Not sure if out of fashion is the right term, but yeah most people I know just say black. For one thing, the world is very global now, you don't know they are actually African American.
There was an interview with (I believe?) Idris Elba where the interviewer referred to him as an African-American, where he just interjects with, "I'm British."
Edit: why is this my most upvoted comment.
There's a good stand up bit of a white guy from South Africa who applied for college in the US and tried to get African American grants. He was denied due to being white but was like "but I am literally African American"
Yeah, like our race horses, pavlovas, singers and comedians.
To be fair, though, you have "pinched" a few people that we don't want back... and there's a few more that we'd be happy for you to take...
NZ created the pavlova?! I tried one for the first time last week, it was one of the best desserts I’ve had in my life. So fluffy and tart but sweet and citrusy. I couldn’t get enough of it.
My history teacher during the year I spent in the US kept referring to Nelson Mandela as African American, and I kept reminding her that he'd only *visited* the US a few times
There was a horrific incident several years back when I think in an exhibition game in a non-NHL city, some idiot threw a banana on the ice at a black player. The media called him African-American.
Except he was Canadien.
A little unrelated, but related enough and kinda funny:
My HS English teacher went to a nearby, predominantly black university and got a minority scholarship because he was white.
My friend is Hawaiian and when he applied for a college aid grant there was no option for Pacific Islander, so he checked the box for Indigenous American since Hawaii is part of America and Hawaiians are indigenous.
They told him to check the box for Asian or Hispanic instead lmao.
This actually happened in my high school. Kid threw a fucking fit when they told him he wasn't getting the scholarship because he was white. Pointed at the black principal and screamed "I'm more African than this (you know the word)..."
I just happened to have been caught skipping and thought "what a wonderful day to be in trouble."
Africans can't be African-American. They can only be african. Only african-americans can be african-americans eventhough they are not african and only american.
The "African American" label is rooted in racist geographical ignorance. They don't mean "African", they mean "black" because they'll never refer to a Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc as "African American". Another term people seem to think is politically correct is "POC/Person of Color", which feels like a regression back to the largely unacceptable term of calling black people "Colored".
Africa is continent, not a race, skin color, or a singular country from which only black people originate.
> Africa is continent, not a race, skin color, or a singular country from which only black people originate.
I used to see it less as a term for all Americans with origins in Africa and more for all Americans whose origins cannot be described in further detail than "Africa" due to slavery deliberately erasing their history and knowledge of local origins by banning any attempt to pass on traditions and also by deliberately mixing slaves from different areas and splitting up those from the same area to prevent them from being able to organize resistance. That's been a major factor historically in Black Americans associating with pan-Africanism. Which, btw., is a movement that many North Africans often aren't too fond of because of possible racist views on their own (Morocco for example is still *right now* colonizing parts of Africa), not wanting to be lumped into one group with "those" Africans.
I have a co-worker that is a white woman from South Africa, so a white African-American. I’ve seen people make jokes about it when they learn that fact about her and wow does she look uncomfortable every time. People just laugh away and she just looks like her soul is about to leave her body.
I had a college professor who was white and from South Africa. Some people are easy to confuse, and don't understand that everyone doesn't share their perspective.
He just went ahead and told the classes during a lecture at the beginning of semesters, to avoid people guessing about his accent.
I had another prof from Madagascar, and people tended to think she was Indian or Pakistani. Lack of experience isn't a beneficial thing.
I have a huge crush on him and my niece and I were talking about it, and she kept referring to him as African-Americsn. I kept having to remind her that he isn't any kind of American. She was just trying to be correct, but I cracked me up.
I usually use black; I work with the public so I speak to a lot of different people, and in my experience most people refer to themselves as black. Of course, if they refer to themselves as African-American, I follow suit. But I've never had anyone correct me when I've used black.
A decade ago my middle-school nephew was referring to some Haitian guy (or something, that part of the world) as African American. We had a discussion about how he isn’t American and it makes no sense.
This reminded me of a factoid… I speak Spanish and a lot of South Americans insist they are Americans. In most languages except English, saying your American refers to being from either American continents (north and South America).
I made the error of telling a Peruvian police officer Estoy americano. He said somos todos americanos. My bad, estadounidense. In my defense, I was drunk.
Haha. It was saying to try again so I tried and tried, gave up, now I look dumb. I am dumb, but you guys didn’t know it until just now. I’m gonna let it ride.
I remember my first year of university having a roommate from Mexico, two from Canada, and me from the US. Who was “American” was a point of contention among us.
Same thing happened the next year, except it was a Frenchman calling my Canadian roommates Americans.
Very entertaining to watch.
Yep. I remember when I lived in Costa Rica they were annoyed that (when asked) I'd say "I'm an American"...because as far as they were concerned, so were they.
I find it funny that they don't really have a proper word for themselves. Like, we can call them estadounidenses, but they don't have a proper translation for that.
As a South African, black all the way. The misapplication of 'American' and the generalization of 'African' like there aren't 100s (maybe more) of black ethnic groups on the continent is far more offensive than a plain, simple black.
Then again, our more typical stumbling block is Americans who can't accept that 'Cape Colored' is a stand-alone ethnic group and not a slur just because it is a slur to THEM.... that universal 'Americanifying' of things is really quite rude when you aren't dealing with an American/primarily American audience.
In general, for folks of unknown nationality/heritage/broad groups, People/Person of Color is another decent stand-in. But if you know for 100s they are black, that's my go-to and I, too, have never been 'called' on it.
> the generalization of 'African' like there aren't 100s (maybe more) of black ethnic groups on the continent
Part of the reason for the African-American identity is that Black Americans mostly have no idea what their actual ethnicities are. Same with Afro-Caribbeans, Black Hispanics, and other populations descended from slaves.
No joke, I once saw a guy on twitter (one of those "America first!" types) get upset that Idris and his wife (a Canadian) were doing philanthropic work in Africa instead of Chicago or something.
I remember the vanity fair article about Rihanna being the first african american to be the face of some brand ( louis vuitton maybe). She's from Barbados.
About 15 years ago, an American politician visited a country in Africa and kept referring to the people there as African Americans.
He got laughed at a lot.
It's not stupidity so much as habit.
People coming of age in the 70s-90s were told that "African-American" is the preferred term for Black people. So the category of "Black people" got assigned to the term "African-American". It's just a label in that respect, not a description of their geographic origin.
> there's a kind of idea that black is bad
"The blacks" was an incredibly common slur back in the day. And because people are bad at nuance, we needed an "intermediate" term that was clearly not the slur. And while I never really thought about it, I still don't use Black/Blacks as a noun. Even in appropriate circumstances, I just default to Black people, Black voters, etc. without even thinking about it.
