African Americans?

[still learning]

Hello, Only because of the Super Bowl.....they brought it out..those Coaches are AFRICAN AMERCIANS....I never saw them that way...yes there were of black colors....but I saw them as a person

So does this mean? Every black guy should be call an African Amercian?

We use to use to describe them as black or negros......Japanese as Asians, whites as whites, (I am Asian - part Japanese,part Korean)a white man's last name...I was adopted by a French/Irish Father from the USA

Now today I notice.....Amercians whites,British whites,Canadian whites,French whites,Germany whites, Swiss whites,Irish whites,

People use to be four colors,white...black..brown...yellow..skin tones

My flavoriate color is Green and Blue.....only in Kempo will you get to have Black and blues.

Do we have any Black Americans today or are they now known as AFRICAN AMERICANS? I will miss the Black Americans from the USA.......Sad know? What we are becoming? .........

The nice thing about growing up in Hawaii is the muliple cutures here..but we do have races problems too....can you believe it the Hawaiian here are making it a big issue! Not sure if they are American Hawaiians or local Hawaiian anymore?

I suggest we make everyone one color--using DNA or spray paints....Aloha

 

[bushidomartialarts]

there's a comic from india named russel peters who says we all need to relax. there's 1.25 billion chinese and a billion indians. we're all gonna wind up beige in a hundred years or so.

honestly, i don't see what people get so worked up about.

of course, i'm norse-irish, middle class and lutheran. they don't get much whiter than me. i probably don't have much perspective on this.

 

[fnorfurfoot]

Im so happy that I'm not alone in this. Politically Correct terminology is getting out of control. I have a black friend who told me something funny a few years ago. He and some of his co-workers were sitting at a table eating lunch. There were three black guys and one white. The black guys were Americans. The white guy was American as well but he was born in Africa. He looked across the table and said "Do you guys realise that I'm the only true African-American at this table?"

Like Bushidomartialarts, I'm white so I'm sure it sounds bad coming from me but my feelings are that if you are born in this country, your American. You don't need a designation to come before it to describe who you are. Your just American. African-American, Asian-American, Native-American, it's crazy because if we all did that I would be a Greek, Swedish, Scotish, French, English-American. That's a bit of a mouthful.

The only people who should claim those titles are those who have dual citizenship.

 

[donna]

I think we need a Space alien invasion (like Independence Day) to make us all realise we are all one(earthlings). Colour is only skin deep and we all bleed the same colour blood!!:jediduel:

 

[Carol]

I don't think the comments of a sportscaster can speak for an entire race of people.

Personally, I hardly ever refer to anyone by their skin color. There is largely no need to do so.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

what i love is what you're describing a mutual acquaintance to people.

"which jeff?"

"you know...."

and people will do all kinds of acrobatics not to say "you know, jeff who's black." they'll say "jeff in accounting", or "jeff who went to the concert with us two years ago", or "jeff who used to date mei-linn".

going out of your way to demonstrate sensitivity to race isn't any less racist than not being terribly sensitive to race. it is, however, more dishonest.

 

[Ceicei]

The only people who should claim those titles are those who have dual citizenship.

Hey, I can agree with that! There aren't too many who hold dual citizenship in two countries. If we are reduced to reserving the dual-country naming, then hopefully, the argument of how we are designated should die down (simply because there aren't too many). Whoever lives in one country, call them just that (American, Canadian, Swedish, etc.), and nothing else. I guess this is a pipe dream... Humans generally seem to have a compulsive need to classify everything!

- Ceicei

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Ceicei you are right on in that we have this need to classify things. We also have a need to want to be special and to want our group to have a different name or classification. You can see it everywhere on our planet!

 

[tellner]

Wow. It's a Stephen Colbert "I see no color" moment.

The simple fact is that race is important in America. And it's most important to those who claim they are colorblind. It's gotten better in the past few decades, but it's still a serious issue. If you look at just about any measure there is tremendous usually unstated prejudice and a whole bunch of baggage on the subject. We talk about "urban" or "gangs" or any number of code words these days. It comes down to the same thing. White people generally slightly mistrust and somewhat look down on Black people. Black people generally slightly mistrust and somewhat resent White people.

Arrest rates. Conviction rates. Length of sentences. Percentage of adult males under the supervision of the corrections system. Wealth. Income when compared to education. Media portrayals. If you're honest you can guess who is worse off by any of these measures. Heck, take a look at movies. From The Green Mile on you still have the "Magical Negro". A Black man can not have a physical love scene in a movie if the backers want it to earn more than $20 million. It just won't happen. That lurking fear of the sexualized Black man is still out there.

I could go on but won't bore you.

Race still exists in America. It's still important. The ones who say it's not tend to almost all be White. Funny that.

 

[mrhnau]

I don't think the comments of a sportscaster can speak for an entire race of people.

Personally, I hardly ever refer to anyone by their skin color. There is largely no need to do so.

At times it can be. We tend to use qualifiers when describing someone, particularly if in a group. We use height, hair color, eye color, gender. Why not skin color? Its not used in a negative way (normally).

I agree with most of the posts. Just call yourself an American. I have a very hard time calling anyone African-American. I don't know how long they have been here or if indeed they have immigrated from Africa unless I get to know them. I'd have an equally hard time calling anyone European-American, Asian-American, etc..

