"african american" is politically incorrect...

[PrototypeC]

I had a neighbour, who was so awesome everyone called him "King". OK, that was also because that was his first name, but whatever. He's a Canadian, who came from Jamaica, but since he was black it was 'politically correct' to call him African-American.

And that's why political correctness can ***** my ***, children.

 

[Gezab]

The people crying PC stuff are just stupid. As a gypsy who grew up in Hungary, I was faced with discrimination every day, but this "political correctness" is bullshit. I should have the right to call anybody what I want to, as long as it's not mean. The word "Black" is not mean, and neither is the word "White". The only way to stop racism is to stop talking about it and making a big deal over it.

 

[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.

I fail to see why I must. Offence is not always the fault of the offender - sometimes people take offence at things that really don't warrant it. If someone took offence at my innocent use of the word black to describe a group of people, I would apologise and try to placate them because I am spineless and loathe personal confrontation. Inside, however, I would be thinking that they were an oversensitive tosser. I find our society's utter horror of causing offence bizarre. I have been offended at things in my life and it usually ain't that bad.

I would sit somewhere between these views, believing that whether or not offense is caused is up to both parties. In this case, "black" can easily be seen as a non-offensive term given how it is used in the media and in general culture these days, and someone using it will therefore, most likely be using it with non-harmful intent. For the person being referred to as "black" to suddenly take offense when it would be incredibly likely none was intended, is just oversensitive and all blame is on the part of the offended party - it IS possible to choose not to get offended. They could at least point out that they dislike the term before getting offended.

Now, if the person making the statement used a more ambiguous term, THEN taking offence might be more acceptable. While it may be a misunderstanding, the person making the statement is partly to blame for using such a term without clarifying his intent, and the offended person is partly to blame for assuming the intended meaning even when it is ambiguous.

If the person in question uses a racial slur but claims that it was said with no intent to offend, the offended person has every right to be offended. Likewise, if they use "black" with clear full intent to offend, then the offended party in question is once again justified.

I want to stress this point I'm not saying you have to be all ''I'm so sorry please forgive me'', but if they say don't call me black, DON'T CALL THEM BLACK

 

[Gezab]

I want to stress this point I'm not saying you have to be all ''I'm so sorry please forgive me'', but if they say don't call me black, DON'T CALL THEM BLACK

So just because they say something, their word is omnipotent and you MUST listen to them?
How silly.

 

[E.X.D.]

I want to stress this point I'm not saying you have to be all ''I'm so sorry please forgive me'', but if they say don't call me black, DON'T CALL THEM BLACK

So just because they say something, their word is omnipotent and you MUST listen to them?
How silly.

I'm not saying that I'm saying respect them it's not hard, my god if you didn't want me to call you moron I wouldn't call you moron even if I didn't find the word offensive.

 

[dragonburner]

Well obviously you aren't going to call a Haitian African American. Personally, I say black people. I never got shit for it and it makes sense to me. I mean sure I do use African American from time to time. It isn't a bad term or anything.

 

[Double A]

I say black. Even my learnéd black friend says black.

If "black" is politically incorrect, I will use it just to piss of the nuts who tell me not to say "Merry Christmas" because it's offensive to non-Christians. Seriously! You do your thing and I'll do mine.

I say Merry Christmas, even though I'm Agnostic. I don't even think the Atheists care either. The Christians really do act stupid when it comes to other religions and non-religions.

I learned a long time ago that religion is not worth fighting over, because no one wins and sometimes the police get called. I just play live and let live with other religions (or non-religions) and ask that I be given the same courtesy. However, fundimentalists usually don't listen.

Yeah, and in turn, we don't listen to them. It's a beautiful cycle... except when it ends in death. Yeah, that always sucks.

Anyway, what I meant was, even if you say Merry Xmas to someone, they won't get offended (unless they are fundamentalists). It's really more of a cultural thing now, than a religious one.

 

[The Heik]

People seem to like to get offended. They create the racism with stuff like this. A world where anyone can say anything about anyone is a world we should live in.

Hear, hear!

The world is so afraid that they might offend someone that they rarely tell the truth. Was a sad place......

 

[Biosophilogical]

It means "Africans" in "america". Although, if I follow that logic, how do I describe black people in Canada? African Canadian?

Or for that matter, what about Aborigin(e/al)s in Australia. We don't consider them African, so do I call them Australian Australian? Not-African Not-American African American Australians? Admittedly that one would be hilarious to say to a black guy ... and painful, if he stabs me or punches me or steals my mower or something stereotypical, which would make it more hilarious because he would be reinforcing racism ... I'm going to stop talking now.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[Blindswordmaster]

So.. lately a lot of black people have been angry at me because I say "Black people" instead of "African American.." Personally, I think the term "African American" is stupid and incomplete.. what if I mean blacks in Africa? Or England? or Cuba? And what if a white guy is born in Africa, and moves to America? He would be African American too, despite being white.
The point is.. what is so wrong with just saying "black people?" We can say white, mexican, etc... but we can't say black now? Its only recently that this is happening to me

...btw, I'm native american

Why does your race matter? Are you afraid of being called a racist?
I agree with you completely. There are no African-Americans in Europe. I just use the term Black.
Also, why do people flip out if a white person says '******'? It's not even when someone is calling someone a ******. Just talking about the word sends people into fits. Why? Does a word have so much power?
I don't have skin anymore, so race doesn't really affect me.

