"African American" = stupid
 

Stop using this term, people. You say it, and you’ve made TWO racist assumptions. 1) the person in question is an American 2) The person in question traces their roots to Africa.

There is a black guy on my Board of Directors who told me that he was researching his family tree. He was really excited about it. Being the savvy white guy that I am, I replied with a simple, “Really?”

He went on to describe how he traced his family back hundreds of years to…FRANCE. He doesn’t consider himself to be “African.”

And what about all those people in Australia who are black? The trace their ancestory back to the beginning of time…in Australia. You call an Australian Aborigine “African American” and he’s going to call you an “American dumbass.”

Do people in other countries have similar stupid-ass terms for black folks? Do you see the English calling them “African Englishmen?” Fuck no. The English have more sense than that.

Seriously people. Stop it. I’m sick of this stupid, cumbersome, racist expression.

what really drives me crazy is it always seems to be about race when anything happens. Although there are a lot of people that just hate black people, but I've heard it be about Race more than anything.

I'm an ( in order of % from least to greatest ) English-Welsh-Irish-Polish-Russian-Romanian-Austrian-Croatian-Italian-German-American. Ahh screw it, just call me white....it's easier.

good point tenchi069. i am italian/german/russian. i dont care, call me white.

I'll call you black, you call me white, we'll call it even.


Ah if only it was that simple. Sadly, because of the various troublemakers on both sides we will never be able to live in a colorblind society.

"In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans." Theodore Roosevelt

So true. Saying "African American" indicates that you trace your loyalties/heritage/etc. to Africa before America.

The only time I'd "allow" people to use terms like that is in cases such as dual-citizenship cases - and even then, I'd probably end up calling them from whatever nation they currently live in.

...i call 'white people' caucasians for a more formal term, and as of yet have no clue how to call 'black people'...[i do say black out of ease and due to inaccuracies of other terms]

the reason why i *don't like* to use colours [not formally] is because i wouldn't call someone asian yellow, an indian brown, a native american red and whatnot, it sounds like the colour palette of a nightmarish painting, plus the added complication of a wide range of skin colour spectrum in each of the race. Besides, it just seems very uneducated and narrow minded to point and name a colour. Using formal words demonstrates a certain willingness and openness as well as respect to cultural diversity. It doesn't have to go to a point of extreme political correctness, but if there is an accurate word for a certain race/ethnicity...use it. It makes a person sound a lot less like a dumb hick. :p

Anyway, it's not really a matter of being offensive so much as a seeming like a dumbass that i'd prefer to use a 'proper' word. Although at the end of the day, it's where you hold your citizenship. So that makes me Canadian no matter what the skin colour.

I blame liberal guilt!

im offended at the topic of this thread.. change it ! :)

yer american or yer not. pc people stfu already

Lables are fucking retarded.

well, it's certainly better than calling somebody the color of their skin.

Just call everybody "asshole". It doesn't involve color or ethnicity and you'll be right more often than not.

(written by American citizen with German/French/Polish ancestors)

why? I'm a heinz57 and proud of each bit of my heritage, BUT I am not a hyphenated american. Regardless of where my family came from, or where my descendants may be going, this is where I am, this is who I am and who I am most proud to be. Simply an American, with no labels attached. (I also have no problem describing a person by the colour of their skin. It is simply another identifing characteristic, like height or weight.)

how so???? are you saying it is derogatory to call a white person white, or a black person black?

