What is the politically correct term?

[TheTygerfire]

RACISM: Not made in America, but damn we sure do find ways to keep it around.

 

[joystickjunki3]

I believe Maddox did a post about this. Lemme see if I can find it.

EDIT: Here we go - http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=your_stupid_ideas
"...presumptuous cock." haha

 

[SimuLord]

As a general matter I apply the Chris Rock rule. Black people get called "black people" and the N-word is reserved for a subset of black people who have no greater aspiration than to soak up welfare and live down to old stereotypes.

I've never been a fan of "African-American" if only because I've known a few Jamaicans, Haitians, and folks from Trinidad and Tobago who are more aptly termed Caribbean-Americans, or perhaps African-Caribbean-Americans.

Such diversity-in-a-box political correctness is just plain dumb, although I do on occasion call my wife a "Ukrainian-Canadian-American" (immigrant born in Canada to parents of largely Slavic descent)

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Black is black, white is white. If I don't have a problem with "white" (a fairly accurate description of my appearance), I don't see why a black person would take offense to "black." In my experience, it seems the word "black" is more acceptable than "Negro," so I'd go with that. I don't like the term "African American" any more than I would like "Ango-Saxon Caucasion French-Irish Scotsman."

And yeah, the Venture Bros. opened my eyes to the whole "'African American' is not a proper term for people who weren't born in America" bit.

And as far as I can tell, political correctness is born from cultural guilt. That's how we get these ridiculous double standards of what words are okay to use on which people. I mean, how many times have you met some confrontational jerk where everything with him was about race. And the thing is... This sort of moron is usually white. Driven by guilt, perhaps these people make everything about race in order to distract from their own feelings of guilt for something they couldn't control that they had nothing to do with and which happened years before they were born.

 

[bad rider]

Jim if i don't know someone's name.

 

[nekolux]

Indian, malay, aborigine ? See i dont think a lot of black people actually mind being called black ( i know quite a few ). If bill referred to louis as black i dont think louis would TK him

 

[Logan Westbrook]

In Britain we just call them black people. If we ever need to.

My mother's black, I remember once someone apologised for saying that he wondered which one of my parents was. As if that would insult me

That's not true, the politically correct term is Afro-Caribbean.

I think that some of us are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater by rejecting all political correctness. Certainly, calling the elderly 'youth challenged' is ridiculous, and taking PC to unnecessary extremes, but replacing 'fireman' with 'firefighter' or 'policeman' with 'police officer' removes the gender bias from those terms and makes them more inclusive.

Oh, and white people complaining about discrimination is pathetic. We're the kings and queens of the bloody world, try and keep that in mind before you go complaining about affirmative action.

 

[Finnboghi]

I laugh in the face of political correctness and anyone who tries to be politically correct.

We should team up and throw rocks at such people.

But honestly, I think there is something very wrong in a world where addressing someone with any kind of classification is seen as racist or sexist.

 

[Shadowtek]

America is way too careful about not offending anyone. So every little group of five or more people has a "PC" term. However, If you really look into this you will find one group that is being left out. We have scholarships, clubs, study groups, and just about anything you can think of that was to do with "African American", "Hispanic", or any other nationality. If you happen to utter the word "white", then everyone is jumping down your throat trying to call you a racist. Do a little digging on these terms and their political correct uses. There is very little done to make sure the "white" group is not offended. Everyone else, god forbid anyone offends that group.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

I'd like to respond directly to the whole "African American" thing...


Its bullshit.

Why you ask? Its politically incorrect. Thats right assholes, its NOT politically correct. Its actually a bit racist. Your assuming that the person is A. American and B. African. But what if they are not an American citizen? Or what if they are not from Africa? Not all people from Africa are black and black people come from Australia, Brazil, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica as well as other countries.

So really, African American is how guilty white people feel good. Its a bullshit term and theres nothing politically correct about it.

I should also point out a double standard: its okay to call white people white but not okay to call black people black. Where's the logic there?


EDIT: I should also point out that I am half-Arab and we get more oppression now then the blacks do. So is everyone going to start calling me Arab-American? I would lamp them one if they did. PC is BS made by the stupid/guilty. Stop enforcing it with the term "African American".

Actually, Negroid humans all originated in Africa, during the slavery of the colonial periods they spread throughout the Carribean and parts of south america, the individual might be from that area, but the race originated in Africa, and australian aborigines aren't quite the same as Africans.
African is the ethnicity, and when you say American you mean nationality, although that would be incorrect if they are citizens of another country.
I prefer to just say black as you avoid the complications that way.
I dabble in anthropology.

 

[klc0100]

Black is perfectly Fine in the U.K and wouldn't offend me.

[Actually, Negroid humans all originated in Africa, during the slavery of the colonial periods they spread throughout the Carribean and parts of south america, the individual might be from that area, but the race originated in Africa, and australian aborigines aren't quite the same as Africans.
African is the ethnicity, and when you say American you mean nationality, although that would be incorrect if they are citizens of another country.
I prefer to just say black as you avoid the complications that way.
I dabble in anthropology.