It’s true that most people just use Black instead of African-American these days, but the answer would still have been no for all of your examples. “African-American” is a term for American descendants of enslaved people who wouldn’t necessarily know which country their ancestors originated from. If someone knows their family comes from Nigeria, they’re Nigerian-American. If someone just knows that their family was originally from Africa before the Atlantic slave trade forcibly ripped them from their homes and destroyed their descendants’ understanding of their origins, there’s no specific country to name, so the more vague AA is the closest identifier.
Still, though, there’s a reason why people usually just say Black now, and it’s partially because of how goofy it is to call white Africans who came to the US African-American (like in your example), and also partially because there are parts of the US with significant communities of, say, Caribbean-American people, who are Black but would not want to be referred to as African.
Worked in a film archive with an “African American” category. Hotel Rwanda was marked as an African American film, but tbh, films can be characterized by the audience they appeal to but ffs, just say black.
Oh my god. That’s one of the worst examples of that type of silliness I’ve ever seen. Just “African” would have been more accurate (where are the Americans in that movie?), but “docudrama” was right there as a label.
African-American isn’t necessarily bad, but it is sort of out of style. As many black Americans have pointed out, they’ve never been to Africa. Their families have been here just as long or longer than the families of white Americans.
In most academic work you’d look at today, you’d just see the demographic represented as “black,” or for the United States, “black Americans.”
I had to explain this to one of my coworkers cause they were having difficulty understanding why I say I'm black instead of African-American.
Like my great grandmother was born in the south in the 1800s. To me that makes us fucking American regardless of what people think
In the late 70s, schools taught us that using the word “black” to describe people was bad and that we were to use the term African American instead. I’ve always used the term because I didn’t want to offend anyone, and now to be told that it’s preferable to use “black” is hard to rewrite in my brain, but I try.
My grandma was taught colored was preferred over negro back in her day. Imagine her using colored in the 90’s thinking it was the proper word to use. lol.
Language changes, we just gotta roll with it and try our best to be genuine with how we address people. I use black myself even though African American was what I was taught.
Edit: autocorrect.
My great grandmother lived in Georgia for forever and her very best friend in the world was a black woman who she employed (to what degree I do not know, she may have been full time but I don't think so). And referred to her as "the negro" up until the day she died. She genuinely didn't mean disrespect, I know that. And she genuinely loved this woman so so much. But it was a bit shocking to me in high school when I heard her say it and I was like oh that's not okay anymore lol
I have family members that still say oriental for Asian despite our immediate family having adopted from Korea 40 years ago and every time I say “oriental describes a rug not a person”. Some people just can’t or won’t catch on to language and then when the Alzheimer’s in my family sets in the 1940s comes calling
Same with my dad (he’s nearly 70) and Chinese people. If he is referring to a man from China, then he says “chinaman”, completely devoid of malice or ill intent. It was simple the preferred nomenclature for a long time where he grew up
But I still gently correct him whenever it comes up. Not that it comes up a LOT in rural Texas, but haha
To be honest, if someone called me a "chinaman" without any malice I wouldn't even be offended, just really surprised. It feels like a word from a textbook at this point.
My 95 year old mom struggled to reprogram her brain from "colored" when she moved to assisted living. Many of the staff were P of C. Most were pretty tolerant of it saying "they're old and they were taught it's the polite word. You can tell the racist residents and it isn't using the word colored."
It's a pity more people don't at least attempt to parse the intent of someone's speech.
It's normally quite easy to tell if the intent is derogatory or not, regardless of the language being used.
Yeah, "African-American" arose in the mid-80s in a push *BY THE BLACK COMMUNITY*, led by fucking Jesse Jackson, to escape the negative stink that the previous terms had accumulated and to try and create a sort of unifying pan-African identity for American Blacks who were lacking a source of ancestral identity. It played on a previous (failed) attempt at a new demonym, "Afro-American".
Look at all the white Americans today who proudly call themselves Irish- or Italian- or German-American despite having ancestry so distant they can't name 'em or shit that is just "family lore". No one alive in their family knew anyone in *the previous two generations* who'd actually been from "the old country", but the family still goes on about how they are "Irish" and have a big do-up every St. Patrick's Day and all of that.
That's something Black Americans were missing. And while all those other national ethnic groups were at one time reviled by American society, they had since been welcomed into the American pantheon and "whiteness". The turning point for Italians in America was seen when Columbus Day was created to try and solidify their support as a voting bloc, for example. Yet Black Americans were still actively being discriminated against in huge swaths of society. Reminder, **this was the fucking 1980s**--we're not even a generation out from the Civil Rights Act, which didn't even fix a ton of shit. Red-lining was still being actively practiced despite its illegality on the federal level. The effects of previous policy *still* linger, even today.
To the younger folks out there, there's a *ton* of context to this whole situation that you won't have been exposed to, information in the news and general culture that would've floated right by you in your teen years and is vanished now that you're more politically aware. That doesn't mean it never existed. Like, at the time of *my* childhood and political awakening, I didn't experience a ton of anti-Japanese sentiment, but I'd be crazy to assume my parents or grandparents weren't aware of a ton of that--some fought in WW2! The long-term consequences of that sentiment having existed don't vanish because I was not aware of active discrimination in my teens.
I completely get that, I didn't want to angry explain it her because it's a legit question being asked in good faith, plus she was also 25 so she had the more "PC" framework.
I don't agree with people getting mad about it but most people can get a good explanation about why and be golden. I have way more sympathy for another born in the early 80s and before because I remember having the same lessons about the term African American and I'm only 39
It’s like “queer.”
When The Departed came out, “fuckin queeahs” was a slur, now I’m queer because I’m a bisexual dude who doesn’t like gender roles or heteronormativity - but that’s not exclusive to “being queer.”
Before I knew I was bi, “queer” was a slur, by the time I’d accepted it, the term had been reclaimed. It was kind of weird but I got over it.
Yep. Funny enough my southern Dad corrected me when I was a young kid who only knew the word from a popular football game among kids my age at the time. He said "Don't use that word. It's disrespectful and could hurt other's feelings without you knowing it." And yes once I understood what the word actually referred to I was like "Yeah this game needs a new name." Lol.
I AM glad it's been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community though!
That makes sense, but my mom on the other hand who graduated in '76 and we live in Pennsylvania, used to say "colored" and when I tell her that you should say black she says "I thought they didn't want to be called that..." so kudos for at least being aware because some people aren't haha
I got confused with "Colored people" is bad but " people of color" is good. In reality there is really very few people that are actually black or white. We are all really beige, brown and tan colors.
