"african american" is politically incorrect...

[brodie21]

well, as long as people call white people white instead of Caucasian, then i guess that its ok to call black people black.

btw, im Italian and German, how many derogatory terms can you come up for that?

 

[asinann]

Ask them if they were actually born in Africa, if the answer is no tell them to shut the hell up, they aren't African-American. I prefer to call people what they are, idiots.

 

[Jark212]

Here in California we can't say mexican, apparently it's "their word", but we can say black.

I giggled there, I grew up in L.A. and it was pretty much the opposite. But then again I attended a High School where high ranking Mexican Mafia and other High ranking gang members would send there kids...

It was interesting to say the least...

 

[Weaver]

I say black people because I figure in Canada that's less risky than calling someone an American

 

[feycreature]

If it comes to it, "black" isn't an accurate term either. People can be very dark brown, but unless the Drow actually exist somewhere that's about it. And even albinos are just really pale beige. There is no actual black, red, yellow or white race, and there are a bajillion shades of brown and beige. There's reddish brown and and dark dark brown and pale, coffee with cream sorta brown and yellowish tan and reddish tan and reddish beige and greenish beige and and pinkish beige...and you get hundreds of each within a given country and sometimes a single city, even in places that are more of a monoculture. "Red" and its more appropriate counterpart "Native American" can mean descent from any one of dozens of very different nations. The Navajo do not look like the Inuit. Africa is a whole continent. Egypt is in Africa, so people here of Egyptian descent are African-Canadian.

Pretty much all of our racial labels are inaccurate or ridiculously vague.

Having got that out of the way, I refer to people as they ask me to (within reason, I'm not calling someone "your highness" because he asks me to), because I am polite. I make mistakes sometimes, but people who actually care about bridging such gaps in understanding will correct me respectfully, because they are polite. People who want to get retroactive vengeance on an easy target assuming I will feel horribly guilty for a simple mistake will find that I don't take the opinions of idiots very seriously. And people who think I don't get a say in what labels I will and won't accept will find me very difficult to deal with.

Blast...sorry for the long post...again...

Edit: heh, sorry E.X.D. ^^;

 

[E.X.D.]

I'm going to interject here. It seems by this point everyone participating in this discussion has come to the consensus that they will call black people black regardless of what they wish to be called and call them ignorant if they take issue. I am black. I do not mind being called black I prefer it over african american, but there are those who take offense at the term black and you must respect that. There is no blanket term to refer to all of us people of color or all of us africans, each individual takes offense at different terms. Go ahead call us all black I'm fine with that, but if someone specifically says i find that offensive refer to me as african american respect there wishes. I know a kid who refers to his black friends as the n-word, he can do that as much as he wants because he knows there fine with that but he refrains from calling me that because he knows it offends me.
Oh and why mexicans in LA don't like being called mexicans, most of them aren't, most of them are puerto rican or salvadorian or guatamalan, which is why I just say hispanics or latinos.

Gahg feycreature beat me to it!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

There are actually white african americans.

BECAUSE AFRICA HAS WHITE PEOPLE.

Yeah, seriously. No one pulls that shit in my school, because there's a well known white kid the year below me who moved from South Africa. The only people who say "African Americans" are the teachers who don't have tenure. The ones who DO have tenure can get away with anything, like how my physics teacher called a girl a whore to her face.

School System = Fucked Up

 

[Johnnyallstar]

It's all political correctness, which means it's all BS. Unless you have strong ties to wherever your heritage is from, and you live in America, you're just an American. I have no ties to my family's historical roots, so I'm not Polish-American, or German-American, or Irish-American, or Native-American, or any of the several other options. I'm 100% AMERICAN.... F*** YEAH!

And now that I've degraded that far, I'm going to go wander off and probably take a nap.

 

[Kortney]

I'm an African American and I'm a blonde white girl. Go figure.

I think black people is a better term. Who really cares though, you need to be pretty highly strung up to care about this.

 

[Viptorian]

A world where anyone can say anything about anyone is a world we should live in.

What?! Have you heard what comes out of people's mouths? There is real racism out there, like white supremacists, who genuinely believe that anyone but whites are dirt. Then there's the rascit attitudes of the Arabs who believe white people are the devil's get. Then there are sexist guys who say the most disgusting degrading things about women.

And you know what? They have every right to say it. Ideally, no one would think ill of anyone based on superficial things such as those, but people do. If they say it, you have every right to believe (or tell them) that they are ignorant bastards (they are), but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to express their feelings simply because you/we don't like what they have to say. Now, there are limits to this, such as when it incites violations of individual rights, but if it is purely expressive, they should be able to say it.

