Do you prefer/say African American or black?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

but if you want to be accurate, why use "black" instead of "person of color" or "colored"? I really think black sounds dumb. Black is the color of this keyboard. People are mocha.

Look, the colored slave ship has sailed. You can't get colored back. Besides, if we are going to get all accurate, white people have color too. We're not transparent.

LMFAO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm white. I'd prefer to say "black" because there are a number of definitional problems with "African-American" (eg, recent African immigrants have a different experience from people descended from Africans enslaved generations ago. Also, white people whose families have lived in Africa for generations - who are they - European-African-Americans?) but I generally use AA because it seems important to a sizable segment of that community and I want to respect that.

What really bugs me is being called Caucasian rather than white. "European-American" would make more sense since my ancestors came from Europe but I have no connection whatsoever to the Caucasus. I suspect people tend to use it a lot because they feel there should be syllabic parity - that is, "African-American" has a lot of syllables so they say "Caucasian" in order to balance it out. I understand that tendency but it just doesn't jive with reality.

THERE ARE NO DEFINITIONAL PROBLEMS WITH USING AFRICAN AMERICAN (and yes I am screaming) PEOPLE REFUSE TO UNDERSTAND THE DEFINITION. SOMEONE GAVE A PERFECT DEFINITION ON AN EARLIER PAGE!!! IT DOES NOT APPLY TO AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS OR WHITE PEOPLE FROM AFRICAN COUNTRIES!!!!!!!!!!!

Teresa Heinz might disagree. And so would many whites whose families have lived in Africa for generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm white. I'd prefer to say "black" because there are a number of definitional problems with "African-American" (eg, recent African immigrants have a different experience from people descended from Africans enslaved generations ago. Also, white people whose families have lived in Africa for generations - who are they - European-African-Americans?) but I generally use AA because it seems important to a sizable segment of that community and I want to respect that.

What really bugs me is being called Caucasian rather than white. "European-American" would make more sense since my ancestors came from Europe but I have no connection whatsoever to the Caucasus. I suspect people tend to use it a lot because they feel there should be syllabic parity - that is, "African-American" has a lot of syllables so they say "Caucasian" in order to balance it out. I understand that tendency but it just doesn't jive with reality.

THERE ARE NO DEFINITIONAL PROBLEMS WITH USING AFRICAN AMERICAN (and yes I am screaming) PEOPLE REFUSE TO UNDERSTAND THE DEFINITION. SOMEONE GAVE A PERFECT DEFINITION ON AN EARLIER PAGE!!! IT DOES NOT APPLY TO AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS OR WHITE PEOPLE FROM AFRICAN COUNTRIES!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm-mmmm. This is an effective way to get your point across.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm white and I usually say black. So many black people I know are neither African nor American. Like PP, I would oblige if someone expressed a preference for an alternative.

They are closer to being African than they are to actually being black, if you want to take thugs literally.

[Anonymous]

Pp here, should say things, not thugs. Typing on phone.

[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.

wow. A 2nd gen Nigerian born here could get a scholarship or an aa position meant for someone else?
just wow.
For what its worth. Obama only has ties to Americas AA community from his wifes side. He has no black relatives of his own in America. His black relatives are in Africa. And they did not get invited to go with his wife on the tour to South Africa. We will see what comes out of that. Sasha and Malia read Dr Seouss to kids that are too old for that kind of books

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

well, people call me Irish-American (if anything), when describing ethnicity or background, and my family has been here for 200 years +.

Sidenote: I'm Irish and that just pisses me off.

confused, why? do you think people who are more than 2nd generation shouldn't be called Irish-American, or Italian-American, etc?

Yes. Not the PP.
I'm German, as in born-in-and-raised-there-came-here-late-in-life. However, I have been speaking English all of my life and have no accent. So when I say "I'm German", I get a lot of "oh, I'm German too"....but then people don't speak it. Or have even been there.

You're German (or American or fill in whichever country) if that's what your passport says. I don't think one should identify themselves as hyphenated citizens....pick a nationality, not two.

Well, some of us ARE both and have dual citizenship.