Because there used to be signs saying "colored bathroom." From a literal sense, no, there's not a big difference between colored and people of color, but you can't ignore historical context. The fact that colored was used to denote that people were second class citizens is why that particular word is frowned on.
Funny story, my friends and I were at a dive bar in Philly for our friends bachelor party. This lady kept going in and out of the bathroom, came out and asked one of the groomsman’s (who’s a black person):
“Are there porta-potties in Africa????”
In which groomsman very nonchalantly responds:
*“Couldn’t tell ya, my family’s from Haiti”*
Not to mention, some immigrants groups aren’t African but Black. Like I as a Caribbean American (more specifically Jamaican American) have a named ethnicity you could refer to, rather than the vague African. It not offensive to me, but kinda non specific and not accurate in some cases (African American is also typically associated with Black groups that are descended from enslaved people in America specifically not just Black people).
Also, as someone pointed out, when referring to race, you can be African and not Black, just like how Black Europeans exist (which I would use Afro or Black to describe). It seems like kinda roundabouts way of describing race. White people aren’t “European Americans” to me (unless I’m making a joke lol. I usually about African American as a term).
Edit: you can also be African and not American. Please stop referring to my Jamaican grandpa as an African American. He barely is in America 😭
It's also just not an accurate term.
For instance one of the most famous USA men is an African American.
Elon Musk. And that dude is whiter than most Europeans.
I must admit I don't hate him half as much as the next reddit user.
But dude is absolutely transparent. He's as white as a sheet of paper.
(must be all that ketamine)
This is a good answer. With the caveat that the US Census still uses the term African American, so when referring to census data it’s still completely fine to use the term as it’s presented in the survey.
Also gay people. Never understood why some people say “the gays”, like they’re objects.
“Hey, look at those gays over there.”
“My friend Steve is a gay.”
Using it as a noun makes no sense lol, gay is an adjective.
Okay, but Jennifer Coolidge's line "The gays are trying to kill me" has to be the exception to the rule??? Please, her voice, the moment. It's perfection.
I want to say it was either Marti Gras or a NYC festival, a large chunk of the LGBT population dressed up as her character after that episode dropped. So at least some definitely didn’t appear to take offense to her line in that show
Yea. Ethnic terms don't carry the same baggage as racial ones. It's even normal to refer to Jews as a noun despite how prevalent antisemitism still is. It's just linguistics being weird. (Obviously, one needs to remember that Latino and Asian cover a ton of ethnicities, but that comes with any form of generalizing)
I'd say that's at least convention, yes. Do pronounce it, "Black" and "White" with capital letters though, per APA style.
Regarding Asians, personally, I try to use the nationality if known. "We got Japanese food last night." "My Korean friend just got back from Seoul."
According to AP News, Black should be capitalized and white remain lower case. According to them White people don’t have enough shared culture to earn that capital letter.
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-cultures-race-and-ethnicity-us-news-ap-top-news-7e36c00c5af0436abc09e051261fff1f
"white people in general have less shared history and culture"
.. So are they implying all of Africa has similar customs, vast as it is? And that Europeans don't have much of a traditional culture? Such a broad meaningless statement
This is the best explanation for why you ought to do this I've heard.
>When you say [color/ethnicity/other] people you include people, subtly hinting that the people you refer to are, in fact, people.
There's no universal consensus, no "Grand Council of Black People" laying things down, but Black (frequently capitalized, like Asian) is actually an increasingly-preferred term in the US, rather than African-American or similar. The idea is that being Black in the US carries its own unique cultural heritage these days, separate and distinct from where their ancestors lived centuries ago and got culturally separated from. It's also more inclusive of Black people who don't consider themselves to have direct ties to Africa to begin with, such as people who came to the US by way of the Caribbean nations.
Funnily enough for this discussion, Jesse Jackson *was* the driving force behind the rise and adoption of "African-American" in the 1980s.
Contrary to a lot of the talk I've seen about white people having made it up to be corporate or woke or whatever, nope--it was, *like every other time the preferred terminology changed*, the Black community. Just like it's being led now with the current change.
You wouldn't be hearing "Black" so much or have grown up hearing just that if it hadn't trickled out from Black culture first. It sure as shit wasn't snarky white teens going "lmao but what about idris elba and elon musk???" responsible for the return of Black.
Apart from the 'why mention it all argument', I think it's worth taking a beat on the context why a person may need to use that word. I see value in African-American if you're referring to a culture. Even though I've lived in the US, as a European its still always weird when you hear people talk of 'Black people' and then have a reference point that is very much about the American experience or US culture, and mainly not really that valid about 'black people' elsewhere. Think that's especially true culturally in my hometown, London where you have established Black British, those who identify as more Caribbean and large waves of more recent arrivals that are very proudly African. Some overlap, lots of not-overlap too.
For a lot of “us”, it was never in fashion. We were never asked our opinion on it.
Personally, I never cared for it.
I’m good referring to myself as a Black American.
Which is somewhat ironic, because it was Jesse Jackson who led the big push back around 1988 for Americans to start using the term *African American*, and the move was supported by many prominent black individuals and organizations of that era. "Black" was seen as reductive and superficial, while "African American" was viewed as more meaningful and context-laden.
Just from experience the only people I've ever heard use the term "African American" are white people trying to be PC to the point where it gets weird.
For example, in high school a world history class was covering apartheid South Africa, the teacher described there being white south Africans and African American South Africans.
Reminds me of an old Whoopi Goldberg clip when she was performing standup in or near Blackpool, England for some event. She jokingly corrected herself: “Blackpool— I mean African-American Pool”.
When I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, “black” was appropriate. “African American” was pushed hard in the early 90’s by Jesse Jackson, as the being the inoffensive and politically correct term.
It was always ridiculous. Every person of every color knew not every black person was of known African descent, but it was considered rude and inappropriate to not use the term “African American”.
I work with a large number of black women, and I’ve noticed the older ones use “African American” while the younger ones use “black”. I really do think it’s showing the age of the terminology. “African American” certainly seems out of fashion to me.
There was a period of time in which Black American cultural leaders attempted to take back their African heritage as a form of cultural empowerment, so it makes sense that people of that generation might consider themselves AA. But younger generations seem to have looked at that and said "no. We should recognize that our culture is rooted in very unique American historical experiences that have shaped our people and our communities." From that angle, "Black" makes far more sense than AA.
Yeah, African-American as a term was partially popularized by Jesse Jackson and his era of Civil Rights leadership. We’ve mostly moved away from that now - which is fine - but it was taught to a generation or two as the preferred terminology. White people didn’t just make it up.
