Black seems far more PC to me than "African-American", which seems overly pretentious. Not to mention, when it comes to descriptions (medical records, police records, etc.), Black is used to describe them, because they may be Domincan, or Mexican. Try telling those guys they are African-American...
What are "African-Americans" called in your country?
- Thread starter girzwald
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Black and I live in America. I don't know if this is a common mindset everywhere or just because I'm in Virginia, but most black people I know hate being called African Amercian.
Direct quote - "I was born in America, raised in America, and have never even been to Africa. I'm as African as you are European."
Direct quote - "I was born in America, raised in America, and have never even been to Africa. I'm as African as you are European."
Two other people have already commented on Ireland so no need for me to say it again,
but did you guys know in South Africa (Ive been there several times) - black and coloured are two different things? White, Coloured, Black are all completely different ethnicities with their own cultures. There's still a bit of racial tension between the three of them.
but did you guys know in South Africa (Ive been there several times) - black and coloured are two different things? White, Coloured, Black are all completely different ethnicities with their own cultures. There's still a bit of racial tension between the three of them.
We have a very similar situation here in Finland. The word we use, "neekeri", is generally translated into "******". The word itself, as is with your case, is not offensive. It's just a word used by people to refer to black people. Sure, I can imagine certain... individuals... using it as a racial slur, but that should not be allowed to taint the original meaning of the word.DoPo said:
And, as it seems to be around the world, politicians and moral mongers are quick point their fingers and offer alternative names for black people. Now, it might be just me, but "a gentleman with a dark complexion" just doesn't roll off the tongue. ;D
On application forms in the race section there are usually boxes that say African, Caribbean. So I'm guessing the PC term is where their ancestors originate. But black people are usually referred to as black. White people are referred to as white but brown people are referred to as asian which is a bit vague, asia is big and has quite a few races. I'd prefer it if race didn't matter and we just referred to each other as fellow Britons or countrymen.
Wait, are you talking about what we in Australia call Americans of colour? Or what we call people of African descent living in Australia? I guess a lot of people would call "African Americans" African American or Black American. People of colour in Australia are either fairly new to the country have been here a very long time. Newcomers tend to get called the name of their country of origin, some times the name of their tribal/ethnic group. I live near a lot of Sudanese and a few Tutsi, they tend to get called Sudanese Australian or Tutsi Australian. The other extreme is the original inhabitants of Australia who have been here for 40,000 plus years. They get called Koori, (which refers only to New South Wales and Victoria) specific tribal names or Indigenous Australians, older people still tend to (mis)use the term Aboriginal which isn't very accurate.
(Aboriginal is a adjective but often gets misused down here as a noun, the the proper term would be Aboriginal Australian or Aborigine. Aborigine just means original inhabitant, it isn't exclusive to Indigenous Australians, the Blackfoot or Sioux for example would be Aboriginal North Americans.)
(Aboriginal is a adjective but often gets misused down here as a noun, the the proper term would be Aboriginal Australian or Aborigine. Aborigine just means original inhabitant, it isn't exclusive to Indigenous Australians, the Blackfoot or Sioux for example would be Aboriginal North Americans.)
Yeah, but we also get thousands of people putting "Jedi" as their religion each year.thylasos said:
I live in the U.S. and in my neighborhood today and growing up (a mostly "african American" neighborhood) we used black or ******. Not in any offensive way of course. And this slightly embarrassing but I didn't learn that ****** was a racial slur against black people until I was about 18... I honestly thought that it was a term of affection because only close friends called each other it.
Racism just wasn't big in my neighborhood I guess because nobody ever took offense to anything that I later learned were racial slurs.
Racism just wasn't big in my neighborhood I guess because nobody ever took offense to anything that I later learned were racial slurs.
I kinda laugh when I hear this sentiment.A Raging Emo said:
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.
I live in the US, and the term is black. There was a time when political correctness got out of hand and white people decided that we couldn't use the most common term that black people use to describe each other... but we're over that now. Please? There's no need to complicate this. I don't demand to be called a European American, and I've never heard a black person demand to be called an African American. In fact, some of my friends pull an IRL /facepalm every time they hear the term.
Fewer syllables is better, people. Keep it simple and respectful.
Fewer syllables is better, people. Keep it simple and respectful.
In the US, here, I always use "black," because I never know if the person is from the US, and even then, I wouldn't call myself a European-American just because most of my ancestors are from Europe, so yeah.
The only people that are justified in using it are people that heavily follow the culture of their homeland, like German-Americans with heavy German accents, or African-Americans like President Obama with a father actually from Africa.
The only people that are justified in using it are people that heavily follow the culture of their homeland, like German-Americans with heavy German accents, or African-Americans like President Obama with a father actually from Africa.