Ernya.com

Before I start this, let me mention that I am white and have white privilege and my opinion along with the opinion of other people with white privilege is not as valid as the opinions of those without that privilege because we have no idea what it's like. (If you don't understand why having privilege makes your opinion less valid than those without privilege, you may pack your bag http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1662103.pdf)

I'm curious, because I've heard differing opinions on the matter, and I wondered what others thought about it.

One of my peers explained that he preferred to be referred to as "black" if he were to be referred to as anything relating to his ethnicity, for surveys or to describe himself. He got slightly annoyed when people called him "African-American" because his family was from Haiti, and he didn't have any roots in Africa. To him it was mislabeling and a slightly offensive generalization that all dark-skinned people must automatically be from Africa (which, technically, every human alive is from Africa if you go back far enough).

However, many persons of color prefer the term "African-American" rather than "black", they find the latter offensive because it refers only to their skin color rather than their ethnicity, or because of other reasons.

I realize the best idea would be to know exactly where everyone came from so you could call the first person "Haitian-American" and those with close roots in Africa "African-American", and so on. But sadly I can't tell the difference between a person with roots in Germany and a person with roots in England unless they inform me, the same with my peers that are persons of color. Is it better to use a blanket term to describe a person on things such as surveys or some sort of news report, or potentially force them to mislabel themselves/mislabel them yourself? Would it be better to ask right off what they identify themselves as, or could that be offensive as well?

I don't have any idea because I just don't know, so I avoid the issue of labels as much as I can because I don't like being a dick without knowing it. I hope I have not offended anyone by posting this, please inform me if I have.

I just go with African-American,
but yea different people, different thoughts..

Nobody hesitates to call a white person white. They're not "Caucasian-Americans", they're just white in layman's terms. They're not "French-American" or "German-American" unless they come from France or Germany.
Which is why I wonder why we call African-Americans that. Yes, they may have a bloodline that traces back to Africa, but they are not from Africa. They're black. They've never been a citizen or subject or whathaveyou in Africa. They're American, for all intents and purposes. They're black just like whites are white.
If they came here from Africa and got citizenship here, then they are African-American.
The only sort of "exception" I have to this is Asians, but maybe I'm just biased.

I went around asking that. Have yet to figure it out. From a strictly American perspective, it's more politically correct to call people who look remotely black that.

Most actual Africans I've met were white within predominantly Caucasian communities, and if you asked them, they are proudly African.

I think it is mislabeling and an anomoly from every other race because the main issue with it is that it consists of two terms when talking about their physical race which is 'African-American' while the other races like Arab, Caucasian, Asian, European (not necessarily Caucasian) are just that, without the extra bit of -American, otherwise it alludes nationality.

i just say "black." i've heard plenty of black people refer to themselves as black people or worse, and they call white people white people, and no one ever gets offended..unless they're looking for a fight. in my opinion, politically correct terms are for government officials, and that's about it. maybe celebrities too. basically, anyone that could go under public fire. everyone else sounds like they're trying too hard and are afraid of accidentally insulting people when they use them, and that's grounds for getting your ass kicked or having everyone make fun of you for ages. loosen up.

If we use the term 'black' a lot, then it will just go to normal everyday vocab, and african american will just kind of dwindle out. this all reminds me of something morgan freeman said in response to "how do we end racism" by saying "stop talking about it." i love that. one day we'll get to that point just like how we don't think much about what to call a white person and all that.

Jester wrote:Nobody hesitates to call a white person white. They're not "Caucasian-Americans", they're just white in layman's terms. They're not "French-American" or "German-American" unless they come from France or Germany.
Which is why I wonder why we call African-Americans that. Yes, they may have a bloodline that traces back to Africa, but they are not from Africa. They're black. They've never been a citizen or subject or whathaveyou in Africa. They're American, for all intents and purposes. They're black just like whites are white.
If they came here from Africa and got citizenship here, then they are African-American.
The only sort of "exception" I have to this is Asians, but maybe I'm just biased.

this is one of the things that gets me, people telling me what i am. i dont think its okay to apply your reasoning of this to all people, i really think it depends on who you are talking to because there are definitely a few different preferences among us.

anyway i use black only out of ease. most people around me dont care. but personally i've always disliked being called black. i'm not black, lol. if you wanna call me a color it oughta be brown. and when you think about it like that it just sounds stupid.

i dont really like african american either. my lineage -might- be from africa, but its not like i would even have an idea of WHERE in africa my ancestors were from. finding that is like finding a needle in a really large haystack. so i like to check other/prefer not to answer on forms when i can, lol. but in general id like to just be thought of as a person.

I don't know what to call them @_@

I feel so bad to call someone by a color even if they are ok with it. It just sound rude and mean. I wouldn't like people calling me yellow even if Asian have a yellowish skin color. (people assume) I always call them African American even if I know it offend them since it not as rude and often a mistake. I wish their a better term for them so my life would be easier.