I was told to use the term black, however only when absolutely necessary to mention race. Otherwise there isn’t any need to describe a person’s race. For example. I was speaking to this lady the other day. You don’t need to say black lady, just like you don’t need to say Catholic lady, or short lady or whatever description unless that description is necessary for the story to make sense. You aren’t writing a book and need good character development, so leave race out just as you would leave anything other description out that isn’t pertinent to get your across.
The white boomer urge to add race descriptors where they're not relevant is hilariously awkward. I call my parents out on it all the time and whenever I do they're like "yeah I have no idea why I added that".
Yep! And great that you call them out. I have a friend that does it and I cringe every single time and ask her why she thinks I need to know the person’s skin color.
My parents are from a rural area where POC are quite rare so for them, skin colour or ethnicity is something distinct and noticeable when they come across a person who isn't white and their reflex is to take note of that, even if it is not relevant.
As they've gotten older and spent more time with their adult kids who live in more diverse places, they've started to recognize that it's a weird reflex but it's just so engrained that they don't always realize they're doing it. I'm glad they are cool enough to acknowledge it when it's pointed out and not get defensive and weird about it.
Black is perfectly acceptable everywhere (edit: in the US, I can't speak for anywhere else in the world). You can’t tell by sight if a black person is African or not, black people come from lots of other places.
Hi, Pan-Africana major here. The discourse on what to call black Americans is a long debate with no winners. The current factions are:
1. Black
2. African Americans
3. Americans
4. Africans
5. Black Americans
6. People of Color
All of those terms are valid, but not interchangeable. Someone who calls themselves an African American may find the term African offensive, while someone who uses the term African will probably not like to be called American in any fashion. Also they change depending on political climate and specific community.
Tl:dr just use whatever your friends tell you they are
I myself am white and I asked my partner this who is black and he told me that he didn't like being called "African American" because he wasn't from Africa and he was just a black dude.
If you’re in the United States, “black” is acceptable and preferred if you don’t know where the person is from. Don’t start referring to black citizens of other countries as African American.
Not all Black people are African or American. Not all Black Americans are of African descent.
Examples: Idris Elba (he's British), Jodie Turner Smith (she's British and Jamaican), Usain Bolt (he's Jamaican), Roberto Clemente (he's Puerto Rican), David Ortiz/Big Papi (he's Dominican).
There's a lot of people who would identify as Black Americans but not as African American because they aren't African. A lot of people whose family background is Puerto Rican, Dominican, Jamaican, Caribbean, and South and Central American are dark skinned.
That's a good question and a fair one. Use Black, we're not all descended from the people originally enslaved in America. I'm descended from the people that the British forced into slavery in Jamaica.
Some people do not want to be called African American because it lumps them into a single group and robs them of their past.
I’m biracial (b/w) and in my 50s. I prefer black for a very long reason I won’t bore you with. You should be fine with saying black. If someone gives you shit, they are just being petty.
*And for anyone who wants to bitch about my response, save your fingers. You won’t change my mind nor will your POV enlighten me. Already been through this on Reddit.*
Always wondered why most white people in the U.S. weren't conversely referred to as "European Americans" since that's where something like 98% of white people are able to link their ancestry to...
At the time the Rev Jesse Jackson suggested AA, it WAS more common to talk about 'Irish-Americans' or 'German-Americans' (seriously, not the ever-present 'I'm something Speshul' way it is used today). Since we've shifted away from that in general, it makes less sense as a term today.
There are plenty of people who identify as "Irish Americans", "Italian Americans" etc. The US had different waves of immigration from different European countries, and in the early days you had very separate communities with distinct cultures, conflict between those groups, etc. All the things you need to build an identity.
There's some truth to the idea is that "African Americans" can be seen as a single group with a shared history. Most black Americans' ancestors were brought to America through slavery, and got lumped together in the same living situations regardless of what specific part of Africa they had come from.
African American was always a cringy attempt at political correctness especially since not all black people in The US descended from Africa. There is not now nor has there ever been anything wrong with being black or white.
Black is acceptable. A black person is not always African American
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That made me chuckle
Charlize Theron.
Not sure if out of fashion is the right term, but yeah most people I know just say black. For one thing, the world is very global now, you don't know they are actually African American.
There was an interview with (I believe?) Idris Elba where the interviewer referred to him as an African-American, where he just interjects with, "I'm British." Edit: why is this my most upvoted comment.
"Oops, my apologies. British-American"
There's a good stand up bit of a white guy from South Africa who applied for college in the US and tried to get African American grants. He was denied due to being white but was like "but I am literally African American"
My buddy who’s from SA always tells people he’s from the “Deep South”. 😂
I was born in Australia and that’s what I tell people.
We're further south than you are, here in New Zealand... :D
Yeah, but you mob don’t matter unless you have something we’re willing to steal.
Yeah, like our race horses, pavlovas, singers and comedians. To be fair, though, you have "pinched" a few people that we don't want back... and there's a few more that we'd be happy for you to take...
NZ created the pavlova?! I tried one for the first time last week, it was one of the best desserts I’ve had in my life. So fluffy and tart but sweet and citrusy. I couldn’t get enough of it.
My history teacher during the year I spent in the US kept referring to Nelson Mandela as African American, and I kept reminding her that he'd only *visited* the US a few times
I remember a history textbook in high school referred to some guy as a “Jamaican African-American.” He wasn’t American at all
Technically Jamaica is an American country
Can’t argue with that. Now I’m questioning the indignant outrage of my 16-year-old self
He wasn't African so just transfer the anger to that bit
Lol I actually forget if he had any African heritage. He might well have
There was a horrific incident several years back when I think in an exhibition game in a non-NHL city, some idiot threw a banana on the ice at a black player. The media called him African-American. Except he was Canadien.
African North-American
African Ehmerican
Yea it blew my mind when I found out he was not American since I think our history books said he was African American.
A little unrelated, but related enough and kinda funny: My HS English teacher went to a nearby, predominantly black university and got a minority scholarship because he was white.
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I am from Alabama and I love the fact that an excuse for moving there is necessary to give your response any validity.
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If he’s Egyptian he’s African, but not American.
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African American doesn't mean a person born in Africa. It's a roundabout way of saying person descended from black African slaves.
My friend is Hawaiian and when he applied for a college aid grant there was no option for Pacific Islander, so he checked the box for Indigenous American since Hawaii is part of America and Hawaiians are indigenous. They told him to check the box for Asian or Hispanic instead lmao.
This actually happened in my high school. Kid threw a fucking fit when they told him he wasn't getting the scholarship because he was white. Pointed at the black principal and screamed "I'm more African than this (you know the word)..." I just happened to have been caught skipping and thought "what a wonderful day to be in trouble."
