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Black vs. African American

DEBuckeye

It ain't easy, bein' cheesy.
I was debating this with someone the other day- why is it that we have to use the phrase "African American" when referring to a black person, but it's ok to refer to a white person as "white"?

I have a friend who lives here with his wife- both are from Kenya. Now that's what I consider an African American. But the black people who were born and raised in Philly, but want to be called African American? They're no more "African" than the rest of us.

But it's ok to call me white without worrying about my feelings or my roots. (I couldn't care less, by the way...) If we're going to run around doing this, then I should be referred to as a German American, even though I was born and raised here in the US.

It just doesn't make sense to me.
 
I've seen these type of discussions a million times. They usually end up someone pulling out a racism card. You have everyone of different races saying things about racism. You can't say green without an alien taking offense.
 
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I thought it was now PC to say "black" instead of "African-American." Plus, there are many black people in the USA whose family didn't come from Africa, but instead came from a country that's not in Africa, like Cuba. A black person from Cuba certainly is not an African-American. I mean, some people have black skin, some people have white skin, some people are in the middle. That's just the facts. Just call people whatever you want to call people. If you are saying it with good intentions and are not ignorant to the world, then you are fine. Sure you may piss somebody off, but heck, people get pissed off at anything, it doesn't have to be about race. You can't open your mouth without pissing SOMEBODY off. Frankly, when I see one of those ethnic/racial "please check here which applies" boxes, I want to make my own box and put Human next to it and check that one off.


Something I find more interesting then this debate is why if somebody is like 25% black and 75% white, that they are almost always seen as black.
 
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I actually asked one of my grad school professors who was black if the term "black" was derogatory in his eyes and said "No" and that he saw no problem with calling people "black."
 
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powerlifter said:
You can't say green without an alien taking offense.
How dare you imply that aliens are only green. What type of bigot are you? As you can see from this photo, not every alient is green:

simpsons_aliens.jpg
 
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RugbyBuck said:
Black. Clinton says black. Kerry says African-American. I'll go with Bill on this one.
I think that is the safe bet...Clinton was the first Black President. I've yet to figure that one out for myself, but people claim he was simply a "brother of a different mother." :roll1:
 
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