Granted, this is coming from an American perspective. Your (collective 'your') country's beliefs may vary.

 

[Avatar Roku]

There are actually white african americans.

BECAUSE AFRICA HAS WHITE PEOPLE.

Yeah, seriously. No one pulls that shit in my school, because there's a well known white kid the year below me who moved from South Africa. The only people who say "African Americans" are the teachers who don't have tenure. The ones who DO have tenure can get away with anything, like how my physics teacher called a girl a whore to her face.

School System = Fucked Up

You referring to how tenured teachers can do anything, or how non-tenured teachers can do nothing? Because if it's the former, I'd like to add that it was hysterical. Although there was that one time that he taught us about momentum and impulse by hitting my desk with a hammer...

 

[Ph33nix]

There's nothing wrong with it. You know what? I'm just going to come out and say it right now. Fuck political correctness. It sucks.

Here Here

fuck political correctness its retarded fucking retarded.
and why can they say cracker or white bread but i can't say black. I should be like No if i have to call you african american you need to call me iro-germanic american

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

There are actually white african americans.

BECAUSE AFRICA HAS WHITE PEOPLE.

Yeah, seriously. No one pulls that shit in my school, because there's a well known white kid the year below me who moved from South Africa. The only people who say "African Americans" are the teachers who don't have tenure. The ones who DO have tenure can get away with anything, like how my physics teacher called a girl a whore to her face.

School System = Fucked Up

You referring to how tenured teachers can do anything, or how non-tenured teachers can do nothing? Because if it's the former, I'd like to add that it was hysterical. Although there was that one time that he taught us about momentum and impulse by hitting my desk with a hammer...

both. it's just fucked up.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

If you were to refer to anyone who was 'black or coloured' in the south pacific i.e austrailia/New Zealand/Fiji that'll be a whole new kettle of fish, most probbably reffered to as aborigine.

Wow... just... no.

In most South Pacific countries, unless they were heavily colonised by europeans, the indigenous populations tend to go by their nationalities or, in countries that have more fractious internal relations, by their ethnicity or tribal/clan affiliations.

In places with heavy european colonisation, the indigenous populations tend to glom together under a pluralised name for their people.

And no one would call anyone other than an Australian Aboriginal an 'aborigine'. Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians (which covers pretty much all indigenous populations in the South Pacific) are not Australian Aboriginals.


With Australian Aboriginals it's just safest to call them Aboriginals. Some don't like being called Aborigines and, to the surprise of many, consider 'Abo' offensive. Also, some people think the term 'Koori' is applicable nation wide but it isn't. It's only used in Victoria, New South Wales and mayyyyybe Tasmania. In Queensland Aboriginals are refered to as Murri, in South Australia and the Northern Territory as Nunga and in Western Australia as... Noongyah if memory serves. In many casual settings 'blackfella' as applies but if the Aboriginals you're around seem to be looking to take offense, don't bother.



Calling any of these people 'african' would have them thinking you're an alien, ignorant as fuck or in serious need of a punch in the head.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Isn't "black" considered politically correct now?

 

[Avatar Roku]

There are actually white african americans.

BECAUSE AFRICA HAS WHITE PEOPLE.

Yeah, seriously. No one pulls that shit in my school, because there's a well known white kid the year below me who moved from South Africa. The only people who say "African Americans" are the teachers who don't have tenure. The ones who DO have tenure can get away with anything, like how my physics teacher called a girl a whore to her face.

School System = Fucked Up

You referring to how tenured teachers can do anything, or how non-tenured teachers can do nothing? Because if it's the former, I'd like to add that it was hysterical. Although there was that one time that he taught us about momentum and impulse by hitting my desk with a hammer...

both. it's just fucked up.

I should probably add that the three teachers I have who are tenured (physics, math, and CAD. I had another tenured teacher for english, but she had to leave mid-year for cancer treatments. Sad) are all awesome teachers who actually deserve it. That said, it is bad that there are other awesome teachers who have to tip-toe around, particularly since I know some of them will be fired by the end of the year due to the budget.

 

[Dendio]

I'd rather avoid the "something-American" mindset altogether.

I agree with this. Do other nations go so out of their way to distinguish fellow citizens from one another?

 

[NickCaligo42]

I've heard newscasters call black people in France "African-Americans."

Seriously. That's how fucked-up this world of ours is.

 

[Noone From Nowhere]

'African-American' means "We don't know where in Africa our ancestors came from because they were forcibly removed from their homelands then forced to toil away in America while being forbidden to hold on their languages,religions and traditions". It's simple and easier to remember,no?

I can just call myself Nigerian-American but I know that most other 'African-Americans' don't have that option.