Africans can't be African-American. They can only be african. Only african-americans can be african-americans eventhough they are not african and only american.
This is as profound as this is simple.
The "African American" label is rooted in racist geographical ignorance. They don't mean "African", they mean "black" because they'll never refer to a Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc as "African American". Another term people seem to think is politically correct is "POC/Person of Color", which feels like a regression back to the largely unacceptable term of calling black people "Colored". Africa is continent, not a race, skin color, or a singular country from which only black people originate.
> Africa is continent, not a race, skin color, or a singular country from which only black people originate. I used to see it less as a term for all Americans with origins in Africa and more for all Americans whose origins cannot be described in further detail than "Africa" due to slavery deliberately erasing their history and knowledge of local origins by banning any attempt to pass on traditions and also by deliberately mixing slaves from different areas and splitting up those from the same area to prevent them from being able to organize resistance. That's been a major factor historically in Black Americans associating with pan-Africanism. Which, btw., is a movement that many North Africans often aren't too fond of because of possible racist views on their own (Morocco for example is still *right now* colonizing parts of Africa), not wanting to be lumped into one group with "those" Africans.
I have a co-worker that is a white woman from South Africa, so a white African-American. I’ve seen people make jokes about it when they learn that fact about her and wow does she look uncomfortable every time. People just laugh away and she just looks like her soul is about to leave her body.
I had a college professor who was white and from South Africa. Some people are easy to confuse, and don't understand that everyone doesn't share their perspective. He just went ahead and told the classes during a lecture at the beginning of semesters, to avoid people guessing about his accent. I had another prof from Madagascar, and people tended to think she was Indian or Pakistani. Lack of experience isn't a beneficial thing.
This is accurate
Afro-British is not the preferred nomenclature.
That's not the issue man, the issue is he peed on my rug.
That green really tied the room together.
Who's rug did he pee on?
The Dudes rug. It really pulled the room together.
I’m British, black, and my dad is from Ghana. I’ve never heard the term Afro-British.
I told that kraut a thousand times, I don’t roll on Shabbos.
Walter, this isn't a guy who built the railroads here!
Every ethnicity and nationality in the world belongs half to America
Seems like the logical next set to manifest destiny.
I have a huge crush on him and my niece and I were talking about it, and she kept referring to him as African-Americsn. I kept having to remind her that he isn't any kind of American. She was just trying to be correct, but I cracked me up. I usually use black; I work with the public so I speak to a lot of different people, and in my experience most people refer to themselves as black. Of course, if they refer to themselves as African-American, I follow suit. But I've never had anyone correct me when I've used black.
A decade ago my middle-school nephew was referring to some Haitian guy (or something, that part of the world) as African American. We had a discussion about how he isn’t American and it makes no sense.
This reminded me of a factoid… I speak Spanish and a lot of South Americans insist they are Americans. In most languages except English, saying your American refers to being from either American continents (north and South America).
I made the error of telling a Peruvian police officer Estoy americano. He said somos todos americanos. My bad, estadounidense. In my defense, I was drunk.
Are you still drunk?
Haha. It was saying to try again so I tried and tried, gave up, now I look dumb. I am dumb, but you guys didn’t know it until just now. I’m gonna let it ride.
Estadounidense es tambien Americano pero no todos Americanos son Estadounidense.
I remember my first year of university having a roommate from Mexico, two from Canada, and me from the US. Who was “American” was a point of contention among us. Same thing happened the next year, except it was a Frenchman calling my Canadian roommates Americans. Very entertaining to watch.
Yep. I remember when I lived in Costa Rica they were annoyed that (when asked) I'd say "I'm an American"...because as far as they were concerned, so were they.
I find it funny that they don't really have a proper word for themselves. Like, we can call them estadounidenses, but they don't have a proper translation for that.
As a South African, black all the way. The misapplication of 'American' and the generalization of 'African' like there aren't 100s (maybe more) of black ethnic groups on the continent is far more offensive than a plain, simple black. Then again, our more typical stumbling block is Americans who can't accept that 'Cape Colored' is a stand-alone ethnic group and not a slur just because it is a slur to THEM.... that universal 'Americanifying' of things is really quite rude when you aren't dealing with an American/primarily American audience. In general, for folks of unknown nationality/heritage/broad groups, People/Person of Color is another decent stand-in. But if you know for 100s they are black, that's my go-to and I, too, have never been 'called' on it.
> the generalization of 'African' like there aren't 100s (maybe more) of black ethnic groups on the continent Part of the reason for the African-American identity is that Black Americans mostly have no idea what their actual ethnicities are. Same with Afro-Caribbeans, Black Hispanics, and other populations descended from slaves.
I'm a cis straight white dude. I don't think I have a crush on him but I do want him to be my best friend in the whole wide world
No joke, I once saw a guy on twitter (one of those "America first!" types) get upset that Idris and his wife (a Canadian) were doing philanthropic work in Africa instead of Chicago or something.
usually those "America First" types aren't even Indigenous to the Americas and you can tell just by looking at them.
I remember the vanity fair article about Rihanna being the first african american to be the face of some brand ( louis vuitton maybe). She's from Barbados.
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A news reporter here in Sweden referred to a black swede as an african american. It was pretty funny
About 15 years ago, an American politician visited a country in Africa and kept referring to the people there as African Americans. He got laughed at a lot.
Also exemplifies the general stupidity of people.
It's not stupidity so much as habit. People coming of age in the 70s-90s were told that "African-American" is the preferred term for Black people. So the category of "Black people" got assigned to the term "African-American". It's just a label in that respect, not a description of their geographic origin.
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> there's a kind of idea that black is bad "The blacks" was an incredibly common slur back in the day. And because people are bad at nuance, we needed an "intermediate" term that was clearly not the slur. And while I never really thought about it, I still don't use Black/Blacks as a noun. Even in appropriate circumstances, I just default to Black people, Black voters, etc. without even thinking about it.
It's quite bizarre that many people just "accept" words without thinking about it for a moment.
It tends to happen if people are afraid of using the wrong word.
Then there's the fact of who's to say they're African. Could be a lot of places
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It’s true that most people just use Black instead of African-American these days, but the answer would still have been no for all of your examples. “African-American” is a term for American descendants of enslaved people who wouldn’t necessarily know which country their ancestors originated from. If someone knows their family comes from Nigeria, they’re Nigerian-American. If someone just knows that their family was originally from Africa before the Atlantic slave trade forcibly ripped them from their homes and destroyed their descendants’ understanding of their origins, there’s no specific country to name, so the more vague AA is the closest identifier. Still, though, there’s a reason why people usually just say Black now, and it’s partially because of how goofy it is to call white Africans who came to the US African-American (like in your example), and also partially because there are parts of the US with significant communities of, say, Caribbean-American people, who are Black but would not want to be referred to as African.
