African American

Sponger15SB · #1 02-03-2005, 12:48 PM

Since I'm white....ummm...I mean...European American.... African American doesn't make any sense to me. Unless you were like born in Africa and moved to the US. Why is it PC to call black people african americans?

SossMan · #2 02-03-2005, 12:49 PM

what do you propose?

Sponger15SB · #3 02-03-2005, 12:50 PM

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what do you propose?

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hmmm, good question.

you never hear people who are chinese being called "chinese american" ....maybe we should just drop all the americans?

or just call them black? i dunno.

edit - black americans?!?

elwoodblues · #4 02-03-2005, 12:53 PM

It's a dumb term for a lot of reasons - why presume that every black person you see is both American and African? Both presumptions are silly.

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Why is it PC to call black people african americans?

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It is PC to call black people african american because, for now, that is the term they prefer. If your name was Johnathan and your preferred nickname was Johnny (and I knew that), it would be disrespectful for me to call you Jack or John or whatever simply because I don't like the name Johnny.

elwoodblues · #5 02-03-2005, 12:54 PM

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you never hear people who are chinese being called "chinese american"

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You've never heard the term "asian american"?

astroglide · #6 02-03-2005, 12:56 PM

i doubt many people from africa call themselves african too. i think people from kenya would call themselves kenyan, etc. there's not a lot of unity within the countries there, much less among them.

MarkL444 · #7 02-03-2005, 01:00 PM

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what do you propose?

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we could call them american

sfer · #8 02-03-2005, 01:04 PM

[ QUOTE ]
It is PC to call black people african american because, for now, that is the term they prefer. If your name was Johnathan and your preferred nickname was Johnny (and I knew that), it would be disrespectful for me to call you Jack or John or whatever simply because I don't like the name Johnny.

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That seems so painfully obvious as to end most of these threads.

elwoodblues · #9 02-03-2005, 01:06 PM

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we could call them american

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Right, that helps a lot when you want to describe someone.

Do you see that guy over there?
Which one?
The American guy.
Which one?
The one with the dark complexion...

jakethebake · #10 02-03-2005, 01:10 PM

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Why is it PC to call black people african americans?

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Because they say so. I've always thought it interesting that a white person born in Africa, living here is not an African American, while a black person that has never seen Africa is.