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I've raised this point before, and my apologies to those who've heard it.
Back during the late Sixties, Newsweek ran a political cartoon borrowed from one of the major syndicates; it showed an H.Rap Brown / Stokely Carmichael look-alike proclaiming:
"As a matter of pride and dignity, we want to be called simply 'blacks' 'Blacks' replaced 'Negroes', which replaced 'African-American'*, which replaced 'colored' which replaced 'darkies' which replaced 'blacks' "
*and for what it's worth, I don't recall hearing the term "African-American" much when I was a teenager (and a politically-astute one) in the Sixties.
It's all a game based upon Politically Correct semantics and jargon; let anyone over the age of 25 fail to use the label du jour and, unless they are known to be a flaming "progressive", they are to be immediately dismissed as "un-hip".
I grew up in SW Michigan in the 60s. People that were black were called "colored" and it was considered a respectable term. In high school, early 70's, the "Afro-American" term came about. You, of course, realize that the part of the country also plays into the terminology. I do not remember EVER hearing the term "darkies" used even by the oldest of relatives and neighbors and they tended not to update the terms that they used. They used "colored" and some of these people grew up in the early 1900s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by motownewave
Oops, I goofed in asking my own question... my real question was "is 'black' offensive when used to refer to Africans in Africa, or Afro-Caribbean people"?
I once worked with a couple guys from Melanesia. Their ancestors left Africa way before any Europeans did, and they were way darker than any African I have ever seen. For that matter, Africa is not monochromatic. North Africans are Mediterranean types, while the Khoisan are kind of yellow skinned. Like Causasians, the Bantu type only evolved in the last fifteen thousand years, and is still expanding its area in Africa.
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?
Who is offended by being referred to as black or African American? I don't know anyone that's offended by it.
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?
Why worry about what the PC word police think should or should not be said?
The rabble rousers and race merchants want to redefine words to make them "insensitive", even if they are more accurate and have no insult intended.
The funny thing is that to be called a hyphenated-American has traditionally always been considered an insult. Yet the word police are to ignorant of history to even understand this. The so called Natives who were already established in America would call new immigrants (even of their own ethnic stock) a hyphenated-American as a slight to say they were somehow less American than "real Americans".
Also those who didn't have a strong desire to assimilate into the American melting pot culture were also called hyphened-Americans.
On of our great presidents about 100 years ago to this day made this famous speech about hyphenated-Americans;
Teddy Roosevelt: "No Room in This Country for Hyphenated Americans"
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer tohyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.”
“This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”
“But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.”
“The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.”
“The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
Theodore Roosevelt Address to the Knights of Columbus New York City- October 12th, 1915
If you call someone from Jamaica an African-American, watch out, as they consider it an insult, as do some other blacks. But I guess the politically correct speech police only care about sensitivity if it fits into their leftist ideology to divide people based on differences.
When I'm in racially-mixed company, I usually just shorten the term to "Afro". I've been doing it since the trend emerged (almost twenty years ago), and absolutely no one has taken offense as yet.
(And I'm pretty sure that somewhere, some Absolutely Politically Correct wannabee-censor is speculating on whether I use a derogatory term in non-racially-mixed company; FWIW, I don't.)
Why even give an inch to these ignorant PC fools. They have even tried the same absurd thing with words like n iggardly or Oriental, which is born of their own ignorance.
The new word the PC types are trying to redefine/censor is "thug", which they want to equate to the racial epithet of n igger.
Needless to say their effort was dealt a huge blow when both the liberal black mayor of Baltimore and the liberal black president both used the word thug to describe the rioters.
“The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Address to the Knights of Columbus
New York City- October 12th, 1915
RIGHT ON TEDDY! How sad that the politicians these days don't have the family jewels they did back then to say like the way of life in North America, or leave! They all want the vote so they tip-toe around being politically correct.
BTW, I know this thread is about colour, but I'm not necessarily meaning colour, I mean immigrants.
This is such a nonsense thread, most people, black or not, do not have any problem with the term "black". I only hear "African American" used to refer specifically to black people whose ancestors were enslaved in the US. But I guess people who whine about "political correctness" look for things to whine about.
Yeah, don't you feel sorry for the poor guy who has the job of renaming the colors of all the crayons in the jumbo size Crayola box.?
lol. Good point.
I wonder if there's a 'Redneck', 'Cracker', or 'Haole' crayon. That would totally crack me up, there's probably a profit opportunity here.
Now that I think of it, are there any terms for US whites, especially Anglo-Americans, that they would actually find offensive?
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