It is indeed a stupid term. You're black, deal with it.

if you're gonna call people with white skin caucasians, then the most accurate thing to call people with black skin i think would be negroid. i believe that would be calling everybody by the same trait. for asians it would "mongoloid." from what i understand (correct me if i'm wrong) these terms have to do with distinctions in the skull structures of ancient peoples decending from various regions or something like that. i think i read something on how "caucasian" comes from the people orginating from the caucus mountains, but that the term is not used very generally to mean white people and that it is very in accurate in its current usage.


i personally don't want to live in a colorblind society. i want to live in a society where people of any ethnicity are treated with respect and there is equal opportunities for all (ie. everybody has the opportunity to get a good education, whether they choose to take it or not and what they do with it when they have it will not be equal because it's based on their choices, opening and closing their own doors, but that if 2 people are applying for the same job, ethnicity and a desire for "diversity" are not considered, the person who is best suited gets the job). i want to be able to see a black man on the street, and recognize that he is different from me, and hopefully maybe learn about the differences. if i meet an african person, i'd love to learn about his cultural differences. i want a society where we celebrate our differences.

And lets not forget Native-Americans, which is every bit as annoying to the folks whose ancestors were here before most of ours.
By in large Indians will tell you that they want to be called the name of their tribe, Crow, Ute, Athabaskan, Inuit.
I usually ask and if I'm not sure just avoid in race descriptions.

Good point. Very good point.

It's kind of similar for me. I'm Mexican-Spanish-Native-Italian-Irish-German...
Fuck it. I'm white (and don't feel like typing everything else out). :)

I don't give a rats ass what you whiteys think ;)

I'm Mexican-American. Why? Because I celebrate and adore the rich culture that I am apart of. Further, I also like to celebrate the cultures that I get to enjoy right here in the United States. Simple as that.

Why should I de-label myself? Because you have a problem with labels? You think it automatically means some of us are trying to drive a wedge into the "American" culture? Should we just be the boring melting pot, or can we manage to be the tasty stew?

The problem I see is that many whites and blacks have long lost their European and African traditions. It's been, well, bred out of many of you. However, I have a a couple of buddies, one full German, one full Irish, and I'll tell you... we get along great. A large part of our friendship got started by discussing history, eating each other's food, and especially drinking each other's beer. :D

I love multiculturalism, and I can't imagine having to live in the corporate-media-dominated culture of America without it.

Learn to love it, not ignore it.

Black, African American, whatever it really doesn't bother me in any way. *shrugs* The only thing that bugs me are some of the racial slurs even if some of my fellow "brothers" use them...

I think what is being overlooked is that what is important is not the word but the intentions behind it.

While African-American may indeed by a somewhat retarded phrase, it does show a willingness on the part of the speaker to not display prejudice. I think this counts for something.

Too many people still say "nigger", and mean it.

If someone asks me to describe one of my black friends, I'll describe his features, but not mention he's black. I don't see people as black and white, they're just people. If they're an asshole, they're an asshole. If they're not, they're not.

I took an african american studies class in college. They actually just prefered to be called Blacks. This Aborigine lady came to make a speech during one class and stated that the Aborigine people consider themselves Black too. Not because of their origins in Africa, but because the Aborigines and the "African Americans" have similar histories.

Most blacks have never even been to Africa. Those who do are shocked and apalled at the conditions. They rather just live in america. Most Africans look down at blacks in america too. They look at black americans like they are strangers to their land.

I'm asian, and I really don't mind when people describe me as that "Asian guy" or whatever. But, I also don't think I can share similarities between blacks and asians. Most racial references and stereotypes to blacks are done in a negative fashion, while for asians, it seems to be a majority of positive stereotypes and some exoticness.

Asians get labeled for being smart, hard workers, and simple people who are courteous and grateful for being in america.

Of course, there's the chinese food dry cleaners joke, and the occasional broken english immigrant reference in some new movie coming out. But, i can't complain. Cuz it's true. ;)

african american is 7 syllables. black is one.

Exactly. You can't be both.

one of the few people that I have known/worked with (in the military) that could be called a "African American" would be this girl that lived in Nigeria for her first 18 years. She moved to New York speaking no English and joined the Navy 3-4? years later. She spoke quite passable English and still had her green card last I knew (which was when I was discharged in honourably discharged in '99).

