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Mexico attacked the U.S. first, but that was likely to happen due to both sides amassing armed combatants on the disputed border.
Oops, I was unaware of that, but now I have a new question: why did Texas end up as a Southern state (yes it's in the geographical south, but I'm talking about culture when I say "Southern") but California ended up very Northern? Under Spanish then Mexican rule, weren't the two pretty much the same? I also am surprised at how much Louisiana became a Southern state even though it was purchased from France, and how "Southernized" Oklahoma became even though it was for many years a protected Indian territory.
Part of the reason that black leaders wanted black americans to be called African American is because black people are technically the only group who didn't have an identity with a continent. For example, if you are white, you are from Britain, Germany, Spain, or France, you are still labelled European. If you are from China, Japan, or Korea, you are labelled Asian. So I think that's was the gist of saying that black people who's descendants are from Africa could be labelled African American.
To me, I am black, who happens to be American. Now get this. Why do we associate people born in the United States as only American. Aren't Canadians on the same North American Continent American, as well as Mexicans who live in Mexico American as well? Hummmmmmm?
Because this country is The United States of America!
Name should be used for the race of African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants to the USA?
Ironically, recent immigrants from Liberia in a way have a right to identify as "African American" (INSTEAD of "Liberian American") because the nation of Liberia was created by former slaves who fled the USA for their homeland in the Old World. But I wonder... did the original African American settlers of Liberia intermarry with people from other African countries, people who had lived in Africa since time immemorial?
And what right to the term "African American" do Cuban Americans of African origin have? Or Puerto Ricans of African origin either on the island or in the 50 states?
What would you call someone like Elon Musk who is a native born South African a decendant of the Dutch people who first set foot there in the 17th Century at about the same time Britons Dutch, Germans and French were doing the same in North America. He now is a naturalized American citizen does that make him an Afro-American. Now what do you do with people from Egypt, Sudan Libya, Tunesia , Algeria or Morocco? Many of these people have as much Caucasian blood as any other European and live in a continent called Africa There are also several millions whites who threw their lot at Independence with the African nations that replaced the French, Portugese and British Empires and are native born Ghanans, Nigerians, Ivorians, Senegalese, Kenyans (i.e. Richard B. Leakey Jr.) , Tanzanians (i.e Jane Goodall) or Angolans! If they came here would they be Afro-Americans?
Oops, I was unaware of that, but now I have a new question: why did Texas end up as a Southern state (yes it's in the geographical south, but I'm talking about culture when I say "Southern") but California ended up very Northern? Under Spanish then Mexican rule, weren't the two pretty much the same.
That would be a very long and complicated answer which I will not attempt to figure out now(though it sounds like an excellent thesis topic!). The short and dirty(and not necessarily definitive) reason probably has to do with how the two states came into the Union in light of the antebellum sectional conflict. Texas was admitted as a slave state in 1845. Mexico saw this an illegal land grab and also was opposed to slavery. The annexation clearly precipitated armed conflict between Mexico and the U.S. Meanwhile, a handful of Californians were busy attacking the Mexican governor's house in Sonoma and raising up the Bear Flag, while John Fremont was conveniently in the area on a mission from President Polk to take advantage of any destabilization. The revolt in California quickly became engulfed by the wider war with Mexico and California was ultimately ceded to the U.S. It was admitted as a free state under the terms of the Compromise of 1850 which also allowed for the Fugitive Slave Act to be law. I suppose that if California had come into the Union as a slave state, it too may have joined the Confederacy, and there were pro-confederacy voices in California during the War of Northern Aggression.
Why do the others get the Afro prefix except for us black Americans?
LOL...no way. We have just as much right to that prefix too. I don't want to disown my ancestry by any means, and that ancestry is African.
In the early 70s Afro American was being used interchangeably with black. In an era of domestic terrorists the SLA being the most famous example, the Black Panthers and Malcolm X still being relevant I think black won over Afro because America was not mentioned.
In the early 70s Afro American was being used interchangeably with black. In an era of domestic terrorists the SLA being the most famous example, the Black Panthers and Malcolm X still being relevant I think black won over Afro because America was not mentioned.
Black is still acceptable. It's certainly more practical in everyday speech.
Quote:
Originally Posted by caribdoll
That was what the person to whom I responded preferred. So that is what I used in response. Not in disagreement with you.
Oops, I was unaware of that, but now I have a new question: why did Texas end up as a Southern state (yes it's in the geographical south, but I'm talking about culture when I say "Southern") but California ended up very Northern? Under Spanish then Mexican rule, weren't the two pretty much the same? I also am surprised at how much Louisiana became a Southern state even though it was purchased from France, and how "Southernized" Oklahoma became even though it was for many years a protected Indian territory.
Tejas was largely settled by Americans coming from the South and people who decided they didn't want to live in a Mexican province. They rebelled and took a chunk of Mexico away from Mexico and then gave it to the USA. In 1860 over the protests of Sam Houston Texans chose to leave the Union and throw their lot with the Confederacy. Texas entered the Union in the 1830s as a Slave State. Texas is part of the South because Texans made that choice.
Texas is large enough to have more than one culture. In a book published in the 1970s called the Nine Nations of North America Texas was split into three nations East Texas (Houston) was part of Dixie, North and West Texas (Panhandle, Austin Dallas-For Worth, Midland -Odessa) The Breadbasket and The Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio and El Paso Mex-America.
Every Black friend I have hates being called African American -- They all would rather be called Black.
I also have several Native American friends that hate being called Native American. They would much rather be called Lakota, Souix, and so on and so forth.
So your friends can call themselves anything they want to call themselves. This is supposed to be a free country where they are supposed to have that right.
Problem is, as usual, white people want to have control over what people identify as or call themselves. So as long as your friends are not giving way to the tyrannical bullying and control of white people, then they are fine.
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