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I am reminded of the scene in the movie "The Deer Hunter" when a general is visiting the wounded troops and asks one badly shot up soldier "You're last name is Russian isn't it?", and the soldier who can barely speak replies "No Sir, it's American.".
South America and the Carribean had a huge influx of slaves--maybe more so than the US. They just abolished it earlier than we did.
That's what I thought....
I mean I guess I can see why an 8th generation Jamacain moving to the U.S. wouldn't like to be termed as "African American", but technically they are by the strictest of definition....
Did any of you watch Who Do You Think You Are with Blair Underwood? He makes a poignant statement at the very end: "We are African, not because we were born in Africa but because Africa was born in us."
I think it is a very important thing for many who are decendants, no matter how many generations down the line.
I worked with a fellow for many years who regularly fielded the identifier "but you're an african american" with the outburst "no I'm not, I'm a Canadian"! He had emmigrated to Canada in 1953 and had no use for that phrase or hyphenated descriptor as he'd previously been described as simply Negro prior to that in the U.S of A.
He certainly didn't think of himself as an African-Canadian.
Did any of you watch Who Do You Think You Are with Blair Underwood? He makes a poignant statement at the very end: "We are African, not because we were born in Africa but because Africa was born in us."
I think it is a very important thing for many who are decendants, no matter how many generations down the line.
Did any of you watch Who Do You Think You Are with Blair Underwood? He makes a poignant statement at the very end: "We are African, not because we were born in Africa but because Africa was born in us."
I think it is a very important thing for many who are decendants, no matter how many generations down the line.
I did catch it online. I was actually more interested in his maternal line and the fact his family was free as far back as the late 18th century and lived in Virginia to boot which barred free blacks as a matter of law.
The Africa part seemed forced, made for TV if you will. Some random DNA test and presto long lost African family! I was like Blair you better watch what you say to these folks about coming to visit you in the states.
I'm one of them. I know the specific country and ethnic group of my origins. So to use a name that encompasses an entire continent of diverse peoples seems absurd. Personally I prefer American, Black American or Ghanaian American.
Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American' *| ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/some-blacks-insist-im-1331589.html - broken link)
I prefer to be called Africa American because my family was brought over in slave ships from Africa.
But, you have people that call Jamaican and Haitian immigrants "African American". That's when it's becomes a problem.
I did catch it online. I was actually more interested in his maternal line and the fact his family was free as far back as the late 18th century and lived in Virginia to boot which barred free blacks as a matter of law.
The Africa part seemed forced, made for TV if you will. Some random DNA test and presto long lost African family! I was like Blair you better watch what you say to these folks about coming to visit you in the states.
I didn't see it as forced, necessarily, but we were joking about that very thing. Suddenly there'd be about 500 Cameroonians at his doorstep talking about "Cousin Blair! Send me to college!"
I prefer to be called Africa American because my family was brought over in slave ships from Africa.
But, you have people that call Jamaican and Haitian immigrants "African American". That's when it's becomes a problem.
Yup. Or immigrants from places like Ghana or Congo or Zimbabwe.
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