Im so happy that I'm not alone in this. Politically Correct terminology is getting out of control. I have a black friend who told me something funny a few years ago. He and some of his co-workers were sitting at a table eating lunch. There were three black guys and one white. The black guys were Americans. The white guy was American as well but he was born in Africa. He looked across the table and said "Do you guys realise that I'm the only true African-American at this table?"

Thats just too funny, and correct LOL

 

[Don Roley]

The problem I have with the term "African Americans" is how do you know

A- they are American

and

B- that their anscestors are any closer to Africa than anyone else?

Seriously, I live in Japan. I see more Africans than I see black Americans. I do not want to get into the habit of reffering to people based on their nationality when discussing things relating to race. The problems blacks face in Japan do not matter as to where they came from. They can be from Africa or their anscestors could have lived in Australia for thousands of years. The problems they face in terms of racial discrimination does not change either way.

At the other extreme, I think that anybody with American citizenship should be called simply American. If they are treated differently because of their skin color, I do not think that the rascist scum will differentiate based on whether they come from Africa or the South Pacific.

 

[morph4me]

Im so happy that I'm not alone in this. Politically Correct terminology is getting out of control. I have a black friend who told me something funny a few years ago. He and some of his co-workers were sitting at a table eating lunch. There were three black guys and one white. The black guys were Americans. The white guy was American as well but he was born in Africa. He looked across the table and said "Do you guys realise that I'm the only true African-American at this table?"

Like Bushidomartialarts, I'm white so I'm sure it sounds bad coming from me but my feelings are that if you are born in this country, your American.

I have some very good friends from South Africa. They were born there and thier children were born there, and they happen to be caucasian. When they became American citizens, I half joked that if they wanted to, the wife could apply for a small business loan as an african american woman which would be accurate. I wonder what would have happened if they did it.

 

[Tez3]

We have white and blue people! They are called Chavs and the females have large legs which they show off wearing very short skirts which makes their legs go a very weird mottled blue colour! Chavs are a British thing though you are getting the king and queen of Chavs in the persons of Posh and Becks.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chav&r=f

 

[exile]

We have white and blue people! They are called Chavs and the females have large legs which they show off wearing very short skirts which makes their legs go a very weird mottled blue colour! Chavs are a British thing though you are getting the king and queen of Chavs in the persons of Posh and Becks.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chav&r=f

I've read a bit about Chavs, Tez. I have to say, I'm still totally baffled by the phenomenon. The mutilated fashion sense alone is almost extraterrestrial... are you sure they're actually Earthlings??

 

[Grenadier]

Blacks are black. Plain and simple. You really can't call all black people "African Americans," since there are quite a few black folks whose ancestry came from non-African areas.

Whites are white. Plain and simple. Not all whites are of European descent, and as pointed out already, there are people who have emigrated from South Africa who are white, and whose children can legitimately be called "African Americans."

 

[jkd friend]

I am an american and that is my color, my flag. There is no african in me but only american. That should not be the focus point because so many nations want to come here and when they do they don't represent america but put up the flag they were running from to here. THAT SHOULD BE THE REAL SUBJECT NOT The same old black people this black people that because the truth is real black people are american home grown. AMERICA BABY YEAH!!~!!!!!~!!!!:asian::asian:

 

[mrhnau]

I am an american and that is my color, my flag. There is no african in me but only american. That should not be the focus point because so many nations want to come here and when they do they don't represent america but put up the flag they were running from to here. THAT SHOULD BE THE REAL SUBJECT NOT The same old black people this black people that because the truth is real black people are american home grown. AMERICA BABY YEAH!!~!!!!!~!!!!:asian::asian:

Well said. I really don't care what your skin color is. I'm more proud of my country than the color of my skin...

 

[Tez3]

I've read a bit about Chavs, Tez. I have to say, I'm still totally baffled by the phenomenon. The mutilated fashion sense alone is almost extraterrestrial... are you sure they're actually Earthlings??

They are seriously strange! it goes back I think to the point someone made about classifying ourselves, they are very definitely a 'tribe' or clan even. They can also be all races and colours. We have a tradtion over here over joining groups like this which define themselves by what they wear. We've had Mod and Rockers, Teddy Boys, Punks, Skinheads, Goths, Yuppies, Sloanes etc. the look of them and the behavior of each of these groups is distinctive. I think over here, certainly the younger people would define themselves by these groupings rather than what colour they are.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

I'm not prejudiced. I hate everybody, equally.

Get off my planet,

Dave

 

[exile]

They are seriously strange! it goes back I think to the point someone made about classifying ourselves, they are very definitely a 'tribe' or clan even. They can also be all races and colours. We have a tradtion over here over joining groups like this which define themselves by what they wear. We've had Mod and Rockers, Teddy Boys, Punks, Skinheads, Goths, Yuppies, Sloanes etc. the look of them and the behavior of each of these groups is distinctive. I think over here, certainly the younger people would define themselves by these groupings rather than what colour they are.

Probably, on the whole, that's a better way to define social groupings... but the Chavs are very odd, as a group... I'm aware of a couple of virulantly anti-Chav web sites over your way as well. They take enormous delight in mocking the apparently total inarticulateness of Chavs, whose verbal abilities don't seem to be up to the level of their fashion sense ... It all seems like a very strange style of interaction that I was probably born half a century or so too early to get a grip on... but it certainly has its funny side!