Also have met (at work) two born and raised Africans (From Kenya and I forget where else) who have been in the States less than four months/one year. One of them is on a student visa, not sure about the other fellow

I was always confused by that "african american" thing. I was told by an american that you should call blacks "african americans" but what should I call a black person fron England or France??
I was also told that calling a black person black was cause for violent reaction. Like calling a person whose skin is clearly black "black" is some kind of racist statement.
No offence intended but I think its something to do with the american trend of censoring everything. Its not the same over here if a person is black you call him/her black. The tv doesnt beep out every thing offensive, records are played as the artist intended. I somebody says fuck the world still turns.

negroid

\Ne"groid\, a. [Negro + -oid.] 1. Characteristic of the negro.

2. Resembling the negro or negroes; of or pertaining to those who resemble the negro.

the base negro means black. anything that starts with negro might as well be black. i would consider negroid an offensive term, as its most widespread use was in psuedo scientific racism. mongoloid comes from the same vein, and not only that, but is a derogotory term for sufferers of down syndrome. I would avoid using both terms.


caucasion refers to descendants of people that originated from the Caucasus mountains. So caucasion is not the anologous term for negroid because the negroid specifically ignores all such distictions or origin and reduces people to a visible physical trait.

I personally think that a new term SHOULD have been invented, but african american was a VERY poor choice. We should go back to black, because african american is both innacurate and potentially offensive as well as silly.

Re: "African American" = stupid
 

No, he isn't. Maybe an "American Dumbarse" or an "American Arsewipe," or maybe even a "Git" or a "Tosser." But not a "Dumbass."

EleqTrizi'T -

I hear what you are saying about being Mexican-American, and it makes sense. However, Mexican refers to a national heritage, not an ethnic one. So to equate to African-American you would have to be called hispanic american... The term African-American is sort of meaningless, however, if you are Egyptian-American, well, then that is declaring something. Seems to me that the push to find "safe" labels for people or to describe them by all their characteristics except skin color is to give race more importance than it should have, not less. If I was standing with a group of asian people and you wanted to point me out to someone, I think it would be perfectly fine for you to refer to me as "that white guy over there". This way, being white is a physical characteristic, much like having brown hair or blue eyes. As for black people not having black skin, or vice versa with whites - well, you only use red to describe orange when you are talking about hair color, so there is a precedent.

^^^ thanks, i was just throwing out terms that i thought might be most anologous (i could not think of that word last night). anyways, african-american is a bad term because not all black people are from africa (unless you go back very very far).

Eleq, it's great that you are proud of your mexican heritage, but unless you were born in Mexico, you really aren't mexican. Mexican describes nationality, so unless you have dual citizenship, you aren't. If that's what you prefer to be called, then that's what i and most other people would call you. But isn't hispanic just as descriptive about being a part of the hispanic culture (although i guess it does include coutries of origin other than mexico). but anyways, having a "blank"-american status doesn't make you whatever "blank" is. it sets you apart as another group, and as a "diet american, not quite american enough," as though to be fully american means being white. and not having mexican infront of american doesn't mean that you can't celebrate, honor and be proud of your family's heritage.

So you would call me a American just because I live in America?

having had the opportunity to carry dual citizenship.. I declined, I lose things all the time. One more thing to keep track of... no thanks. Not to mention then the OTHER country can ask me to be in their army, pay taxes to their corrupt fucked up government? No thanks.

I'm american. PERIOD. My kids will be american. PERIOD.

Pretty much. Yea. If you were born in or are currently a citizen of america then yes you ARE an american.

If I am a white guy(w/ U.S. citizenship) and born in Africa, is it OK to call myself an American African?

I prefer to be "human"

Well last time I looked, I didn't find the country of "Hispania" on the map. Calling myself "hispanic" is an generic and as (sarc)useful(/sarc) as being called "black".

Calling myself "Mexican-American" does not make me a "diet" American. Where do you hear this stuff? And further, why do you believe it? Is this something you just made up or did you hear it on talk radio? I don't consider myself "Diet" American. That is the most insulting thing I've heard today.