[Anonymous]

Does that mean they were born in the US if they have dual citizenship? Doesn't the US require foreigners to give up their original citizenship to become a US citizen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm white. I'd prefer to say "black" because there are a number of definitional problems with "African-American" (eg, recent African immigrants have a different experience from people descended from Africans enslaved generations ago. Also, white people whose families have lived in Africa for generations - who are they - European-African-Americans?) but I generally use AA because it seems important to a sizable segment of that community and I want to respect that.

What really bugs me is being called Caucasian rather than white. "European-American" would make more sense since my ancestors came from Europe but I have no connection whatsoever to the Caucasus. I suspect people tend to use it a lot because they feel there should be syllabic parity - that is, "African-American" has a lot of syllables so they say "Caucasian" in order to balance it out. I understand that tendency but it just doesn't jive with reality.

THERE ARE NO DEFINITIONAL PROBLEMS WITH USING AFRICAN AMERICAN (and yes I am screaming) PEOPLE REFUSE TO UNDERSTAND THE DEFINITION. SOMEONE GAVE A PERFECT DEFINITION ON AN EARLIER PAGE!!! IT DOES NOT APPLY TO AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS OR WHITE PEOPLE FROM AFRICAN COUNTRIES!!!!!!!!!!!

Teresa Heinz might disagree. And so would many whites whose families have lived in Africa for generations.

This is the silliest thing I've read in a long time. So Teresa Heinz is African American and not Caucasian? Here parents were Portugese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does that mean they were born in the US if they have dual citizenship? Doesn't the US require foreigners to give up their original citizenship to become a US citizen?

No
You can get dual citizenship by being born here and your parents apply for your citizenship to their country
When you become naturalized it is upto the former country to descide if they allow dual citizenship or not.
It is common and very useful. Nothing wrong with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:THERE ARE NO DEFINITIONAL PROBLEMS WITH USING AFRICAN AMERICAN (and yes I am screaming) PEOPLE REFUSE TO UNDERSTAND THE DEFINITION. SOMEONE GAVE A PERFECT DEFINITION ON AN EARLIER PAGE!!! IT DOES NOT APPLY TO AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS OR WHITE PEOPLE FROM AFRICAN COUNTRIES!!!!!!!!!!!

Teresa Heinz might disagree. And so would many whites whose families have lived in Africa for generations.

This is the silliest thing I've read in a long time. So Teresa Heinz is African American and not Caucasian? Here parents were Portugese.

Her father was born in Portugal. She was born in Mozanbique, and so was her mother.
(had to look it up in Wikipedia. JUst had no clue who you were talking about). I doubt anyone in Mozanbique would call her an alien.

I look Caucasion but am not. I come from a northern European country and that is not the geographical Caucasus area.

[Anonymous]

When will people get it. This doesn't have to do with where you are born, it has to do with your ancestry. Black people in America can't trace a connection to a specific country in Africa and the term AA is an attempt to acknowledge that our common ancestry is African, the black parts of Africa, to be specific.

[Anonymous]

I've thoroughly enjoyed the comments on this thread! I must say, me, having a Nigerian father and American mother (she's still African, she just doesn't know her roots) has been very good for me. Because of this, I consider myself African-American. The American part is simply my nationality, when it comes to my ethnicity it is Nigerian/African. Nigerian because half of my ancestors can be traced back to Nigeria, and African because I don't know where the other half are from (my mother's side). I hate the term "black" being used to describe people of color. To me, it's just a tool of white supremacy. Some say I'm Nigerian-American, others say I'm black, and then some say I'm just Nigerian. At the end of the day, I'm an African man who happens to be American. My ancestors on both sides originated in Africa, one traced back to Nigeria (actually the Yoruba tribe can also be traced back to Benin Republic) and the other cannot be traced back to anywhere but the deep south of America......so that makes me African-American in every sense.

[Anonymous]

If you can't connect to a culture, it's black. If you can, it's Nigerian-American or Cuban-American or Brazilian-American, etc..

So the same goes for the Wonder Bread. no connection to England? You're plain white!

simple

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am African and YES WE DO but for the RIGHT reasons!!!!