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So does that mean a black Nigerian American can check on the census "black american"?
That's where confusion comes in for me..going by your definition,they can,but I have seen some(esp blacks from the Carribean) who don't want to be lumped in with black Americans whose ancestors were slaves in this country.
They are trying to get a separate box for "carribean american".
Caribbean Americans can be of any race or mixture of races. Most will identify themselves as Trinidadian, Bahamian, etc. These are not race specific labels. Americans who are the descendants of African immigrants identify themselves by their country of origin such as Naija (Nigerian) American, Ethiopian American, etc.
They are free to (or not to) check the African American box but generally the difference is cultural. But typically what tends to happen is that once Caribbeans and Africans immigrate to the US they are identified by OTHERS as "African American" based upon how they look and by their color. Most (not all)AfroLatinos, Caribbeans and Africans assimilate into the African American community.
Caribbean Americans can be of any race or mixture of races. Most will identify themselves as Trinidadian, Bahamian, etc. These are not race specific labels. Americans who are the descendants of African immigrants identify themselves by their country of origin such as Naija (Nigerian) American, Ethiopian American, etc.
They are free to (or not to) check the African American box but generally the difference is cultural. But typically what tends to happen is that once Caribbeans and Africans immigrate to the US they are identified by OTHERS as "African American" based upon how they look and by their color. Most (not all)AfroLatinos, Caribbeans and Africans assimilate into the African American community.
It depends on the case or context. I think what happens is that many may identify as or with blacks but still hold onto or are aware of their unique ethnic and cultural heritage.
Also people seem to leave out and forget about Afro Arabs, Afro Middle Easterners, and Afro North Africans, and Afro Asians etc. The diaspora is global.
I'm sure there will be more consciousness and awareness on these groups in the USA soon.
Caribbean Americans can be of any race or mixture of races. Most will identify themselves as Trinidadian, Bahamian, etc. These are not race specific labels. Americans who are the descendants of African immigrants identify themselves by their country of origin such as Naija (Nigerian) American, Ethiopian American, etc.
They are free to (or not to) check the African American box but generally the difference is cultural. But typically what tends to happen is that once Caribbeans and Africans immigrate to the US they are identified by OTHERS as "African American" based upon how they look and by their color. Most (not all)AfroLatinos, Caribbeans and Africans assimilate into the African American community.
This is absolutely NOT true. Very few Africans or West Indians or Hispanics assimilate into the African-American community. You are entirely mistaken.
To be honest African Americans are more European than African but that is no fault of their own. I would say that Haiti and parts of Brazil (not all of Brazil) have the most visible West African culture. When I was a growing up in Ibadan (South West Nigeria) alot of these Brazilians from Bahia would come to town to enjoy our traditional festivals..They still do to this day. Plenty of Caribbeans are just like African Americans..Jamaica, Trinidad, all these other places..I see very little African culture there. Banging drums and throwing an "African themed" Festival once a year doesn't really show that you have any real African heritage.
Caribbean Americans can be of any race or mixture of races. Most will identify themselves as Trinidadian, Bahamian, etc. These are not race specific labels. Americans who are the descendants of African immigrants identify themselves by their country of origin such as Naija (Nigerian) American, Ethiopian American, etc.
They are free to (or not to) check the African American box but generally the difference is cultural. But typically what tends to happen is that once Caribbeans and Africans immigrate to the US they are identified by OTHERS as "African American" based upon how they look and by their color. [I]Most[/I] (not all)AfroLatinos, Caribbeans and Africans assimilate into the African American community.
We do? Why would we assimilate into the African American community? Most of my fellow Africans that live in America just do our own thing. We have our own culture, eat different foods, and have interest in different things. I don't see any sort of Assimilation into the Black American community. Maybe with the Afro Latinos and especially the Caribbeans..Like Jamaicans and others because they have a similar history as African Americans with slavery and everything and you share a common language.
To be honest African Americans are more European than African but that is no fault of their own. I would say that Haiti and parts of Brazil (not all of Brazil) have the most visible West African culture. When I was a growing up in Ibadan (South West Nigeria) alot of these Brazilians from Bahia would come to town to enjoy our traditional festivals..They still do to this day. Plenty of Caribbeans are just like African Americans..Jamaica, Trinidad, all these other places..I see very little African culture there. Banging drums and throwing an "African themed" Festival once a year doesn't really show that you have any real African heritage.
Cuba is very African also, and maintains very strong African cultural traditions. Many Cubans still have known relatives and connections with Africa just as much as many Brazilians do. It's amazing.
To be honest African Americans are more European...
That's true basically but at the sametime Black-Americans are very different from White-Americans in many ways. Looking at things from the outside you may see the similarities of both groups. But within America it's generally known how blacks and whites are different. Compare a black Baptist church to a white one. Compare a black marching band to a white one. Compare a funk song to a rock song or compare most black singers to white singers. Or whenever blacks get into a sport we do things differently from how whites played it like with basketball. Even black and white attitudes towards fashion can be different.
So I guess we Black-Americans are more European than African but at the sametime we do many things in our own unique way that's different from white-Americans. We express that European culture a little different from whites is what I'm getting at. We can even speak english differently.
Even though that was funny I thought it was an good example of some of the differences between Black and White-Americans culturally even though both groups are Americans.
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