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If he is the janitor at an all white school they call him a black man. If he is a your white wife's gynecologist you say he is an African American, if he is the guy who just cut you off in traffic you call him..... that ...never mind.
So presumably, we came up with the term "African-American" ( never mind that it's a misnomer ) because the term "black" sounded too derogatory (?) and so now all white people use the term "African-American" when referring to black people.
What's confusing me is, you'll often hear both terms used in practically the same sentence quite often. I noticed this while listening to Clinton, Sanders, and O'Malley talk at the Urban league conference last week.
"Black" seems to be the term of choice when talking about numbers and statistics.
I'm just wondering, why is the term "Black" considered too derogatory in some contexts, but perfectly acceptable in others?
Actually "African-American" became common due to many black Americans (who is this "we" you are speaking of who came up with it?) wanting to highlight their African ancestry, not because "black" was derrogatory.
Not all black Americans call themselves African Americans. Some do, some don't. It is odd that so many people on here get all up in a tizzy thinking about black people.
It is not confusing. They are synonyms. Neither are derrogatory. I call myself a "black American" because culturally I am an American who is black. I have nothing against Africa but I have no recent connection to African. Yet if you call me an "African American" I don't care and most black people don't care any other way.
It is really odd how some white people try to act like black people are upset about things that we really don't give a crap about.
Actually "African-American" became common due to many black Americans (who is this "we" you are speaking of who came up with it?) wanting to highlight their African ancestry, not because "black" was derrogatory.
Not all black Americans call themselves African Americans. Some do, some don't. It is odd that so many people on here get all up in a tizzy thinking about black people.
It is not confusing. They are synonyms. Neither are derrogatory. I call myself a "black American" because culturally I am an American who is black. I have nothing against Africa but I have no recent connection to African. Yet if you call me an "African American" I don't care and most black people don't care any other way.
It is really odd how some white people try to act like black people are upset about things that we really don't give a crap about.
Well said. My black friend at work has many connections to the southern US but none to Africa. I think it's wrong to label people because they can be easily identified visually. It's simple minded is what it is.
You're not African at all really, you're most likely more American than the majority of white people.
What if you are white, born in South Africa and came to the US?
are you not african-american?
South African-American
African American is to denote someone of African descent who doesn't have a specific origin in Africa. This fits the description of ex slave descendants in the US.
And this is not just an American thing. If the current theory of evolution is correct that holds that all humans originated in Africa, then here are some other notable people with African heritage around the globe:
Xi Jinping - African-Chinese
Vladimir Putin - African-Russian
Angela Merkel - African-German
Rachel Dolezal - African-American
A person's skin color does not give anyone an exclusive right to affirm their African heritage, which if the current theory of evolution is correct, we all possess and share together.
Well said. My black friend at work has many connections to the southern US but none to Africa. I think it's wrong to label people because they can be easily identified visually. It's simple minded is what it is.
You're not African at all really, you're most likely more American than the majority of white people.
Thank you but the point of my post was that black Americans generally do not find the label "black" to be derrogatory.
I'm sure you can find an outlier for this assertion but on the whole black people don't care if we are called "black" or African American.
Also, African American began to be used so that blacks who wanted to could highlight their African ancestry. They are synonyms in regards to black Americans.
Hardly any of us care. Only random PC people who want to complain about black people want to make a big deal out of it.
What if you are white, born in South Africa and came to the US?
are you not african-american?
It seems that the situation is similar to Americans of Italian ancestry not being considered to be "Latino".
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