My grandfather served in WWII, my great-grandfather in WWI. I have two uncles that went to Korea, and another to Vietnam. I myself tried to join the Navy, but my knee injury prevented it. I donated thousands to the 9/11 funds. I buy fireworks on the 4th of July, and better damn believe I eat turkey on Thanksgiving. But I'm "Diet" American because some white people don't like my hyphen, or want to interpret it in their own cute little way?

I would dread ridding the hyphenation because it provides a means of tracking other "mexicans" and their progress in American society. The data is darn useful, whether you like it or not. The data serves more purposes than being fodder for the troublemakers. Everybody is so anxious to rid ourselves of this hyphen, but taking no time to consider the consequences.

Personally, I believe until you've been denied jobs, been harassed by the police or a teacher, or have had a your date's father slam the door in your face because of your color, you have little say in the matter. Imagine, "sir please open the door, I no longer have a hyphen!". "Well in that case come on in, you strapping American!"

Deleting my heritage off a piece of a paper is an absurd suggestion toward solving our racial problems. I mean, is that supposed to increase national pride or something? That isn't going to do anything. It's another incredibly simplistic suggestion to a complex centuries-old problem, and frankly I find it rather insulting. Could the level of effort POSSIBILY be any lower?

Further, the suggestion is supressive, not supportive.

just call me god.

Some people just get offended too easily and then make a big fuss about it. Personaly i'd rather be called chinese or asian than asian-american. The american part is so useless and redundant. Describing my citizenship does not help anyone pick me out of a group.

As for calling people by their skin color or whatever, i believe its best to just go by what stands out more and easily said. As long as the way you said it is not said with insulting intentions and what you call me actually describes me somehow, i'm fine with it.

If you need to distinguish yourself in a database, then go right ahead and add as many hyphens as you need, but when you're just trying to point someone out or paint a rough picture, just go with what is simplest.

PC is a load of crap anyways.

Even better, I once knew a guy with dual South African and American citizenship. White guy. ALWAYS marked the "African American" box on survey forms.

The situation is, of course, similar in regard to the Australian Aborigines. Since the 1960s, a popular term of identity in New South Wales and Victoria has been <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/Austwords/koori">'Koori'</a> which is 'person' in a number of the different languages of that region. Being that there were, however, 250-300 indigenous languages at the time of European settlement, Koori has not gained Australia wide acceptance. Other terms of identity in different areas include Murri, Nunga, Nyungar, Pulawa and Yolngu.

Aside from this, there are over 600 tribal groups (or nations) throughout Australia.
http://www.ausanthrop.net/resources/ausanthrop_db/

I was able to find historical <a href="http://www.artmonthly.org.au/scroll/white/default.asp">indigenous words for european settlers</a>; among those were alherntere (pink nose), balanda (skins like white clay) and more startlingly kuinyo (a dead person), migulu (spirit), nanadji (ghost) and grinkari (skinless corpse).

Identity is a complicated issue and history is deeper than we can imagine. In the end though, I think you get your identity from wherever feels right for you and be proud regardless of the hate of some others.

I have had a number of friends who were blacks. Most of the time when I use the term it is in the context of describing how someone looks. Oh look at the cute black girl, or look at the hot brunette girl. To me the color of a person's skin is as important as whether they have a blue dress on or green dress. It's more a way to describe how they look and not a way to put someone down or catagorize them.

My grandfather is a bit predjudiced and makes racial comments mostly because when he was a trucker before World War II he went through Chicago and was beat up by a gang which was made up of blacks. Since then though he has learned to accept them and golfs or goes to dinner often with a man from his church who is black.

My friends in college who were black told me they prefer the term "black". It wasn't a big deal to them if you weren't saying it in a derogatory way or in a blanket catagorizing statement.

The only problem I have with using African-American to describe blacks is that not all African-Americans are black. I worked for 3 years with a man that was born and raised in Africa and came to the United States after he turned 20. He is white. At the same time none of the blacks at work had ever been to Africa for even a day. It just dont make sense to me.