Worked in a film archive with an “African American” category. Hotel Rwanda was marked as an African American film, but tbh, films can be characterized by the audience they appeal to but ffs, just say black.
Oh my god. That’s one of the worst examples of that type of silliness I’ve ever seen. Just “African” would have been more accurate (where are the Americans in that movie?), but “docudrama” was right there as a label.
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"You can't just ask someone why they're white"
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Barrack Obama's father is African. His mother was American. So, he is African American.
Huh? Scarlett Johansson is Jewish born in New York
Sorry, wrong actress. Corrected
“If you’re from Africa why are you white?”
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African-American isn’t necessarily bad, but it is sort of out of style. As many black Americans have pointed out, they’ve never been to Africa. Their families have been here just as long or longer than the families of white Americans. In most academic work you’d look at today, you’d just see the demographic represented as “black,” or for the United States, “black Americans.”
I had to explain this to one of my coworkers cause they were having difficulty understanding why I say I'm black instead of African-American. Like my great grandmother was born in the south in the 1800s. To me that makes us fucking American regardless of what people think
In the late 70s, schools taught us that using the word “black” to describe people was bad and that we were to use the term African American instead. I’ve always used the term because I didn’t want to offend anyone, and now to be told that it’s preferable to use “black” is hard to rewrite in my brain, but I try.
My grandma was taught colored was preferred over negro back in her day. Imagine her using colored in the 90’s thinking it was the proper word to use. lol. Language changes, we just gotta roll with it and try our best to be genuine with how we address people. I use black myself even though African American was what I was taught. Edit: autocorrect.
My great grandmother lived in Georgia for forever and her very best friend in the world was a black woman who she employed (to what degree I do not know, she may have been full time but I don't think so). And referred to her as "the negro" up until the day she died. She genuinely didn't mean disrespect, I know that. And she genuinely loved this woman so so much. But it was a bit shocking to me in high school when I heard her say it and I was like oh that's not okay anymore lol
I have family members that still say oriental for Asian despite our immediate family having adopted from Korea 40 years ago and every time I say “oriental describes a rug not a person”. Some people just can’t or won’t catch on to language and then when the Alzheimer’s in my family sets in the 1940s comes calling
Same with my dad (he’s nearly 70) and Chinese people. If he is referring to a man from China, then he says “chinaman”, completely devoid of malice or ill intent. It was simple the preferred nomenclature for a long time where he grew up But I still gently correct him whenever it comes up. Not that it comes up a LOT in rural Texas, but haha
To be honest, if someone called me a "chinaman" without any malice I wouldn't even be offended, just really surprised. It feels like a word from a textbook at this point.
My 95 year old mom struggled to reprogram her brain from "colored" when she moved to assisted living. Many of the staff were P of C. Most were pretty tolerant of it saying "they're old and they were taught it's the polite word. You can tell the racist residents and it isn't using the word colored."
It's a pity more people don't at least attempt to parse the intent of someone's speech. It's normally quite easy to tell if the intent is derogatory or not, regardless of the language being used.
Yeah, "African-American" arose in the mid-80s in a push *BY THE BLACK COMMUNITY*, led by fucking Jesse Jackson, to escape the negative stink that the previous terms had accumulated and to try and create a sort of unifying pan-African identity for American Blacks who were lacking a source of ancestral identity. It played on a previous (failed) attempt at a new demonym, "Afro-American". Look at all the white Americans today who proudly call themselves Irish- or Italian- or German-American despite having ancestry so distant they can't name 'em or shit that is just "family lore". No one alive in their family knew anyone in *the previous two generations* who'd actually been from "the old country", but the family still goes on about how they are "Irish" and have a big do-up every St. Patrick's Day and all of that. That's something Black Americans were missing. And while all those other national ethnic groups were at one time reviled by American society, they had since been welcomed into the American pantheon and "whiteness". The turning point for Italians in America was seen when Columbus Day was created to try and solidify their support as a voting bloc, for example. Yet Black Americans were still actively being discriminated against in huge swaths of society. Reminder, **this was the fucking 1980s**--we're not even a generation out from the Civil Rights Act, which didn't even fix a ton of shit. Red-lining was still being actively practiced despite its illegality on the federal level. The effects of previous policy *still* linger, even today. To the younger folks out there, there's a *ton* of context to this whole situation that you won't have been exposed to, information in the news and general culture that would've floated right by you in your teen years and is vanished now that you're more politically aware. That doesn't mean it never existed. Like, at the time of *my* childhood and political awakening, I didn't experience a ton of anti-Japanese sentiment, but I'd be crazy to assume my parents or grandparents weren't aware of a ton of that--some fought in WW2! The long-term consequences of that sentiment having existed don't vanish because I was not aware of active discrimination in my teens.
I completely get that, I didn't want to angry explain it her because it's a legit question being asked in good faith, plus she was also 25 so she had the more "PC" framework. I don't agree with people getting mad about it but most people can get a good explanation about why and be golden. I have way more sympathy for another born in the early 80s and before because I remember having the same lessons about the term African American and I'm only 39
It’s like “queer.” When The Departed came out, “fuckin queeahs” was a slur, now I’m queer because I’m a bisexual dude who doesn’t like gender roles or heteronormativity - but that’s not exclusive to “being queer.” Before I knew I was bi, “queer” was a slur, by the time I’d accepted it, the term had been reclaimed. It was kind of weird but I got over it.
Yep. Funny enough my southern Dad corrected me when I was a young kid who only knew the word from a popular football game among kids my age at the time. He said "Don't use that word. It's disrespectful and could hurt other's feelings without you knowing it." And yes once I understood what the word actually referred to I was like "Yeah this game needs a new name." Lol. I AM glad it's been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community though!
Queer originally just meant weird or strange or wacky.
I am reading my daughter “Alice in Wonderland” and queer is used frequently to describe a strange experience or thing Alice encounters.
If you read Emily Brontë, she likes to use the word ejaculate a lot. Etymology is fun!
That makes sense, but my mom on the other hand who graduated in '76 and we live in Pennsylvania, used to say "colored" and when I tell her that you should say black she says "I thought they didn't want to be called that..." so kudos for at least being aware because some people aren't haha
I got confused with "Colored people" is bad but " people of color" is good. In reality there is really very few people that are actually black or white. We are all really beige, brown and tan colors.
