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

[Fappy]

If I knew where I could find it I would link the scene in Venture Bros. where Jefferson Twilight doesn't know what the PC term for "Blackula" is.

Seems appropriate for this topic.

 

[Oskamunda]

Where I live, I couldn't answer this question without getting a forum warning.

 

[Dastaria]

UK here, and I mostly hear 'African-Americans' being called African-American.

If they're not from America, then I hear them called black people as a descriptive, or people if not.

 

[Muspelheim]

Without ranting too much, I just think it would be nice if we could acknowledge differences in skin colour or hair colour or accents without needing to be afraid that some self-appointed guardian of justice will interpret it as an attempt to reduce people's value.

Indeed, the term neger used to be the usual way to refer to black people, hell it still is for my grandmother. It wasn't a derogatory term, it wasn't mean-spirited at all.
The key phrase here, though, is "used to be". It carries a stigma today, and while it weren't harmful or racist back around the 60's, it certainly do carry racist and hurtful undertones today. It's similar to how the Neo-Nazi movement "tainted" the Mjölnir-symbol when they began claiming it as their symbol, wearing it as an amulet and using it as a party-symbol, et cetera.

While it of course depends on the person, most people don't really give a toss, there is no doubt that the term neger is genuinly hurtful today, and is becoming synonymous with ******, which was devaluating and hurtful from the start. So, that's why you shouldn't use it, unless perhaps if you are in an enviroment that don't mind and aren't using it as a racist term. It's the polite-thing to do, you don't know if someone simply don't care, or if it's a rather sensitive point for different reasons.

Of course, it's important to remember that the word used to be just a word. I think censoring old books and films or whatnot which came from this era is... Well-meaning but a stupid thing to do. Add a footnote explaining that fact, instead of expunging it from the past. This isn't the 50's anymore, but the 50's weren't the 2010's either. While you mean no harm whatsoever in saying it, thanks to some racist arseholes back in the 90's, quite a few people might think that you do. It's a word that should be used with responsibility.

And honestly, negerboll or kokosboll, they still taste just as good, don't they? :3

 

[JCD2k4]

Alright, you've already heard a couple words from some German-speaking guys, let's add another one: Mohr. It's how black people were called in our region in medieval times. Mohr has since been replaced by Neger which is mostly used colloquially. Older people use Neger/Mohr interchangeably and mean nothing by it. For them, it's descriptive, not judgmental.

There's also another term: Schwarzafrikaner (literally meaning "black African"). This stems from colonial times where people tried to differentiate between Sub-Saharan Africa [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa] and the northern parts of Africa. Schwarzafrikaner is the most commonly printed term for black people in German-speaking areas because journalists, politicians and government agencies use it.

Afrikaner (African) is probably one of the most actively used words when people are talking about them.

Funnily enough, we also have a German pendant for African American (Afroamerikaner) which is Afrodeutscher (African German).

 

[Stu35]

Britain - Black. Or "Afro-Carribean" on official forms.

Or, y'know, their name... If they've been given one by their master.


...

That last bit was in jest. Just FYI.

Without ranting too much, I just think it would be nice if we could acknowledge differences in skin colour or hair colour or accents without needing to be afraid that some self-appointed guardian of justice will interpret it as an attempt to reduce people's value.

This.

 

[Baff]

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.

I'm from the UK. I call them "Americans".