OH and here's a thought. I am 1/8th Cree Indian. My Dad who is obviously 1/4th and even his father who was 1/2 don't look anything like the paintings and pictures of American Indians. They have dark hair that is perfectly straight but other than that not many distinctive features. Same for me. I'm naturally blond with straight hair and very fair skin. Just goes to show that you cannot tell a person's heritage by the features of their face or color of their skin or hair.

If you are wanting to recognize your heritage for personal reasons than go for it. Personally I'll just stick to calling you by your citizenship unless I'm describing how you look and then you better not get offended because I'm just going to talk about features and not say things derogatory.

I'm just here as resident alien ;) Gota love that term, I feel like ET.

No, i have to say that the *-american thing is also very presumptuous. There are 2 whole continents of america, you know! How about being from the US.

African americans = darker skinned people from the US.

"white" americans = lighter skinned people from the US

BTW, i doubt that many people who are white are from the Caucasus regions of europe. I HATE that term too. WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT MELANIN!!! if you do, you are an idiot with a lacking background in biology and genetics.

And, i have to say, that i actually agreed with Rush Limbaugh (the fat windbag conservative who has no care for anyone but himself) the other day about the texas rep who wanted "african-american names for hurricanes". He pretty much said that it was these people who were pushing back the progress of complete integration of our society and bringing up racism. When it is there, deal with it. If it is not, DO NOT BRING IT UP!!!

One of the things that makes violent communities is a lack of belonging in that society. So, self segregation, which is RAMPANT in my area (Arkansas) leads to worse situations and a general lack of the richer other people understanding what is going on as they never have a chance to interact with anyone else. Out of sight, out of mind.

Posted by Talon:
"how so???? are you saying it is derogatory to call a white person white, or a black person black?"


No, it's racist to point it out to someone sheerly for the purpose of ridicule

:: peers around:: I hope my opinion doesn't offend anyone. I'm Mexican + Spanish + Italian... and some of my friends call me "that dirty Spaniard" and crack jokes about me coming to "rape our women and spread disease", and quite frankly I think it's hilarious :) But then again, I know that they don't really mean what they're saying. If say a person who I do not know at all came up to me and said those things to me, I'd get pretty offended because I wouldn't know what their intention was for saying it. I think a lot of race-related junk that is said depends on intention. Sometimes it doesn't mean anything, sometimes it does. I also have a friend who is half Mexican, half Vietnamese, but he mostly looks Vietnamese and often gets called "that Chinese guy" (out of ignorance). I joke around with him sometimes too. He calls himself a Chink-ish Spick-- he's not offended by racial slurs so long as they're not coming from someone he doesn't know well, and I don't mind such things either. So... labels are ok, and so are jokes and such, so long as the person is okay with them. If you don't know a person and aren't sure about their beliefs, then just keep your mouth shut :thumbsup: Also, when the hell would you even need to describe a person's racial background anyway? Probably the only time you'd really need it is when you witness a crime involving such an individual. In said case, it may be okay to use racial slurs and such to the cops who're interrogating you because the individual who commited the crime is clearly a scoundrel ;)

I never liked the term myself. It sounds stupid. It is probably easier to call someone by their citizenship, and say that they have the appearance of someone from X country.

Being half Finnish and half Swedish, and living in Taiwan, I DEMAND that you call me Scandinavian-Ugrian-Caucasian- Taiwanese.

I have a buddy of mine who laughs at the whole notion of "African-American". He calls himself a real "African-American". He is from South Africa and is white as can be. All of my black friends get a real kick out of it. They think the term African-American is very stupid. They prefered to be called black and don't have a problem with it.

I don't call myself Spanish - American. I'm an American. Period.

:confused: Here in no. california, there is a big push for proper labeling: some groups label themselves chicano, hispanic, latino or even mexican indian. my son is considered hispanic/american because the ex-wife's family originated in spain. me, call me what you want and i'll call you what you want. I'm easy.

