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I once wittness a lady get mugged by a black man in a black neighborhood. When the police came I wanted to tell them what I saw. I felt uncomfortable telling the police the mugger was black. Even though the lady who was robbed was black herself. I felt like I was offending people by saying so. But I was also feeling uncomfortable calling him African American.
In the end I did call him black. I made a choice. I mean, I could have called him " dark brown man". Would that have been better? Please tell.
I am a product of the civil rights movement and prefer to be racially identified as Black. The phrase "African American" is one invented by Jesse Jackson (whom I detest with every bone in my body) and adopted by the white media and sold to the rest of the world. I am not an African and I if I have to be labeled I unequivocably prefer to be called Black/Black American. You did just fine.
After reading innumerable threads and comments regarding racial self-identification, lack of assimilation, and screeds about multiculturalism I thought to myself why is it that I've never read a thread or comment advocating the ending of the classification referred to as white? I mean if African American is so offensive because of its alleged inaccuracy then why not do a way with the term white, after all, white people are exactly white or anything close to it. So, in the hopes of bringing about that much touted color blind society, I would like to make the following offer.
Do away with the idea or whiteness and I will stop identifying myself as an African American and ask others to do the same.
What do you think?
I think you are absolutly correct. There is only ONE race. . . . .HUMAN!
I am a product of the civil rights movement and prefer to be racially identified as Black. The phrase "African American" is one invented by Jesse Jackson (whom I detest with every bone in my body) and adopted by the white media and sold to the rest of the world. I am not an African and I if I have to be labeled I unequivocably prefer to be called Black/Black American. You did just fine.
Yessuh ! I Be Ah Good Ole "German American Y'all" ! .... OTAY ! .
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
Not every Black person is from Africa though.
HappyTexan !!! ... On The Money !
Yep ! ... It's all about Afrika ain't it ! ................. Love them Afrikan lookin ties some of the blokes wears in London ! ..... And all that Afrikan lookin clothing with the nice little tall cap !
Me thinks some blighters has gone completely bonkers over this ere I'm a "Afrikan America" or "Vietnamese American" !!!
Hopefully this idiocy will run it's course over the next couple of years ! .............. It has certainly been wore out in the States ! Lets just be "Proud Americans" ! ...... and forget the rest of the B.S. !
I got a better idea, how about if some black people get so offended when I refer to them as blacks and instead prefer the term "African American", how about they refer to me as a European American? Fancy titles for certain people and simpler titles for others infer special treatment, and equality is supposed to be the end goal, last time I checked. So as long as they refer to me as white, I'll refer to them as black.
Honestly I'd rather drop the silly practice of using continents to indicate ancestral lineage, because plain old colors are so much easier. I'll be white, then there's blacks, Asians will be yellows, Hispanics and Latinos can be either browns or oranges (or both, really don't care), native Americans will be reds, etc. Seems pretty logical to me.
Better yet, we're all of human ancestry. Our cultural ancestry is continents and history and human stories and something nice to research, but does not make us that I have mostly ancestors from the British Isles, but am not British. But I love reading about the times they lives since a little bit of me comes form there.
What about just be human to human and share ancestry as a hobby?
The only people I see putting everyone into their race slot are Liberals. They just can't let everyone be identified as an American, but have to put everyone into a slot by their race. They even create new slots like in the Zimmerman-Martin incident. Zimmerman was first called white, then white-hispanic. It is amazing.
Interesting sidenote to this discussion, and a good example of how "race" is viewed in places other than the U.S.
Last summer my friends Ruth (pale skined) and Marcie (dark skinned) visited sub saharan Africa in order to work with young people who had been orphaned by the Aids epidemic. They are both PHD level psycologists. I was told that the residents of the region they visited had a hard time telling them apart. . . .apparently "all Amerians look the same". . . . .
an interesting comment on "race relations" No?
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Yep ! ..... Them mean ole white folks ! ...... How dares dey calls themseffs "White" ! Halp Y'all !
