What's with all this 'African-American' stuff?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Oprah Winfrey
steviebaby62 — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 11:21 AM)
I'm a white Englishman who's married to a black Jamaican womanand neither of us can understand this thing about referring to a black American as "African-American". Are you guys afraid of just using the word "black" or what?
What further confuses things is that on one hand, every July 4, you cel2000ebrate with gusto the fact that you fought a war to get your freedom from us nasty, tyrannical Brits and a lot of you trash Europe. Then you start calling yourselves "Irish-American", Italian-American", "German-American", etc. Make your minds up. If you were so pleased to get away from England, why did you copy and use English place names, such as NEW York, NEW England, NEW Jersey, Manchester, Birmingham, etc.?
British history goes goes back thousands of years and we've been invaded and occupied by various races. If we followed your habit of describing ourselves, we'd end calling ourselves "Roman-German-Norse-Norman-Anglo-Saxon-British, or some such crap.
If you're born within the boundaries of the US, you're Americanregardless of your skin colour or where your ancestors came from 200 years ago. If you're born within the boundaries of the UK, you're British - end of story.
British by birth - English by The Grace of God -
doingresearch — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 12:26 PM)
We use African-American instead of black because not all African-Americans are black. Some are mulatto (Obama), Blasian (tiger Woods), and some are even white (Mariah Carey). All African Americans, have some black ancestry, but not all are black.
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steviebaby62 — 12 years ago(February 03, 2014 01:59 AM)
I'm aware of that. I mentioned that my wife is Jamaican, and over there they have the same range of skin colours from light to dark. And the only reason that she has to call herself Jamaican-British is because she was born in Jamaica and has dual Jamaican-British citizenshipotherwise, all people of colour born in the UK call themselves British. It makes no difference where there ancestors come from. Naturally, they rightly embrace their parents' culture but they are British - not "African-British" or "Jamaican-British".
British by birth - English by The Grace of God -
Skylightmovies — 11 years ago(February 20, 2015 05:33 AM)
@steviebaby62
O1354, thank you thank you for this post.
I understand that there is racism all over if you go a-hunting but I do think this explanation,discriminating between Mariah and Oprah etc ,just shows that instead of personal pride there is an an obsession right now with causing more segregation even within the 'black' community in the US.
I thought the caste system was something no one should aspire to.
However on some formal paperwork, albeit optional,I do find it irritating that sometimes one is asked to specify 'background' and try as they might, listing as many permutations as possthey haven't covered mine yet..
I am 'other' and always will be -
sweiland75 — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 07:39 AM)
Nobody calls Charlize Theron African-American yet she is more African-America than those other people. You can't say because she is white it doesn't count otherwise you would also have to remover Barack Obama from that category.
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Straightright — 9 years ago(February 08, 2017 10:53 AM)
It's because if you are born white, than you are automatically an angry, racist, bigot who has to walk around on egg shells so as to not offend anyone. Slavery is 100% your fault, everything you earn is simply handed to you because of "white privilege," and you MUST pay reparations because of the way you treated black/African Americans 150 years before you were born.
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BridgitteVonHammersmark — 12 years ago(March 28, 2014 11:13 AM)
You2000 know what else is weird, in Canada (which, as you know is part of North America) no one calls themselves African American, African Canadian or such. In Canada people are black, East Indian, Asian, middle eastern, etc.
and on top of that, a lot of expatriates are offended by that also and if you ask them their nationality, they will simply say Canadian. Simply Canadian is the most used answer. Maybe immigrants to Canada get a different vibe then in the U.S. -
kinickibeck — 11 years ago(January 05, 2015 05:56 PM)
Because American's are racists, notice how they don't call white people European American, just American but they will call every other minority by their background first and then American even if they were born in America. I'm Canadian, my background is Kittitian and Jamaican and here I am called Canadian. If I need to identify my race it's black.
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shandy8 — 11 years ago(January 08, 2015 08:18 AM)
I stopped using the politically-correct term after mislabeling several black people. When I was recently corrected by a student and explained why I don't use 'African-American' ("how do I know if s/he is not Canadian of of Haitian descent?), I was given the deep-freeze from my classroom aide ( who is black).
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DreTam2000 — 9 years ago(October 17, 2016 06:39 AM)
The Native people of Canada are Eskimos, while the 5b4native people of Haiti are Taino "Indians." Haitian is not an ethnicity or a race. A black person from Haiti is ethnically no different from one born and raised in the U.S. or in the UK or Brazil.
The same problem exists within the terms "Jamaican" and "Puerto Rican." These are not races. A person who is not from Puerto Rico or Jamaica cannot be Puerto Rican or Jamaican. Those are nationalities, not races. Taino Native is the only original heritage of Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Unless you have Taino blood in you, you cannot be of Haitian or Jamaican or Puerto Rican heritage (unless you mean to infer that you are descended from people who settled in these places a couple hundred years ago; in which case, you'd still be "White" or "Black" or African or English or Spaniard or whatever else those settlers were).
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way -
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joystar5879 — 9 years ago(September 14, 2016 10:45 AM)
This was probably posted here because Ms. Winfrey is an intelligent and cultured woman, who could explain the history and origins of the term. OPRAH would give "OP" the benefit of the doubt.
I do hope he won't upset Henry -
Galactus03 — 10 years ago(July 05, 2015 06:20 PM)
..the general american population does t use this term because they want to. The pc crowd has made it seem wrong to use anything here. Sill i know. I just describe people by their cloths now rather than heritage.lol