Do you prefer/say African American or black?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black. Neither my parents nor I have immigrated from Africa. If you call me colored things will get ugly.

Just as a side note, do you look down on Africa and Africans?
I mean is African ancestry something you are ashamed of?

Excuse me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black. Neither my parents nor I have immigrated from Africa. If you call me colored things will get ugly.

Just as a side note, do you look down on Africa and Africans?
I mean is African ancestry something you are ashamed of?

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black. Neither my parents nor I have immigrated from Africa. If you call me colored things will get ugly.

Just as a side note, do you look down on Africa and Africans?
I mean is African ancestry something you are ashamed of?

Excuse me?

I thought it was the other way around - Africans look down on the US blacks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black....99% of the time, I say black. If I'm in an environment where I deem it appropriate (univ where I took AA courses), I use AA. I think there's much pride in the AA tag...it does not reference African immigrants, post-slavery. AA is a term used when talking about Blacks in America whose ancestors were brought over during slavery.

What about African immigrants who were raised in the US from childhood? I think many of them may identify as AA.

Nope...African immigrants are not AA (and many would be offended if you called them that). African immigrants can trace their country of origin, AA's can not...hence the term AA..it references our ancestors who originated from Africa who were slaves in the US. A Black person from Nigerian is not AA..they're Nigerian....or Nigerian-American if they're 2+generations if they wanna get really technical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:brought over during slavery. Don't you mean bought by the white Americans

Yep..same thing, IMO. They were still brought over...I assumed we all here knew how that happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black....99% of the time, I say black. If I'm in an environment where I deem it appropriate (univ where I took AA courses), I use AA. I think there's much pride in the AA tag...it does not reference African immigrants, post-slavery. AA is a term used when talking about Blacks in America whose ancestors were brought over during slavery.

What about African immigrants who were raised in the US from childhood? I think many of them may identify as AA.

Nope...African immigrants are not AA (and many would be offended if you called them that). African immigrants can trace their country of origin, AA's can not...hence the term AA..it references our ancestors who originated from Africa who were slaves in the US. A Black person from Nigerian is not AA..they're Nigerian....or Nigerian-American if they're 2+generations if they wanna get really technical.

I think Barack identifies as AA, not a Kenyan American. Maybe that's different since he was born in the US?

[Anonymous]

Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

That's a stereotype. But maybe they also benefit from affirmative action that is meant for the black Americans and deprive the intended potential recipients of their opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

I am African. This is simply not true. You are comparing a whole population of AAs in the US with the few educated Africans that come over to the US to work so you are not making a fair comparison. There are hard working and lazy people of ALL races. The are extremely well educated and hard working AAs in America and your president happens to be one of them whether you agree with his politics or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

That's a stereotype. But maybe they also benefit from affirmative action that is meant for the black Americans and deprive the intended potential recipients of their opportunities.

I dont see how this is possible. Unless if you feel that employers would rather higher Africans over AAs because they have better success with Africans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

I am African. This is simply not true. You are comparing a whole population of AAs in the US with the few educated Africans that come over to the US to work so you are not making a fair comparison. There are hard working and lazy people of ALL races. The are extremely well educated and hard working AAs in America and your president happens to be one of them whether you agree with his politics or not.

His father is African and his mother white. He has no ties to the Black American community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

I am African. This is simply not true. You are comparing a whole population of AAs in the US with the few educated Africans that come over to the US to work so you are not making a fair comparison. There are hard working and lazy people of ALL races. The are extremely well educated and hard working AAs in America and your president happens to be one of them whether you agree with his politics or not.

I like you.

I think Obama identifies with being African American because 1.) he was born here and 2.) his mother is American-even though she's white. I am half Asian. Was born, and lived in said Asian country for 8 years, and half white American, but I identify more as being Asian-American (or just American) than my home country-American.

[Anonymous]

I hope Jeff will delete the racist crap off of this thread, which seems to be an inevitable racist magnet. However, I think it is a valuable question. I'm white and have a lot of black friends and colleagues. I make a point of paying attention to how they self-identify or refer to others of the same race and then try to use the same nomenclature. Particularly for someone I don't know very well. To be honest, feeling ever-so-slightly awkward about what to "call" a black person, though, has made me think about how often it is really necessary to describe a person by race? While I don't go overboard to avoid it, I do try to notice other details about a person. Say a salesperson is helping me, I'm not going to say "the black woman was helping me" even if she's the only black woman on the sales force. I'm going to say "the woman with the red shirt." or I'll get her name and remember it. It takes a little bit more effort and I don't always succeed in doing it, but the more we take race out of the description, the better. Obviously there are times this doesn't work, when you need a very explicit description of someone for one reason or another and then yes, i'd say black unless I felt the other person preferred A.A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Africans in America are harder working, more educated and wealthier than black Americans.

I am African. This is simply not true. You are comparing a whole population of AAs in the US with the few educated Africans that come over to the US to work so you are not making a fair comparison. There are hard working and lazy people of ALL races. The are extremely well educated and hard working AAs in America and your president happens to be one of them whether you agree with his politics or not.

I will expand on the point the earlier PP made (which I think is too general to be much good): In my experience, first generation immigrants, regardless of their country of origin, are harder working than longer-term Americans. I have literally never met a lazy 1st-gen. This observation cuts across education levels, but is especially pronounced in uneducated individuals.

Mosying off on a little tangent, feel free to follow or move on: I was in teacher in California some years ago. The difference between the 1st-gen kids and the 2nd-gen kids was so striking. 1st-gens, well, you know the stereotype. 2nd-gens... bane of my life as a teacher. Their parents had busted their asses to "give their kids everything". And the kids totally took it all for granted. And then complained that they weren't getting the breaks they expected. "But we're immigrants! I should get a free period for study, so I can catch up to the kids whose parents speak English!" You mean, so you can paint your nails and bedazzle your cell phone and doodle tattoo ideas and flip through catalogs to pick out the next chrome bit you're going to stick on the Acura your parents bought you. The 1st-gens never asked for extra study periods. They asked for more and more advanced classes, so they could get into better colleges. Grrr.

[Anonymous]

22:35- that is not what the pp you are referring said.