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I'm black (although I don't care for the word), but I don't like the term African-American either. *shrugs*
I always kind of liked "spade." When I was in military intelligence, everyone else called us intel guys "spooks," and I always smiled inwardly at that unintended double entendre, too.
How about renaming you "Caribbean"? You may not personally have origins in the Caribbean, but the Caribbean nations are where blacks are the overwhelming majority. There never were indigenous people on the islands, and the whites mostly left long ago as colonization mostly ended. But now I have a new question... why do Caribbean blacks still seem to have an African accent? I can't tell apart a Haitian from a Nigerian based on accent alone.
places like jamaica and trinidad have been independent from european rule for about 40 years. natives in haiti were called arawaks.
I always kind of liked "spade." When I was in military intelligence, everyone else called us intel guys "spooks," and I always smiled inwardly at that unintended double entendre, too.
How about renaming you "Caribbean"? You may not personally have origins in the Caribbean, but the Caribbean nations are where blacks are the overwhelming majority. There never were indigenous people on the islands, and the whites mostly left long ago as colonization mostly ended. But now I have a new question... why do Caribbean blacks still seem to have an African accent? I can't tell apart a Haitian from a Nigerian based on accent alone.
You can't? I can and I sense no african accent with Caribbeans. I can't tell if one is from Africa it is one is from America/Caribbean. You will find a similarity here and there but most times? Nah. That's me.
places like jamaica and trinidad have been independent from european rule for about 40 years. natives in haiti were called arawaks.
Don't forget there are people who are ethnically Indian (from India) who live in Trinidad and Tobago, French Guayana, and maybe some other countries I am forgetting right now. That is in addition to the natives who are from the islands originally. The Arawaks and Tainos are some of the native tribes that come to mind, who have mixed with English, black, Spanish and India Indians.
I wonder... why were Africans chosen to be slaves? There were plenty of whites not respected by the colonists that could have been used instead.
Whites were used as slaves before blacks were brought here. England was notorious for shipping it's criminals, orphans, and other unwanted people to the colonies to be exploited for labor. That's why Australia is famously a colony of former criminals. England was very overpopulated at the time and they got rid of the undesirable people by putting them on boats and sending them to the colonies. In the colonies they were treated as slaves or indentured servants who had to work for a set number of years before they could have a chance at freedom, but freedom was not guaranteed.
There was also a period of time in many of the colonies where attempts were made to enslave the natives, but it didn't work very well because the natives were familiar with the land and they would frequently escape. People brought here from foreign lands were afraid to run away because they were afraid of dying in the wilderness, although there are stories of escaped slaves who joined Native American tribes.
Whites were used as slaves before blacks were brought here. England was notorious for shipping it's criminals, orphans, and other unwanted people to the colonies to be exploited for labor. That's why Australia is famously a colony of former criminals. England was very overpopulated at the time and they got rid of the undesirable people by putting them on boats and sending them to the colonies. In the colonies they were treated as slaves or indentured servants who had to work for a set number of years before they could have a chance at freedom, but freedom was not guaranteed.
There was also a period of time in many of the colonies where attempts were made to enslave the natives, but it didn't work very well because the natives were familiar with the land and they would frequently escape. People brought here from foreign lands were afraid to run away because they were afraid of dying in the wilderness, although there are stories of escaped slaves who joined Native American tribes.
And the colonies passed laws to prevent the whites brought as sliaves from being bred (or marrying) the blacks brought as slaves. By 1700, the white family lines originally brought as slaves were able to blend into the white populace.
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