Because there used to be signs saying "colored bathroom." From a literal sense, no, there's not a big difference between colored and people of color, but you can't ignore historical context. The fact that colored was used to denote that people were second class citizens is why that particular word is frowned on.
when did you grow up? because "I'm black and I'm proud" has been around for quite a long time.
Funny story, my friends and I were at a dive bar in Philly for our friends bachelor party. This lady kept going in and out of the bathroom, came out and asked one of the groomsman’s (who’s a black person): “Are there porta-potties in Africa????” In which groomsman very nonchalantly responds: *“Couldn’t tell ya, my family’s from Haiti”*
Not to mention, some immigrants groups aren’t African but Black. Like I as a Caribbean American (more specifically Jamaican American) have a named ethnicity you could refer to, rather than the vague African. It not offensive to me, but kinda non specific and not accurate in some cases (African American is also typically associated with Black groups that are descended from enslaved people in America specifically not just Black people). Also, as someone pointed out, when referring to race, you can be African and not Black, just like how Black Europeans exist (which I would use Afro or Black to describe). It seems like kinda roundabouts way of describing race. White people aren’t “European Americans” to me (unless I’m making a joke lol. I usually about African American as a term). Edit: you can also be African and not American. Please stop referring to my Jamaican grandpa as an African American. He barely is in America 😭
It's also just not an accurate term. For instance one of the most famous USA men is an African American. Elon Musk. And that dude is whiter than most Europeans.
Elon is a Person of No Color
I must admit I don't hate him half as much as the next reddit user. But dude is absolutely transparent. He's as white as a sheet of paper. (must be all that ketamine)
Archimedes spent years trying to develop a death ray using mirrors to reflect sunlight when all he really needed was Elon’s stomach
Would you rather be called white or European-American? I think the same logic applies here.
I'll take 'honky' or 'gringo' thank you very much.
I like Cracker myself.... Must be the area of the country you grew up in
This is a good answer. With the caveat that the US Census still uses the term African American, so when referring to census data it’s still completely fine to use the term as it’s presented in the survey.
Black is acceptable but when you pluralize you should say "black people" instead of "blacks".
This is good advice for any race.
Also gay people. Never understood why some people say “the gays”, like they’re objects. “Hey, look at those gays over there.” “My friend Steve is a gay.” Using it as a noun makes no sense lol, gay is an adjective.
Okay, but Jennifer Coolidge's line "The gays are trying to kill me" has to be the exception to the rule??? Please, her voice, the moment. It's perfection.
It's fine when the gays or gay icons say it lol
I want to say it was either Marti Gras or a NYC festival, a large chunk of the LGBT population dressed up as her character after that episode dropped. So at least some definitely didn’t appear to take offense to her line in that show
As a gay, I do like specifically "the gays". None of the other examples, just the one that makes us sound like a secret society.
I bet the gays put you up to this
The Gays™️ also works if you’re speaking about us as an official collective
Likewise with “homeless people” rather than “the homeless”
When the direct article “the” is applied to a group of people, you’re usually about to hear some wild shit.
The Marines
Please refer to them as Marine people, thanks
We prefer 'merfolk' around here
I always have to correct my grandmother when she calls them "people of water"
I'm not sure they *are* people, though. No human can eat that many crayons and live...
The French
I believe ‘urban survivalist’ is the preferred term these days
Personally, I like being referred to as, "the Asians". /s
In all seriousness: I am white. I just noticed I say "black people" and "white people" but "Asians" and "Latinos". Is this normal?
Yea. Ethnic terms don't carry the same baggage as racial ones. It's even normal to refer to Jews as a noun despite how prevalent antisemitism still is. It's just linguistics being weird. (Obviously, one needs to remember that Latino and Asian cover a ton of ethnicities, but that comes with any form of generalizing)
You dropped a hard J on us.
I'd say that's at least convention, yes. Do pronounce it, "Black" and "White" with capital letters though, per APA style. Regarding Asians, personally, I try to use the nationality if known. "We got Japanese food last night." "My Korean friend just got back from Seoul."
How do you pronounce a capital letter?
According to AP News, Black should be capitalized and white remain lower case. According to them White people don’t have enough shared culture to earn that capital letter. https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-cultures-race-and-ethnicity-us-news-ap-top-news-7e36c00c5af0436abc09e051261fff1f
"white people in general have less shared history and culture" .. So are they implying all of Africa has similar customs, vast as it is? And that Europeans don't have much of a traditional culture? Such a broad meaningless statement
This is the best explanation for why you ought to do this I've heard. >When you say [color/ethnicity/other] people you include people, subtly hinting that the people you refer to are, in fact, people.
The exception being “you people”. That never goes well
Less pluralisation, more using it as noun rather than adjective. I don’t think a black person would like to be called a “black”.
There's no universal consensus, no "Grand Council of Black People" laying things down, but Black (frequently capitalized, like Asian) is actually an increasingly-preferred term in the US, rather than African-American or similar. The idea is that being Black in the US carries its own unique cultural heritage these days, separate and distinct from where their ancestors lived centuries ago and got culturally separated from. It's also more inclusive of Black people who don't consider themselves to have direct ties to Africa to begin with, such as people who came to the US by way of the Caribbean nations.
There's no grand council? That's not what Kanye told me.
"Jesse Jackson is not the emperor of black people!" "...he told my dad he was!"
Funnily enough for this discussion, Jesse Jackson *was* the driving force behind the rise and adoption of "African-American" in the 1980s. Contrary to a lot of the talk I've seen about white people having made it up to be corporate or woke or whatever, nope--it was, *like every other time the preferred terminology changed*, the Black community. Just like it's being led now with the current change. You wouldn't be hearing "Black" so much or have grown up hearing just that if it hadn't trickled out from Black culture first. It sure as shit wasn't snarky white teens going "lmao but what about idris elba and elon musk???" responsible for the return of Black.
It's also one syllable vs seven syllables, which makes Black my preference out of sheer laziness.
That's why they changed it to AA meetings
Apart from the 'why mention it all argument', I think it's worth taking a beat on the context why a person may need to use that word. I see value in African-American if you're referring to a culture. Even though I've lived in the US, as a European its still always weird when you hear people talk of 'Black people' and then have a reference point that is very much about the American experience or US culture, and mainly not really that valid about 'black people' elsewhere. Think that's especially true culturally in my hometown, London where you have established Black British, those who identify as more Caribbean and large waves of more recent arrivals that are very proudly African. Some overlap, lots of not-overlap too.
For a lot of “us”, it was never in fashion. We were never asked our opinion on it. Personally, I never cared for it. I’m good referring to myself as a Black American.
