their cultures.

This discussion is really fascinating, and it's revealing how it's perfectly fine for some to yammer on about a "Judeo-Christian heritage," but heaven forbid others express any interests in their African roots.

Grandpa h.

[Sonart]

.

Quote by: suburbanite Inspired by another topic. What does "African American" mean? Are all blacks in America African American? Are all African American's black?

As I recall, the concept of hyphenated-Americans began during the Civil Rights era with Asians and Latinos, who, because of their racial features, were often presumed to be foreigners.

Asians in particular, tired of being asked in loud, mono-sylable voices by white folks who assumed they couldn't speak english, where they were from -- "DO... YOU... SPEAKEE.. ENGRISH?". They found it necessary to constantly explain that they were long time, baseball loving, hotdog eating Americans, thank you, whose last name, Yoshimura, meant that they happened to be Americans of Japanese ancestry... Japanese-Americans. Eventually, 'Asian-American' became universally accepted means of distinguishing American citizens of Asian ancestry from Asian foreigners.

Latinos often had the same problem... "The name's Gonzales, I'm a fourth generation American of Mexican ancestry, and I can speak perfect english, thanks." So Mr. Gonzales became a 'Mexican-American' rather than a wetback.

'Negroes', who had evolved into 'Blacks' with the Civil Rights movement, had a similar although vastly more awkward problem. Folks didn't assume them to be foreigners as much as simply something less than American. So if the term 'Black' seemed a bit confrontational in the quest for assimilation into American culture, the hyphenated-American solution of Asians and Latinos seemed to have a certain respectability to it. "I'm an American, thank you, who happens to be of African ancestry."

Certain white people have always had a problem with these distinctions, but that's because they never had the problems that gave rise to them. Quite the opposite... Sven and Ingo Vignuson, a pair of Norwegian tourists who don't speak a word of english, can walk the streets of any town in America and, as long as they don't open their mouths, be instantly assumed to be loyal Americans. English, French, Dutch, German-Americans don't have to hyphenate their identities because no one here is going to assume them to be anything less than full-blooded, 1st class Yankee Doodle 'Mericans.

Quote by: Cephus There is no "African heritage", there's no such goddamn thing. Blacks need to get the hell over it and deal with reality. This is 2008, not 1808, the only ones responsible for their current situation is themselves.

When I was a kid, Cephus, my friends and I would sometimes discuss "What are you?" For instance, my people were English, Irish and Welsh. Someone else might be Dutch/German, or Polish/Irish, or gawd knows what. And no one really asked how long ago they came here because between us we all assumed the other was just as American as we were and it didn't much matter.

What about you, Cephus? What's your background?

I suspect African-Americans would like to believe there's an equally respectable heritage for them... other than "Slave".

There a problem with that?

.

[Cephus]

Quote by: Sonart What about you, Cephus? What's your background?

Human. Or American. Take your pick.

[grandpa]

Quote by: Cephus Human. Or American.

Given the long track record of human rights abuses that has come with America, I should hope you'd prefer the label "human." Of course, that's supposedly an "Anti-American" for me to say.

Grandpa h.

[ruksak]

Quote by: grandpa Given the long track record of human rights abuses that has come with America, I should hope you'd prefer the label "human." Of course, that's supposedly an "Anti-American" for me to say. Grandpa h.

What country doesn't have a history of human rights violations? In regards to Africa, we see the most egregious sorts of violations occurring as we speak.

America is in rather high standing, comparatively.

[Chancellor]

Quote by: grandpa This discussion is really fascinating, and it's revealing how it's perfectly fine for some to yammer on about a "Judeo-Christian heritage," but heaven forbid others express any interests in their African roots. Grandpa h.

But the roots aren't "African," they're in whatever indigenous tribes on the African continent these people descended from. There are numerous cultures on the African continent.

[grandpa]

Quote by: ruksak What country doesn't have a history of human rights violations? In regards to Africa, we see the most egregious sorts of violations occurring as we speak.

As we speak, the United States is supporting many of these violations, including in Africa. It happens elsewhere, as well. For example, in Colombia, many who speak out against "Plan Colombia," a U.S.-funded program that supplements the "War on Drugs," are threatened by the paramilitary. One such person is Miguel Cifuentes, the executive secretary of the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant
Association
(Colombia: Edu: Peasants Pay The Cost Of 'War On Drugs')

But now we're getting a little sidetracked.

Grandpa h.

[grandpa]

Quote by: Chancellor But the roots aren't "African," they're in whatever indigenous tribes on the African continent these people descended from There are numerous cultures on the African continent.

I know there are many cultures in Africa.
But in discussing one's roots, is the name of the continent of your ancestors irrelevant? Not necessarily.

I agree that "African American" is not the best term (especially for one to use to describe another), but it at least has some merit. Of course, one hardly can "find his roots" by merely attaching a label to himself. To believe it's so easy would be nonwinning situation for the "African" part, as well as the "American."

Grandpa h.

[Cephus]

Quote by: grandpa Given the long track record of human rights abuses that has come with America, I should hope you'd prefer the label "human." Of course, that's supposedly an "Anti-American" for me to say.

America has a better track record than most of the rest of the world, at least in the modern age. However, that doesn't change the fact that you're desperately trying to change the subject. I don't refer to myself as a hyphenated-American, I'm an American, period. I don't have to link myself to some ancient heritage because one of my ancestors might have come from some other country.

I'm here. I'm an American. So are black Americans. So are every other colored Americans. Either you want to be an American or you're more than welcome to find somewhere else, with a different 'heritage' that you'd rather be. Stop whining about it.

[ruksak]

Quote by: Cephus I don't refer to myself as a hyphenated-American

Extraordinary sense was accomplished with that statement. A very intelligent quote from you, Cephus.

All that accomplished with this sort of hyphenated titling is separation.