I've been debating about how to respond to this thread, because, while I understand the purpose of discussing how people are labeled, it's like discussing whether the packaging on a box of ice cream is nice and ignoring what it tastes like.

Does anyone really believe that if we solve the vexing issue of what to call each other, that somehow the issue of race relations will be solved? We're expending energy on a non-issue while the real issue of race relations gets ignored.

If we truly want to advance our society in its relations between the races, then we have to drop our pretenses and talk about what is really at the root of our problems.

We have an identity crisis in this country. We don't know who the hell we are. We pretend how wonderful it is that the U.S. is this huge melting pot where everyone holds hands and sings "Kumbaya" when in reality we're all eyeing each other with suspicion. Everyone is afraid of losing "their" culture to someone else swimming in the stew. So we build socially constructed walls around ourselves to protect us from "them", and then change the focus of our problem so as not to appear racist. Fuck racism and fuck the appearance of it. Nothing will ever change as long as the depth of our discussions reach only "do you prefer to be called 'black' or 'African-American' "? It's like asking whether someone wants paper or plastic. No substance, only packaging.

i'm half german, can i trade the part of that that's above your 1/3 (i don't feel like doing the math) and get a little italian and dutch in exchange so i can join the club? i like clubs.

This has been an issue for generations upon generations...the only word that I REALLY dislike hearing is Nigger...now that is not cool!

I'm Black Canadian so I would be offended by the term "African American"....jk :D

call me, white not caucasian
call african americans, black
call native americans, indians

or just call everyone human...

I was ready to chew someone out on the title of this thread alone. But I like the comments that resulted after its appearance. African American, gets old after seeing it everywhere. Mainly job forms and school enrollment forms display this. I say just <b>cross American out</b>. What are they going to do to you? They should now be listed as: African, Hispanic (many people find <b>mexican</b> offensive as everyone who speaks spanish is <b>NOT</b> mexican), Indian, and American. Please add if I left any out.

I don't hate being an American. I embrace all the truths and ideals it stands for. But the crap (prostitution, gambling, smoking, drinking, violence (arguable: countries like Afghanistan and North Korea are worse than us but we are still a pretty violent nation), kidnapping (the only country I know to have this problem A LOT!) it carries is a small price to pay for our <i>freedom</i>. Though sometimes its as if your <i>voice</i> was never heard. I'm waiting for that <b>change</b>......I can only hope it comes sooner.

Anybody who thinks America is perfect is just as <i>ignorant</i> as they come.

I just use the term.. "that dude" for any one.. unless a lady then i use.. "that hottie" hehe

When it comes to racism im color blind..

although I do hate the entire human race.. we destroy our world.. kill each other.. we just be targeted for extinction.. and let nature start over with ants or bees

It's inevitable......we will not change. At least not in this lifetime.

I call black australians.... australians (aboriginies, although i dont like that term because I think its not specific to australia?)

I'm with you on that one :cool:.

well, technically speaking, no, Aboriginal doesn't mean "black indiginous Australian" it just means "indiginous" or "native populous" or what it meant in colonial times, those pests who inhabited our land before we did </sarcasm> :)

this aside, it is the name that has been taken to describe indiginous Australians, even by themselves now. even though it's kinda fucked.

Jus call me European or White or just American. Im from 9 different European Countries. It gets confusing when people ask me where I'm from

hmm, maybe just call people people, and not color.

Dont make me quote micheal Jackson

just a tip for anyone going to greenland: inuits DO NOT liked to be called eskimos. most inuits (but not all) think of eskimo as a derogatory term.

Hmmm . . . I think we have a "label-hater" among us.

I think the term was used to try and be PC. Nothing really wrong with it but honestly most black people want to be called black. I still use African American out of habit sometimes because during the 90's it was what was the norm. Now, black, white, Latino, and Asian are the normal text. Not African American, Anglo, Hispanic, and Oriental.

Just new names, that’s all.