What are "African-Americans" called in your country?

[girzwald]

In the US the "PC" term is "African-American". So I'm just curious as to how they are identified in other countries since "African-American" makes zero sense in other countries.

Please indicate your country of origin and the commonly accepted non racist term for black people.

no, I say Black and I live in the US. I don't say African American anymore than I say European American. Both are silly, because it sounds like your talking about immigrants, not native born

I agree. I remember a news story ironically about a news story...Where a black British guy was visiting the US and he got in some accident and the news reporter refereed to him as "black". And the news editor said "change it to African-American" , "but hes British, like born there, hes not American". "Change it to African-American or you lose your job".

And ya, nobody ever calls me "European-American". Nope, I'm "white". But according to the PC police, that's ok. Black? NO, NOT ACCEPTABLE, THAT'S OFFENSIVE.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Black people shockingly enough.

Coloured is actually looked down on, which is funny because when most people say it they actually think there going out of there way to be P.C

 

[A Raging Emo]

Actually, in the UK, we just call them "People".

I kinda laugh when I hear this sentiment.

So, you have no names or labels for people of a certain skin color or heritage? Everyone is just a "person"? So on forms or when the police are looking for a suspect they say "X skinned person"?

Mmmmhmmmm.

Incorrect. Their skin colour is a defining characteristic, not the name of their species; we're all human, and none of us should be labelled as "That Gay Person", or "That White Guy" or "That blonde chick". We should only use skin colour as a defining characteristic, otherwise we'll never completely abolish racial discrimination - if I have to describe somebody, I'll mention things such as skin colour, hairstyle/colour, height, and so on; until I have to describe them, they are simply "Person" (assuming I don't know their name).

On Police forms, do they only use skin colour to describe a person? Do they also leave out hair and eye colour? What about height? Age? Gender?

Precisely.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Their name?

Simple, but it works.

 

[Erttheking]

We call them just that or blacks sometimes.

 

[Roryomg]

Well seeing that we don't have african-americans in australia...

Black, aboriginal.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

That's really up to their parents, isn't it?

*ba-dum-tish*


I hope I'm the first person to make this joke.

 

[Saulkar]

Germany.
******.
Wish I was kidding.

Glad you are not. Suppressing a word only makes it more vulgar. Anyhoo...

Canadian.

We just call em black. Redundant reply is redundant.

CAPTCHA: rdersife that.

I think I will rdersife that.

 

[Sprinal]

In Australia.
If we are talking about the natives we use the term: Aborigional
If talking about the People from Asia we call them: Asians
If they are Italian/Greek we call them: Wogs
If we talk about Black people we say: Islander (as a general rule as many are from the various pacific Islands) The other term is FOB but I Don't like that term and it stands for: Fresh off Boat.
If the Black person is not from one of the Pacific Islands then we say Black Fella.
Please note that Australia Is extrememly racist but most of the hate is directed towards Aborigionals and Asians.

This is mostly because I live in the western suburbs of Sydney and most people believe whatever Tony Abbot says.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Until i got to my teen years and really started grasping the ENG language and got more involved with US pop culture i had no idea about the african-american racist issue.

In my country we 80% of the time reffer to them as "Negars" which is basically the kirilic version of "Niggar" i suppose the fact im from Eastern Europe and the small size of my country kind of ment we were not that up to date with the stuff going on over there. Also in movies they are often called that so when that is for a long time your only source of information you kind of stick with it.
In fact the jypsies in my country are called blacks or darkies as an insult. So i for a long time didnt see the N word as offensive. Until (as i said earlier) i got into pop culture and learned more about the US because of my understanding of the language.

And we also have absolutely 0 racist issues in terms of white-black. So i guess we dont really have a P.C term. That issue is heavily concentrated in the United States and you guys have to deal with it. By putting it behind and stop talkinga bout it (as Morgan Freeman once wisely said)

 

[Forst1999]

Germany.
******.
Wish I was kidding.