But that was hundred's of years ago just because your great great great ect grandfather was born in Africa it doesn't mean consider yourself African.

 

[Lord George]

I'll call a black guy black if I have to describe him same as I'd call a white guy white. Never saw why Americans called them African-American as I'm sure that nowadays you don't find many Americans who have come over from Africa. I wouldn't call myself Irish-English as I was not born in Ireland and it sounds stupid.

 

[Necros_21]

"politically correct"

I hate this and I'm with George Carlin on this. If you haven't seen this yet, you should watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTYUiMbnksg

Any day now I expect to hear a rape victim referred to as an "unwilling sperm recipient".

 

[Low Frost]

I'm gonna cut this short.
If you live in America, then black works as a catch-all phrase.
It won't really work in other places. I wouldn't go to France and use "white" person, because there is no need to, they are Frenchmen.
The words black and white came about because America has an extremely mixed population, ethnically, nationally.
I remember a vet I knew said it best, to his Italian son in law, "America is unlike any other nation, and a damn sight different from yours, where you can walk down the street and see people from all over the world in a span of a block. These people are your NEIGHBORS, not tourists. America is, at it's core, the world's biggest refugee camp, so don't you damned Euros of whatever sort compare US, to YOU."

 

[Vortigar]

I remember a vet I knew said it best, to his Italian son in law, "America is unlike any other nation, and a damn sight different from yours, where you can walk down the street and see people from all over the world in a span of a block. These people are your NEIGHBORS, not tourists. America is, at it's core, the world's biggest refugee camp, so don't you damned Euros of whatever sort compare US, to YOU."

I always cringe when people come up with that "don't you dare compare ... to ..." It reeks of a superiority complex and high-horsedness. (Same goes for that absolutely retarded "you have to earn my respect" schtick. Everyone should be given basic respect, you don't need to kiss the ground I'm walking on but you should allow me to just walk by without getting on my case. What you think of me behind my back is not something you should be bothering me with.)

Europe gets loads of refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East. There's also the migration movements from East to West Europe. America has black and hispanic people. Europe has Moroccans, Turkish, Serbians and whatnot. Same thing. And I don't need to delve back into the wars we've had here and nations displacing each other. The Franks were a tribe that came from nowhere near where France is today.

Yes, there's differences, but if you look beyond your own nose (to use a local phrase) you can easily see its the same thing everywhere. Did you know Berlin contains more people descended from foreign origins than 'actual' Germans?

We in Holland have the term 'allochtoon' to denote someone who's not ethnically Dutch. It basically means 'non-Dutch Dutchman'. Its insane that we have such a term at all but every time I bring it up people ask me "well, what do you want to call it then?" in a sarcastic tone. It's a PC term that's become so natural people stopped questioning it at all.

The French also have the term Beurre (spelling?), meaning both butter and an 'imported' Frenchman.

 

[linchowlewy]

Just call them 'black' its not an insult, its a description, like calling someone tall, or ginger-haired. Its a distinguishing feature.

Actually no. i've been called out many a time for identifying someone as Ranga or bloodnut.

also good work to all those who think political correctness is a bunch of shit. and anyone who sues anyone over being called black as an identifier is a complete fuckwit. what annoys me most though is the insane amount of racism towards white people yet not one person gives a shit about that.

 

[Low Frost]

Guy, the point of it all is that what works culturally in America doesn't work elsewhere and vice-versa. Germany wasn't created from the ground up from a hodge-podge of different cultures from around the world. It doesn't mean America is "better", as you want to jump to, just that approaching the culture with a pre-concieved mindset is foolish, as it would be for any nation in the world you are unfamiliar with.
The whole white/black conundrum is a prime example of what works in America and wouldn't work elsewhere.

 

[Vortigar]

I agree with your second post completely, there's a distinction there I missed in your first one.

offside rant:
The feeling superior slant is solely directed to the turn of phrase "don't you dare compare this to that". And I didn't mean America feeling suprior, but rather the person using that particular phrase. It smacks of "I understand this thing better than you do so don't waste my time" without actually explaining anything.

Why can't I compare these two then? It's a different slant on the same type of thing, isn't it? Yes there are differences (in this case the cultural history), but how am I to find the differences if I don't compare the two in the first place? It's not like I'm comparing carrots to elephants. Maybe its a banal problem due to me interpreting the phrase too literally (English not being my first language), but it always seemed like an extraordinarily silly thing to say.

 

[Tullio]

That's not true, the politically correct term is Afro-Caribbean

I'd be tempted to disagree here, since nowhere official is this true. Ie - look on a job application.

In any case, it's not right logically. It doesn't cover Indians, for one thing. I'm a mix of three different kinds of black, plus whatever white blood has been mixed into the line on my father's side. The only sensible way to characterise me is as a white British/Black mix