I don't really paid attention but I do call white, white though I usually refer to them by their European race if I know it.

青❤茶 wrote:

Jester wrote:Nobody hesitates to call a white person white. They're not "Caucasian-Americans", they're just white in layman's terms. They're not "French-American" or "German-American" unless they come from France or Germany.
Which is why I wonder why we call African-Americans that. Yes, they may have a bloodline that traces back to Africa, but they are not from Africa. They're black. They've never been a citizen or subject or whathaveyou in Africa. They're American, for all intents and purposes. They're black just like whites are white.
If they came here from Africa and got citizenship here, then they are African-American.
The only sort of "exception" I have to this is Asians, but maybe I'm just biased.

this is one of the things that gets me, people telling me what i am. i dont think its okay to apply your reasoning of this to all people, i really think it depends on who you are talking to because there are definitely a few different preferences among us.

anyway i use black only out of ease. most people around me dont care. but personally i've always disliked being called black. i'm not black, lol. if you wanna call me a color it oughta be brown. and when you think about it like that it just sounds stupid.

i dont really like african american either. my lineage -might- be from africa, but its not like i would even have an idea of WHERE in africa my ancestors were from. finding that is like finding a needle in a really large haystack. so i like to check other/prefer not to answer on forms when i can, lol. but in general id like to just be thought of as a person.

If your reasoning behind not liking being called black is because you're not black, you're brown, then it's unfair to call white people white because they're not white, they're peachy. I always thought brown was more for east Indians.

Jester wrote:

青❤茶 wrote:

Jester wrote:Nobody hesitates to call a white person white. They're not "Caucasian-Americans", they're just white in layman's terms. They're not "French-American" or "German-American" unless they come from France or Germany.
Which is why I wonder why we call African-Americans that. Yes, they may have a bloodline that traces back to Africa, but they are not from Africa. They're black. They've never been a citizen or subject or whathaveyou in Africa. They're American, for all intents and purposes. They're black just like whites are white.
If they came here from Africa and got citizenship here, then they are African-American.
The only sort of "exception" I have to this is Asians, but maybe I'm just biased.

this is one of the things that gets me, people telling me what i am. i dont think its okay to apply your reasoning of this to all people, i really think it depends on who you are talking to because there are definitely a few different preferences among us.

anyway i use black only out of ease. most people around me dont care. but personally i've always disliked being called black. i'm not black, lol. if you wanna call me a color it oughta be brown. and when you think about it like that it just sounds stupid.

i dont really like african american either. my lineage -might- be from africa, but its not like i would even have an idea of WHERE in africa my ancestors were from. finding that is like finding a needle in a really large haystack. so i like to check other/prefer not to answer on forms when i can, lol. but in general id like to just be thought of as a person.

If your reasoning behind not liking being called black is because you're not black, you're brown, then it's unfair to call white people white because they're not white, they're peachy. I always thought brown was more for east Indians.

okay? lol. brown can be for anyone who is brown. i've seen indians dark enough to be called black and black people light enough to be considered white. i think its hard to assign a color to each ethnicity.

Mmm 'brown' usually refers to Middle Easterners and South Asians despite even some of them being Caucasian such as the Persians. xD I think it's less of a colour and more of a racial thing. Same thing with Asians, there are pink tone based Asians still referred to as 'yellow' just as calling Native Americans 'red' being really strange to me. Oo

Jester wrote:Nobody hesitates to call a white person white. They're not "Caucasian-Americans", they're just white in layman's terms. They're not "French-American" or "German-American" unless they come from France or Germany.
Which is why I wonder why we call African-Americans that. Yes, they may have a bloodline that traces back to Africa, but they are not from Africa. They're black. They've never been a citizen or subject or whathaveyou in Africa. They're American, for all intents and purposes. They're black just like whites are white.
If they came here from Africa and got citizenship here, then they are African-American.
The only sort of "exception" I have to this is Asians, but maybe I'm just biased.

This right here. It annoys me with the whole asian-american thing as well. If people were born here and raised here then they are not anything but american. I'm Irish, my grandmother was an immigrant, you don't see me calling myself Irish American not matter how much of the Irish culture I practice.

I personally find the term "African American" to be nothing short of ignorant; black people aren't all from Africa, and don't all live in America. Period.

Here it's often replaced with African-Canadian, or African-Nova Scotian, but that still means nothing to me. My fiance is Haitian by ethnicity, American by birth, French-Canadian by... well, life. So the only time I ever had somebody ask me if the guy I was with was "African-American" (which was their way of saying, "Hey, are you seriously with a black dude?") I said no and left it alone. He's black. He refers to himself as black. He doesn't go around saying, "As a man of Haitian origin..." If the topic comes up, he will refer to himself as black.

Anything else is, honestly, either putting too fine a point on the topic, or just plain incorrect.