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Is The Term "african-American" Even Less Politically Correct?


Valafor
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A bit random I know, but I always felt the term "African-American" is actually very politically incorrect. I mean, the term would suggest that every black person in America is either A. From Africa or B. Even American. What about the people from the Caribbeans? Should Haitians be considered "African-American", or Dominicans be considered "African-Americans"? 

 

And I don't think "All black people in the Caribbeans originally dissented from Africa" is a fair excuse either. By that logic, all "purely" Americans would be considered British, or ALL Americans would be considered "African-Americans" since humanity began in Africa and would later spread out across the world. In all honesty, the term "black people" seems more politically correct, since not all blacks are even from Africa. but still considers people from elsewhere. It would be as fair calling all white people "Europeans" or "Americans" or "Canadians".

Edited by Valafor
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How about we call them 'people', and then we also call us 'people'. No stupid naming bullS#&$.

 

So what, I can no longer identify myself as an American? I have to say I am a person?

 

There is nothing wrong with grouping people together, in fact we do it all the time. We have families, friends, groups, clubs, guilds, parties, countries, and even organizations that transcend countries. However, there is something wrong when you group people and then think you're better than them. 

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I call people people, to describe them you can call them asian, indian, white, black etc. without problem...I never understood the reason for political correctness overall, just say what people are if you want to describe them.

No need to act like a #$&(% about it :/  

^not directed at OP or anybody here by the way

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So what, I can no longer identify myself as an American? I have to say I am a person?

 

There is nothing wrong with grouping people together, in fact we do it all the time. We have families, friends, groups, clubs, guilds, parties, countries, and even organizations that transcend countries. However, there is something wrong when you group people and then think you're better than them. 

It's about the connotation of the word more than the grouping. Calling someone brown or black after generations of harsh treatment towards said skinned people does tend to stick around, intentionally or not. I've personally only experienced the negative aspects of being "non white", so I suppose there is a significant bit of bias on my end.

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We black people just say black, and the ones who want to be more "distinguished" say African-American. For me, well, I'm a black guy who is American. It doesn't have to be something negative unless someone makes it negative. But saying black, or African-American, isn't politically correct, it's just a label that black people in America use to self-identify.

 

Again, when black people use the term 'black' or 'African-American' ourselves, it's no longer something negative. It certainly has been used in a negative connotation, but brown, yellow, red, AND white have also been used in negative connotations (I've seen racism from both 'blacks' and 'whites'). My only thing is this: if we want to continue to be called African-American, then fine. But we shouldn't pretend like it's some politically correct statement or even some racist statement (I've heard some fellow black people say that African-American is racist because it means we're separate from America) because, well, we use the term ourselves.

Edited by AntoineFlemming
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A bit random I know, but I always felt the term "African-American" is actually very politically incorrect. I mean, the term would suggest that every black person in America is either A. From Africa or B. Even American. What about the people from the Caribbeans? Should Haitians be considered "African-American", or Dominicans be considered "African-Americans"? 

 

And I don't think "All black people in the Caribbeans originally dissented from Africa" is a fair excuse either. By that logic, all "purely" Americans would be considered British, or ALL Americans would be considered "African-Americans" since humanity began in Africa and would later spread out across the world. In all honesty, the term "black people" seems more politically correct, since not all blacks are even from Africa. but still considers people from elsewhere. It would be as fair calling all white people "Europeans" or "Americans" or "Canadians".

I have one question: of all places to put this, you put this on the Warframe forums? Lol.

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African-American does sound patronizing but does context matter?

 

Like say you got a white dude Caucasian male news reporter who reads a line about a news incident:

 

'involved two black men exiting'

vs

'involved two african-american males exiting'

 

Or if it was a Black news reporter:

 

'involed two white men exiting'

vs

'involved two caucasian males exiting'

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Science has us all as coming from Africa, one small area in fact, then spreading out over the globe. And the changes in skin colour seem to originate in areas of climate change and areas of great change conditions. So in short we are all the same original people at base, That being said we are different, due to thousands of years of evolution. Things such as "black" people have different muscle fibers that allow them greater efficiency at running and jumping, highly likely that this is why we see them as the majority of start players in things like basketball.

 

That being said, difference is good, it allows humanity to be stronger, it should be embraced and the crying and stupidity about the exact wording of how one is identified should be buried and forgotten. Lets face it, I am called "white", yet I look at my skin and compare it to a colour chart and I am far, far from white. The colour identification is a short hand way to identify a person who at this point in the evolutionary process is different to another based on skin pigmentation, nothing more, so please stop demonizing it, it's neither bad nor good but simply is.

Edited by Ragemonkey83
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From an equality standpoint, I agree with the people comment.  From a professional stand point, where I have to give physical descriptions to authorities? Ehhh... "They looked like a fe/male Person, wearing blue jeans, brown shirt and black shoes" doesn't work so well. : /  

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