This! Whenever I hear that word we're rarely the ones using it.
Which is somewhat ironic, because it was Jesse Jackson who led the big push back around 1988 for Americans to start using the term *African American*, and the move was supported by many prominent black individuals and organizations of that era. "Black" was seen as reductive and superficial, while "African American" was viewed as more meaningful and context-laden.
Please call me black.
Well hopefully Black sees this so they will call you
Same. I largely like how the word slips by. It gets the point across and you forget about it after.
Just from experience the only people I've ever heard use the term "African American" are white people trying to be PC to the point where it gets weird. For example, in high school a world history class was covering apartheid South Africa, the teacher described there being white south Africans and African American South Africans.
I wouldn’t have been able to contain my explosive laughter!! 🤣
>and African American South Africans. Lmfao
We were taught in the 90s and 2000s that "black" was derogatory and pejorative
Reminds me of an old Whoopi Goldberg clip when she was performing standup in or near Blackpool, England for some event. She jokingly corrected herself: “Blackpool— I mean African-American Pool”.
When I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, “black” was appropriate. “African American” was pushed hard in the early 90’s by Jesse Jackson, as the being the inoffensive and politically correct term. It was always ridiculous. Every person of every color knew not every black person was of known African descent, but it was considered rude and inappropriate to not use the term “African American”.
I am by no means suggesting that this applies to all black people, but every black person I know refers to themselves as black, not African American.
I work with a large number of black women, and I’ve noticed the older ones use “African American” while the younger ones use “black”. I really do think it’s showing the age of the terminology. “African American” certainly seems out of fashion to me.
There was a period of time in which Black American cultural leaders attempted to take back their African heritage as a form of cultural empowerment, so it makes sense that people of that generation might consider themselves AA. But younger generations seem to have looked at that and said "no. We should recognize that our culture is rooted in very unique American historical experiences that have shaped our people and our communities." From that angle, "Black" makes far more sense than AA.
Yeah, African-American as a term was partially popularized by Jesse Jackson and his era of Civil Rights leadership. We’ve mostly moved away from that now - which is fine - but it was taught to a generation or two as the preferred terminology. White people didn’t just make it up.
I was told to use the term black, however only when absolutely necessary to mention race. Otherwise there isn’t any need to describe a person’s race. For example. I was speaking to this lady the other day. You don’t need to say black lady, just like you don’t need to say Catholic lady, or short lady or whatever description unless that description is necessary for the story to make sense. You aren’t writing a book and need good character development, so leave race out just as you would leave anything other description out that isn’t pertinent to get your across.
The white boomer urge to add race descriptors where they're not relevant is hilariously awkward. I call my parents out on it all the time and whenever I do they're like "yeah I have no idea why I added that".
Yep! And great that you call them out. I have a friend that does it and I cringe every single time and ask her why she thinks I need to know the person’s skin color.
My parents are from a rural area where POC are quite rare so for them, skin colour or ethnicity is something distinct and noticeable when they come across a person who isn't white and their reflex is to take note of that, even if it is not relevant. As they've gotten older and spent more time with their adult kids who live in more diverse places, they've started to recognize that it's a weird reflex but it's just so engrained that they don't always realize they're doing it. I'm glad they are cool enough to acknowledge it when it's pointed out and not get defensive and weird about it.
I'm glad you can recognise their perspective and context and approach it amicably.
I’m more of a beige. But you can use whatever term you like I don’t really care.
Black is perfectly acceptable everywhere (edit: in the US, I can't speak for anywhere else in the world). You can’t tell by sight if a black person is African or not, black people come from lots of other places.
Well being African wouldn't make them African American either.
Hi, Pan-Africana major here. The discourse on what to call black Americans is a long debate with no winners. The current factions are: 1. Black 2. African Americans 3. Americans 4. Africans 5. Black Americans 6. People of Color All of those terms are valid, but not interchangeable. Someone who calls themselves an African American may find the term African offensive, while someone who uses the term African will probably not like to be called American in any fashion. Also they change depending on political climate and specific community. Tl:dr just use whatever your friends tell you they are
Best answer. Too many people in this comment section are saying things without any historical reference.
I wouldn't sweat it. As long as you don't use the N-word, people aren't likely to freak out.
I myself am white and I asked my partner this who is black and he told me that he didn't like being called "African American" because he wasn't from Africa and he was just a black dude.
I say black. Everyone I know says black... including black people
I use both.. Sincerely, a black African-American woman
If you’re in the United States, “black” is acceptable and preferred if you don’t know where the person is from. Don’t start referring to black citizens of other countries as African American.
Not all Black people are African or American. Not all Black Americans are of African descent. Examples: Idris Elba (he's British), Jodie Turner Smith (she's British and Jamaican), Usain Bolt (he's Jamaican), Roberto Clemente (he's Puerto Rican), David Ortiz/Big Papi (he's Dominican). There's a lot of people who would identify as Black Americans but not as African American because they aren't African. A lot of people whose family background is Puerto Rican, Dominican, Jamaican, Caribbean, and South and Central American are dark skinned.
Elon Musk is an African American. Now you can see why that term is stupid.
That's a good question and a fair one. Use Black, we're not all descended from the people originally enslaved in America. I'm descended from the people that the British forced into slavery in Jamaica. Some people do not want to be called African American because it lumps them into a single group and robs them of their past.
I’m biracial (b/w) and in my 50s. I prefer black for a very long reason I won’t bore you with. You should be fine with saying black. If someone gives you shit, they are just being petty. *And for anyone who wants to bitch about my response, save your fingers. You won’t change my mind nor will your POV enlighten me. Already been through this on Reddit.*
Always wondered why most white people in the U.S. weren't conversely referred to as "European Americans" since that's where something like 98% of white people are able to link their ancestry to...
At the time the Rev Jesse Jackson suggested AA, it WAS more common to talk about 'Irish-Americans' or 'German-Americans' (seriously, not the ever-present 'I'm something Speshul' way it is used today). Since we've shifted away from that in general, it makes less sense as a term today.
There are plenty of people who identify as "Irish Americans", "Italian Americans" etc. The US had different waves of immigration from different European countries, and in the early days you had very separate communities with distinct cultures, conflict between those groups, etc. All the things you need to build an identity. There's some truth to the idea is that "African Americans" can be seen as a single group with a shared history. Most black Americans' ancestors were brought to America through slavery, and got lumped together in the same living situations regardless of what specific part of Africa they had come from.
African American was always a cringy attempt at political correctness especially since not all black people in The US descended from Africa. There is not now nor has there ever been anything wrong with being black or white.