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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
My husband is also Sub Saharan African. My children feel they are African American. That is enough for me. I am not into splitting hairs and I do not really care. I did not know being African American implied having ancestors who were slaves in America. First time I hear of this. [/quote]

Not saying you should "split hairs". Just want people to actually understand. A lot of people don't know what the term African American means.

But yes, it specifically applies to US blacks whose ancestors were slaves in America. Because of the separation of families, etc, there's no conclusive way for African-Americans to trace our country of origin in Africa. As such, we use the term African-American to both honor our ancestors and to make a connection to our past in Africa without benefit of knowing from where exactly.

If your husband is from Kenya, for instance. He knows his country of origin. His ancestors were not slaves in America. As such, he is not African American....he is Kenyan and/or Kenyan-American. Unless you are an African American yourself, your children aren't either.

Now they can choose to self-identify however you please (Obama does). Doesn't make it a true/accurate identification.[/quote]

I am Jamaican, my children were born here. my ancestors were also slaves and I cannot trace them to a specific country.  What are my children?  Would your answer change if I was born here by my parents were born in Jamaica.   What if my dad were an american-born black and my mom was born in Jamaica?

[/quote]

Why is this so hard to understand?

Your parents are/were Jamaican. If they came here and gained citizenship, they became Jamaican-Americans. You are Jamaican-American. Doesn't matter where you were born if the lineage of your family isn't Africa---------------US. "Stops" in between do not qualify. If your Dad was born in America and his family lineage went directly from Africa to the US, he is AA and so are you (if you so choose to identify).[/quote]

What if the slave ship that took my ancesotos to Virgina stopped in Jamaica for a few days and allowed the slaves to get some air, does that mean that I need to give up my AA label.[/quote]

Unfortunately yes, the moment their feet touched anything besides that ship, they were stripped of their AA label. sorry[/quote]

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