A truly BS expression. Like saying European-Americans.
Here’s another expression I utterly detest: people of color.
If we’re going to use that one, just call them colored people IMHO.
It’s a ridiculous phrase. I never use it. Some are so brain dead that use it to describe any black, even if not from America. I recall some mediot referring to Mandela as an “African American.”
Yep. They are Americans of African descent. The emphasis needs to be placed on “Americans”.
I grew up hearing about the US being “The Melting Pot”. When we think of ourselves as Americans, we are strong. When we think of ourselves as a bunch of different tribes, then we become weak in the eyes of other nations.
I have another theory. Liberals and mediots in particular love to hear the sound of their own voices. Thus, the more syllables the better. So “African American” is seven times better than “black.” This phenomenon also is manifested in “the city of Philadelphia” instead of just “Philadelphia” or the “state of Louisiana” instead of “Louisiana.”
I prefer and use the term “American-Africans” as it is more descriptive of the situation.
Good questions.
Should be noted that “African American,” if it had a logical meaning, would refer primarily to immigrants from Africa who had become Americans. Same as we refer to Italian-Americans.
For all other groups such designation loses force each generation, and before too long they’re just “Americans” with funny names.
It would also refer to anybody from Africa, which would include Egyptians, Libyans and white South Africans.
But what they mean is a racial term, not a geographical one. I wish they’d just say what they mean.
Blacks asked to be called “Black” in the 1970s, rather than the then pervasive “Negro”.
Fair enough. I can call people what they want to be called.
Once.
“African American” is just a fresh name to escape the stink they left on “Black” with their behavior.
Liberals are not “Progressive.” Blacks are not “African American.”
Own your stink, jerks.
It’s a trap, like all other words used about race. If you use it or don’t use it and are White, you are subject to condemnation.
If Charlize Theron robbed a bank, would the police put out an APB for “6 foot tall African American female”?
Why not?
She is an American citizen from South Africa. She is an African-American.
Oh, refer to their tribe as they wish to be called.
Eventually whatever term they ask you to use will be considered “offensive” and they’ll change it.
FYI: I have let all of my associates know that I find being called an African-American offensive. I’ve never been to Africa (and have no intention of going anytime soon).
I also believe the first steps to fixing that community (from which I came from) is to STOP calling themselves African whatever, because it places your ancestry before your nationality.
I should be the opposite. I am a native-born American, therefore no need to identify my ancestry.
That would explain the plethora of hang gliding negro architects in Africa wouldn't it?
Pathetic peoples with pathetic lies. None of em have ever been to Africa, nor ever will!
Why is it that “people of color” is politically correct, but “colored people” is not?
Is it inserting the word “of” that makes all the difference? Does that mean I can call illegal aliens “backs of wet” and be ok?
No one is as insistent as I am about hammering out common vocabulary before a debate begins. Someone asks "do you believe in God?" -- I have to ask them what they mean by God, and I refuse to settle for "you know what I mean..." Because, I only know what I mean by the Word, so to speak. I have to qualify any answer with "the God of Abraham," for example, or "Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," say.
These sorts of debates can be useful or they can run square into the law of diminishing returns. We have to pick our fights.
The difference between negro and black doesn't exist, insofar as the very purpose of words is concerned. Words define out what is from what it is not, and these two words are colors, negro being more specific as to 'dark' and darker and 'black' being absence of light, or completely dark. But at their root, one word is Spanish the other is English. But...
(Buzzer Sounds)
Time's up.
I prefer “Blackened Americans”. Makes them sound yummy, like some cajun chicken dish.
Sorry, I’m pro-life, anti-sodomite-pseudo-marriage. I may be a moron, but I will continue using European-American instead of “white”—I’m sharkbait white—and in honor of my beautiful African-American Bride of 33 years, who is a bigger truth-teller than me, fearless, I will continue using the term.
What is Obama? Halfrican-American? Are light-skinned Egyptian-Americans also African-American?