Is that considered a polite term in Germany, or just one that is used a lot?

Well, you have ****** in the offensive sense which is used by the majority of young people and "neger" which is used by the older generation. That last one used to be offensive but the old folks round here still use the word with no ill intended.

Only youths who think it makes them look like rappers and racists say "******". Normally it is offensive. "Neger" is still often considered offensive but not nearly as much. As you said, many people use it without ill intend.
But the normal term is just "Schwarze", blacks. At least where i am from.

 

[Charli]

...

In England?


Americans.


I guess if you need to highlight your ethnicity you can call yourself that. But whatever.

In that context I am Scot-English-Swede. Sup.

Call yourself whatever you want, I generally refer to people as their name.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

This sure would have recieved some interesting answers 20 years ago, I imagine I could still reel off a dozen derogatory terms even now.

Generally they're just 'black' tho, although in the UK we term the indian look as 'asian' and Chinese/Japanese as 'oriental'. If you ask for directions to an asian restaurant, you're more likely to be sent to a curry house than a stir fry place.

Really tho, unless it's the topic at hand, or you're actively needing to describe someone , it just doesn't really come up. It's always a bit strange when people are shy about saying 'black' tho, 'Oh Jim, he's the guy with the short dark curly hair, and glasses, no...dark eyes...no not him, Jim's ..um..got a Nigerian accent.' 'Oh the black guy?' 'IS he? I hadn't noticed!'

EDIT: I do wonder also how much of the use of 'bad words' is intended racism and not just ignorance on behalf of older generations. I've heard terrible words used many a time by my parents and friends of theirs, but they're not being intentionally rude, it's just the words they know. At the same time, I know they've stopped using certain words for the indian couple who run the corner shop as they've got to know them. Still amuses me how many euphenisms for 'maybe a bit gay' they can come out with tho, fairy, pansy, a bit funny, woofter, etc, yet they've got nothing against them, just haven't evolved to use the new terms is all.

 

[MrTub]

There is no politically correct way of saying "African-American" or the like in Sweden because if we do it's considered that they are different from other races.

Swedish people are really afraid of stepping on peoples toes....

I got to agree with you.

I guess mörkhyad (dark skin) is the most common that I've heard.. and nobody ever says that in front of a black person

 

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

Non existant. We don't have enough "african americans" in NZ to bother giving them a name.
But if I did come across them I suppose I would just call them a american or yank.

 

[zumbledum]

Actually, in the UK, we just call them "People".

I kinda laugh when I hear this sentiment.

So, you have no names or labels for people of a certain skin color or heritage? Everyone is just a "person"? So on forms or when the police are looking for a suspect they say "X skinned person"?

Mmmmhmmmm.

England is a rather funny place, the police i think still use IC 1 2 3 The level of PC ness on the police is a bit over the top. Last world cup i was working in a pizza place the owner hung an england flag out of the upstairs window, the police made us take it down because it was "inciting racial hatred"

but the level or racism is off the chart. In my town we have an absolute ton of eastern europeans, ukrain russia georgio checks slovacks just about everyone comes here , there women are a lot better looking than ours and i love that accent so its all good with me, but when you get in with a group of them the inter faction hatred is quite shocking , and we have the second generation black people going bat shit crazy on the new wave of Muslim immigrants.

The english people that are left tend to move to small villages and dig moats

 

[Amaror]

Germany.
******.
Wish I was kidding.

Where do you come from?

To thread
Germany.
Black.

Only youths who think it makes them look like rappers and racists say "******". Normally it is offensive. "Neger" is still often considered offensive but not nearly as much. As you said, many people use it without ill intend.
But the normal term is just "Schwarze", blacks. At least where i am from.

sign. Although i never heard anyone saying "Neger" without ill intend.
Thinking about it: I heard someone saying One of the N- words only one time.
It was an old idiot with no job, who said to his old idiot friends that he votes for the npd because a "******" stole his parking space.