 

[Chrinik]

Who cares...I think outside the races box, i just categorize people in either "nice", "stranger" or "fucking idiot" categorys, so to speak.
...

We like to call them "maximal pigmentated" as a kind of joke towards political correctness.

 

[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.

I fail to see why I must. Offence is not always the fault of the offender - sometimes people take offence at things that really don't warrant it. If someone took offence at my innocent use of the word black to describe a group of people, I would apologise and try to placate them because I am spineless and loathe personal confrontation. Inside, however, I would be thinking that they were an oversensitive tosser. I find our society's utter horror of causing offence bizarre. I have been offended at things in my life and it usually ain't that bad.

I would sit somewhere between these views, believing that whether or not offense is caused is up to both parties. In this case, "black" can easily be seen as a non-offensive term given how it is used in the media and in general culture these days, and someone using it will therefore, most likely be using it with non-harmful intent. For the person being referred to as "black" to suddenly take offense when it would be incredibly likely none was intended, is just oversensitive and all blame is on the part of the offended party - it IS possible to choose not to get offended. They could at least point out that they dislike the term before getting offended.

Now, if the person making the statement used a more ambiguous term, THEN taking offence might be more acceptable. While it may be a misunderstanding, the person making the statement is partly to blame for using such a term without clarifying his intent, and the offended person is partly to blame for assuming the intended meaning even when it is ambiguous.

If the person in question uses a racial slur but claims that it was said with no intent to offend, the offended person has every right to be offended. Likewise, if they use "black" with clear full intent to offend, then the offended party in question is once again justified.

Actually, this is a pretty good summary of my views on the matter. I'm not sure exactly where you think your opinions differ from my own.

You don't have to apologize or be sorry but if there offended don't antagonize them by calling them black its not something that's hard and most people aren't offended by it but if they are just respect that.

Like I said, I'd try to placate them because I am a wimp. If I suddenly grew a spine, however, I'd call them out for disrupting what is hypothetically a perfectly good discussion by being a bit of a dick, just as I would call out anyone else who introduced unnecessary speedbumps into the long road that is social discourse. I'd try to persuade them that they were wrong to take offence at what I had said. If they didn't accept that, I'd do one of two things. I'd probably just walk away, because life is too short. Alternatively, if I really wanted to get along with them, I'd accept that they just felt differently to me and drop it, although I still wouldn't particularly like it. I'd tolerate their views and work around them, because we've got to get along somehow, but I wouldn't respect their views because I'd think they were wrong.

It occurs to me as I write this that this has actually happened to me before, and I responded exactly as I just described. Just replace the use of the word "black" with any form of blasphemy, and "hypothetical easily-offended black person" with "devout Christian girl I desperately wanted to bang".

Why would they be wrong?

EDIT: I to shall leave for I can only go so long. Be back tomorrow.

 

[WrcklessIntent]

Majority of my black friends do get offended when you call them 'African American.' One because he gets extermly offended by it because hes from Haiti and the other because he thinks its fucking retarded and he says it promotes segragation. His way of thinking is if we call all black people African American that they should call us British Americans.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

'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.

But they aren't African right? Their ancestors were but they aren't as they didn't live in Africa, probably haven't even been there either.

Besides, neither African nor American (or Nigerian for that matter) are genetic in nature, all are demonyms. If you personally never lived in Africa you can't possibly be African, at most you are "of African descent". Further consider the problem of referring to very dark complexioned people who do not trace their ancestry to Africa (such as Australian Aborigines) as "African-American".

So, if you must make ethnic distinctions based primarily on skin complexion "Black" or "Negro" are really the only two appropriate names for people with very dark complexion.

 

[OmniDesol]

Really, I've never had to refer to them as such. It just doesn't come up in conversation. There's really no reason to separate them from just regular people. I suppose if you were describing someone to someone else, but even then, I wouldn't include it in the details. I don't describe someone by saying "Oh, yeah, Fred. He's white." I'd probably use "Oh, yeah, Fred. He's pretty cool, he's a fan of X, Y, Z." But in general, I don't thing black is offensive.

 

[wheeman]

White is a racist term now, all white people must be called caucasian by any other race, but it's okay if another caucasian guy says white.

 

[PayneTrayne]

I personally try to leave race out of it. Being a white male, I generally get called a racist when bringing race into it. It's odd though, my half brother is a black male and he's never believed me to be the slightest bit racist. What I find funny is the look on people's faces when I tell them I'm related to him, they never believe us. They can't see through the skin colour.

However, to bring it a to a less personal, more logical close. Just don't refer to colour, people are simply people and unless you're describing someone physically or giving a police report, there's no real reason to bring colour into it except to antagonize someone. I find it much easier to describe everyone simply as people.

 

[drisky]

It says Black/African American on the census from, there for in the governments eyes black is politically correct. People who still get angry about the word black are probably just trying to exploit there minority status especially when they use the term white people. Saying brown, yellow, or red still seems offensive though.