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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can we stop with the chain-dragging debate?  I want to get back to the question of where it says or what authority there is that black Americans whose African ancestors came from the Caribbean are not African American.  I've seen that sentiment repeated several times on this thread as if it is the gospel truth, but no one has said where that particular definition comes from.[/quote]

I think someone provided a link to a wikipedia entry in a previous poster.  The whole idea is crazy.

- A pround AA woman (whose parents were born in Jamaica)  [/quote]

Yes, I read the wikipedia definition - it actually said that AA is a US citizen/resident with at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.  So by that definition, Obama is AA, I am AA (Bahamian ancestry) and you are AA.  But there has been a lot of insistence that this is not the case, so I want to know what the source of that insistence is.[/quote]

Doesn't matter what anyone says. You two will persist with your AA declarations. Have at it. And while you're at it, READ some scholarly articles and actually learn the history of the term if you're going to label yourself with it. [/quote]

If you link me some, I will.  The bit of research I've done (admittedly, all internet searches spurred by this thread) has turned up nothing to indicate that the definition that you're advancing is somehow more legitimate or correct than a definition that includes all black Americans.  Apparently, the term originated in a poem and the author defined African Americans as "the children of the descendants of the African Diaspora who inhabit the Americas."  I don't know why I'm so riled up about this, but it really bothers me that there are other black people out there who are telling me I can't use this term merely because my slave ancestors were plunked down on a different piece of land than theirs.  [/quote]

What do you take from Duncan's definition? Doesn't the very definition prove what I've been saying? Are you now saying that the inventor of the term is somehow wrong in what he meant?

And why would you be riled up? I know some Africans, Jamaicans, Haitians, Ghanians, etc who are ADAMANT that they aren't African-American. It doesn't offend/upset me in the slightest. Why would it?

This is NOT something to which you need to take offense. The term African American was all about US blacks having a sense of connection with our ancestors. We, for the most part, remain very much in the dark about our history. Our beginnings in this country were filled with violence, separation and despair. The term African American is used to honor our ancestors who toiled to help build what we now get to enjoy today. [/quote]

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