"African American"
- Thread starter haunted
- Start date
I hate that term and similar ones with a passion, that term is such a fallacy.
1) Are all Blacks From Africa?
NO!!
2) Are all Africans Black?
NO!!!
3) Are All Americans White?
NO!!
4) Are All Blacks American?
NO!! (so what do I call a Black person that is not from America?)
the term just makes no sense, I believe it was meant to make Blacks feel more inclusive in America. I think it breeds separation not inclusion, White's are not called "European-Americans", it is like making Blacks Conditional citizens.
I refuse to use the term and anyone that accepts that term obviously is not a critical thinker.
1) Are all Blacks From Africa?
NO!!
2) Are all Africans Black?
NO!!!
3) Are All Americans White?
NO!!
4) Are All Blacks American?
NO!! (so what do I call a Black person that is not from America?)
the term just makes no sense, I believe it was meant to make Blacks feel more inclusive in America. I think it breeds separation not inclusion, White's are not called "European-Americans", it is like making Blacks Conditional citizens.
I refuse to use the term and anyone that accepts that term obviously is not a critical thinker.
That's right, they're called "Italian-Americans," "Irish-Americans," "Polish-Americans," "Chinese-Americans," "Cuban-Americans," etc. There's the long-standing practice in the U.S. that the nation's many and disparate ethnic groups name themselves for their geographic points of origin -- or those of their ancestors.
The label "African-Amercan" is in keeping with this tradition. Folks who have a problem with it are simply employing a double standard. Doubtless, few, if any, of them would presume to take any other ethnic group to task for their misguided, "ignorant" approach to self-identification.
"African-American" originally referred to the relatively few black Africans who arrived in the original 13 colonies as free men and women or indentured servants in the days of the U.S.'s earliest settlement by non "native peoples," and primarily those who survived the Middle Passage as human chattel and their descendants. Because of the circumstances of their capture, confinement and deculturation, most blacks cannot trace their ancestry back to specific nations as can those early Europeans who came to this country, or as the many waves of immigrants thereafter. Since blacks cannot claim a specific nation, so they claim their continent of origin, Africa.
The purpose of the term "African-American" is to identify a group of individuals who share a very particular common heritage, common history, and common experience; whose very presence in this nation is a result of the venality and depravity of whites and, in part, the WHITE fabrication of the notion of "race"; and whose many and various members -- regardless of their socioeconomic status -- in some way see and/or feel the weight of that shared history as an ever-present reality on a daily basis. It is further equally silly and mind-numbingly presumptuous for any outsider -- and most especially the descendants of the people who brought that group here on the basis of "race"in the first place, whose near ancestors and, likely, who themselves have participated in and benefited from a system of oppression and exploitation of the self-identified group, again on the basis of "race"-- to criticize any self-referential term of the group because it is "race-based" and therefore doesn't fit in with their ridiculously false/hollow, utopian notions of "color-blind" nomenclature that have no relevant precedent in any Amercan context, let alone in human history.
I'm not surprised many young blacks don't understand this.
The label "African-Amercan" is in keeping with this tradition. Folks who have a problem with it are simply employing a double standard. Doubtless, few, if any, of them would presume to take any other ethnic group to task for their misguided, "ignorant" approach to self-identification.
"African-American" originally referred to the relatively few black Africans who arrived in the original 13 colonies as free men and women or indentured servants in the days of the U.S.'s earliest settlement by non "native peoples," and primarily those who survived the Middle Passage as human chattel and their descendants. Because of the circumstances of their capture, confinement and deculturation, most blacks cannot trace their ancestry back to specific nations as can those early Europeans who came to this country, or as the many waves of immigrants thereafter. Since blacks cannot claim a specific nation, so they claim their continent of origin, Africa.
The purpose of the term "African-American" is to identify a group of individuals who share a very particular common heritage, common history, and common experience; whose very presence in this nation is a result of the venality and depravity of whites and, in part, the WHITE fabrication of the notion of "race"; and whose many and various members -- regardless of their socioeconomic status -- in some way see and/or feel the weight of that shared history as an ever-present reality on a daily basis. It is further equally silly and mind-numbingly presumptuous for any outsider -- and most especially the descendants of the people who brought that group here on the basis of "race"in the first place, whose near ancestors and, likely, who themselves have participated in and benefited from a system of oppression and exploitation of the self-identified group, again on the basis of "race"-- to criticize any self-referential term of the group because it is "race-based" and therefore doesn't fit in with their ridiculously false/hollow, utopian notions of "color-blind" nomenclature that have no relevant precedent in any Amercan context, let alone in human history.
I'm not surprised many young blacks don't understand this.
According to the US Census Bureau an 'African-American' is a person of sub-Saharan ancestry, usually a descendant of American slaves.
The census defines 'white' as one who descends from people native to Europe (including the Caucasus), North Africa and the Middle East. That means Arabs, Jews, Berbers, Spaniards, Germans, Persians etc. It's just a simple, all-encompassing term.
The census defines 'white' as one who descends from people native to Europe (including the Caucasus), North Africa and the Middle East. That means Arabs, Jews, Berbers, Spaniards, Germans, Persians etc. It's just a simple, all-encompassing term.
in britain, blacks arent called, African British, its usually just the race eg, if someones from africa and lives here, they are called African, if an african couple and moved to england and had a child, the child would be british.
if your born in a country, your from there, if your from africa and u move to america and become a citizen, then your an "African American" but if u born there, your American, if u wernt born in africa, then u aint african.
if your born in a country, your from there, if your from africa and u move to america and become a citizen, then your an "African American" but if u born there, your American, if u wernt born in africa, then u aint african.
We'll never get to the point where everybody from each race considers themselves the same - ie. just black, white, asian etc - so until then (forever that is) we willbe in this turmoil where some people are happy with one term while others aren't.
Btw, I had actually always thought that 'African American' was a term coined by black people who had wanted to display their heritage & the pride they have in that heritage.
Btw, I had actually always thought that 'African American' was a term coined by black people who had wanted to display their heritage & the pride they have in that heritage.
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