"African American"

[Suburbanite]

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

[Jack]

I know a young lady born in South Africa, the wife of a sailor friend of mine. She could call herself an African American accurately, but being blond and blue-eyed, I think most people would be highly skeptical.

I'm always torn on this issue. I don't see it as a big thing. I don't think anyone should automatically take pride in their citizenship. After all, it isn't something they had any say about. Why take pride in anything you had no control over? But to some, their heritage is a big thing. If they want to call themselves Irish Americans, African Americans or Isle of Man Americans, I don't really care. I would hope they realize they are celebrating separateness and diversity in its least useful form when they do.

[Maryjane]

There were two young men, both born in South Africa, that played hockey with my boys. One's parents were Swedish, the other's English. I was often asked for two forms of ID when I presented their birth certificates at tournaments. Seems some people don't understand that white skinned people can be Africans.

[phoenix_fire]

It seems a little silly to me. I mean, for many, it's been several, several generations since anyone in their line has lived in Africa. Many "African Americans" that I know are about as African as fugu and takeyaki. And if scientific origin theories are correct, then technically all of humanity is African, and thus all Americans are "African Americans". Seeing as how there's apparently no statute of limitations. *strokes chin* Now that would be interesting. Maybe I should start putting that on official documents.

[Rainbow]

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

I take that "African American" form as yet another trend. I think a new "description" is going to emerge, some years to come, since We - Mankind like to be perceived differently and/or uniquely, regardless of logic.

[Suburbanite]

Well alright then, we all seem to generally agree the term is unspecific and unnecessary. But where did it come from. I'm almost skeptical it originated with black people, NAACP, colored people, people of color, black. Those are terms I hear them use to describe themselves with more often.

[Jack]

Prior to the 1960s, most Blacks I knew used the White terminology for themselves. They usually referred to themselves as colored or negroes. During and after the 60s, they began to want their own identity. That's when we saw the rise of terms like Black and African American. It's not a straight-forward sociological trend. Among the militant, there's a pride in using terms from the days of slavery as a reminder of their earlier treatment by Americans, the same way gays use queer. Others see African American as conciliatory in that in emphasizes both their heritage and their current status. I've grown up around Blacks and I don't claim to grasp all the nuances of their attitude toward their social identity.

[ZNFYRH]

African American is someone either born in an African nation or a citizen of an African nation who is now an American citizen.

Charlize Theron is the finest looking African American I have ever seen.

[Chancellor]

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?

It's one of the terms used in the United States as a means of dividing and conquering American society and to deny a common, American ethnicity. The term is a hyphenated one, i.e. "African-American." Those of us who believe in a colorblind society, who believe that anyone born in the United States or is a naturalized citizen is an American, reject all this hyphenated American nonsense.

[Cephus]

No, it makes no sense to claim to be an African-American for the reasons that people have already posted. I, too, have a white friend who was born in South Africa and has a hell of a better reason to call himself an African-American than any of the modern-day black Americans who have never even stepped foot in Africa.

Add to that the fact that Africa itself has no common nationality, even if you were born in one of the African countries and had a dual-citizenship there, you wouldn't be African-American, you'd be Kenyan-American or whatever.

If you want to be really accurate, since all of humanity originated in Africa, we're ALL AFRICAN-AMERICANS!

The whole idea is silly, it's yet another attempt to lump a group of people together because of their skin color and make believe you've got a large block of same-thinking individuals.

[Suburbanite]

But why and by who? I feel like I never hear black people use African American, they never get upset when you say black instead either.

[irish563]

Who cares who coined the phrase?

1) African American is used by PC people to refer to black people because society says if you say almost anything else it makes you a racist.
2) As much as everyone would love to have a "colorblind" society, I think I need to bring to your attention that while it may exist sometime in the future, it sure as hell wont in any of our lifetimes.
3) Noone in particular is using African, Asian, Irish, Italian (ect.) American labels to segregate anyone specific. Different people, regardless of race, color, or religion segregate themselves just fine as it is without anyones help. Every town has a black, white, rich, poor, catholic, baptist, ect side of town. The labels are different, but the segregation is the same.
4) While this may be off topic slightly, segregation will never end either. Watch tv. Read the papers. I saw an Oprah show one time where she dressed white people up as black people, and black people as white people. Then, she had them go out in public into their normal lives and be "hated". I'm not saying that racism will go away if you ignore it, but what I am saying is that until some serious strides are made, the axe will swing both ways. Noone can ever just leave it be. If a black person is attacked by a white person (or vice versa) it HAS to be a hate crime. Right? Gimme a break.

[Suburbanite]

While I agree with what you and everyone here has been saying, I have to be honest and say that the way you guys all are phrasing things makes me think you're almost afraid of political correctness and hate crime legislation, and anything in the race problem that specifically disenfranchises whites. Do you think-- for the sake of posterity!-- that any legislation should be taken to say "even the playground".

[Heather]

Quote by: phoenix_fire It seems a little silly to me. I mean, for many, it's been several, several generations since anyone in their line has lived in Africa....

It would be about as silly as my calling myself: English-Irish-German-Polish-Native American-American!

Booyaa! Now there's some silly correctness for you that you'll never remember. What's the point? I'm American. Period. This is where I live, this is where I always lived. In my view, that's where it ends.

Here's the thing: we have no problem saying "white person", WTF gives when it comes to saying "black person"?

It's a double standard.

The fact is people come in all different groups. It's the way it always has been. Why be so ashamed of who you are that you need to relabel and scream racism or "incorrectness" if not everyone claims your new label?

[phoenix_fire]

I'm a German-French-Native-Polish-Irish-Czech-British-Blackfoot-Texan-Narnian-Italian-Alaskan-Oklahoman-Connecticutese-Californian-Wyomingan-Christian-no-political-party-thank-you-twentysomething-Otaku-Chemist-Ambidextrous-Redhead-but-not-ginger-Cat-person-heterosexual-female-trilingual-American.
(My dad was a navy brat)
You'd better get it right, and you'd better not forget.

Perhaps we should adopt IUPAC conventions and alphabetize all the prefixes.

[Suburbanite]

Narnian?

[phoenix_fire]

Yeah. Have you never noticed my location?

[Milton Bradley]

I refuse to use the term, and offer only "Black" instead.


Call me culturally insensitive, but I think the whole concept of demanding people use a seven syllable title to be preposterous. Get over yourself already.


I really don't care what people think about my protest either, because I have yet to meet a person I like who insists on being culturally identfied in every verbal transaction.


Funny that the Liberals recognize drug addiction as a disease, but they fail to recognize sympathetic appeasement as a character flaw.


These twisted Liberal concepts always end up hurting the target demographic more than they help.

[freedom13]

What does "African American" mean?

I will say the term “African American” was originally use as a redefined label for black Americans to connect themselves to their African heritage.

[grandpa]

Quote by: freedom13 I will say the term “African American” was originally use as a redefined label for black Americans to connect themselves to their African heritage.

Of course, true African heritage will not occur as long as they've never been there, just like I could not honestly say I know much about my "Finnish heritage," though I'm considered a "Finnish American."

That being said, I'm not a big fan of the whole "pride in one's heritage" thing. It's a highly overrated attitude virtually everywhere it's applied. It's mostly just feel-good, self-congratulatory nonsense.

Grandpa h.