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

Dec 27, 2010
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MetalDooley said:
Pretty sure black people in Ireland are just called "black people"
That's entirely correct, some ignorant f*cks call them all Nigerians, and some members of the older generations refer to them as darkies. But on average, black is considered acceptable. We have a history of being slaves as opposed to owning them, so most of us (except the incredibly moronic) feel any "white guilt".
 

Twilight_guy

Sight, Sound, and Mind
Nov 24, 2008
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I'm in the US so 'African-American' although I usually use 'black' and 'white' because most black people only have ancestry in Africa aren't directly from there so unless people call me a 'German-irish-American' instead of white I'll respond in kind.
 

Frizzle

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Nov 11, 2008
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Tuesday Night Fever said:
Frizzle said:
They actually do have a history of that, hence why a lot of people with bigger dogs like German Shepherds have trouble finding apartments and communities that will accept their animal. Also, once domesticated, dogs were bread for the very specific purpose of violence, fear mongering, and hatred, among other more useful jobs like herding animals.

But my point is that when you call someone black, or brown, or white, you're just making it easier for the person you're describing them to, to understand. Describing someone by their skin tone is in no way racist. If you are making sweeping generalizations about that person because of the color of their skin, then yeah that's racist.

We live in a world of vivid and varying color. When someone asks you which car is yours in the parking lot, you don't say "that automobile over there," you say "the black Maserati."
Same idea with people or anything else you're describing: "do you see that human being over there?" is not nearly as helpful as "You see that white/black/brown guy over there?"

Trying to be politically correct only attempts to make people special and different. We are all the same in one giant sweeping generalized group of destructive and apathetic human beings :)
You completely missed my point. If I tell you to look at that, say, German Shepherd to continue your own example - is that German Shepherd going to care that I'm calling it a German Shepherd? Is it going to care that I call it a dog? Is it going to care if I call it a poodle, or any other type of dog? No. It's not going to care. Because the dog itself has no true understanding of English beyond getting the gist of what I'm feeling from the way I put inflection on my words... but also because there was never a time when German Shepherds were discriminated against by other dogs for no reason other than them being German Shepherds.

It's very, very easy to project human feelings and emotions and history onto things that aren't humans, but that doesn't mean that the analogy always holds up. In fact it typically doesn't.

As for ease of understanding, if I'm looking at a group of people and I'm trying to point one out to you, and I tell you that it's 'the guy with the hat' when he's the only guy in the group with a hat, are you honestly going to tell me you have no idea who I'm talking about? Or if he's not the only one in the group with a hat, if I point out something else distinctive like his blue jacket, or his gloves, or whatever... are you honestly going to tell me that you still have no idea what I'm talking about? Are you telling me that I have to point out race or else you have no idea who I'm referring to? Because I very much doubt it.

Like it or not, your black Maserati isn't going to feel bad or be offended if it's made to look different than everyone else for something it has no control over. Because it's not a human, or even alive at all... it's a thing. It doesn't have thoughts or feelings. Once again, very easy to project human emotion onto objects that aren't human, and once again, it doesn't translate at all.
Firstly, dogs don't think like us at all. They can reason, but they have no concept of half the crap our society tells us, so I'm not comparing what they understand from us. I was refuting your claim that dogs did not have a stigma of hatred and or fear.

I'm not projecting human emotions onto non-human things, I'm trying to get you to understand that a describing the color of someone is no big deal, cuz it's a color. It's the same as if you used hair color. Yeah if there was 1 guy with a hat, and you were trying to point him out, then obviously that would be the best answer. But sometimes it's cleaner to say skin tone than to check and make sure no one else has that same shirt color on, or a jacket, or the same patterned kilt.

I have not once in my entire life ever met a black person that was offended because he was called black. I've been around for almost 3 decades, and even lived in Zambia for a year. If you're offended by the color of your skin, then there's a bigger issue with your self esteem. I have red hair, yet I don't get offended when people call me 'ginger' or redheaded. Don't try and put a deeper meaning into color that isn't there. Like I said before: If you think of someone differently because their skin is different than yours, then thats something wrong with you and not them.

Also, the whole African-American thing is crap. If you were born in an African country (because Africa is NOT a country as people sometimes forget) and you move to America, then you can be whereveryoucamefrom-American if you'd like. Maybe it would help explain your accent and keep people from thinking you were Australian or British, instead of South African.
 

Frizzle

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Nov 11, 2008
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Saladfork said:
I wonder what the PC term for white people in Africa is.

European-African?
I know in at least 2 countries it's "muzungu"
it basically means white foreigner. If he/she is a native, then they just call them white.
 

Rainforce

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Apr 20, 2009
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SmashLovesTitanQuest said:
Germany.
******.
Wish I was kidding.
thank goodness you are. because it's "Farbiger" ("coloured") in german as it's most neutral form. "******" is indeed FUCKING offensive here.

JoesshittyOs said:
I honestly thought that Germany had kinda become more mature in matters like that than most places.
Considering all our stereotypes (which are pretty true themselves) there's no way this could be the case.
 

II2

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Mar 13, 2010
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This seems like kinda a weird thread premise... the sort of thing a bunch of people get to vicariously enjoy dropping a few racial epithets that, "their neighbors say", for the collective sniggers of the community.

"Anyways, round' these parts, we call em honkies. I kinda think it's something to do with us being deeply angry, but mostly confused."

---

For serious though, what's the discussion value? Do people say rascist things near you? If you've said no, you either live in an extremely sanitized place, or just aren't listening closely. Beyond that it's more of a 'taste of the local flavor'.... Like I said... weird.
 

direkiller

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Dec 4, 2008
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octafish said:
(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.)
its not any country of English origin doesn't have a history of miss using/misunderstanding native words.
It just becomes proper use after a while(see kangaroo for a good example).
 

Lethos

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Dec 9, 2010
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Tuesday Night Fever said:
Frizzle said:
They actually do have a history of that, hence why a lot of people with bigger dogs like German Shepherds have trouble finding apartments and communities that will accept their animal. Also, once domesticated, dogs were bread for the very specific purpose of violence, fear mongering, and hatred, among other more useful jobs like herding animals.

But my point is that when you call someone black, or brown, or white, you're just making it easier for the person you're describing them to, to understand. Describing someone by their skin tone is in no way racist. If you are making sweeping generalizations about that person because of the color of their skin, then yeah that's racist.

We live in a world of vivid and varying color. When someone asks you which car is yours in the parking lot, you don't say "that automobile over there," you say "the black Maserati."
Same idea with people or anything else you're describing: "do you see that human being over there?" is not nearly as helpful as "You see that white/black/brown guy over there?"

Trying to be politically correct only attempts to make people special and different. We are all the same in one giant sweeping generalized group of destructive and apathetic human beings :)
You completely missed my point. If I tell you to look at that, say, German Shepherd to continue your own example - is that German Shepherd going to care that I'm calling it a German Shepherd? Is it going to care that I call it a dog? Is it going to care if I call it a poodle, or any other type of dog? No. It's not going to care. Because the dog itself has no true understanding of English beyond getting the gist of what I'm feeling from the way I put inflection on my words... but also because there was never a time when German Shepherds were discriminated against by other dogs for no reason other than them being German Shepherds.

It's very, very easy to project human feelings and emotions and history onto things that aren't humans, but that doesn't mean that the analogy always holds up. In fact it typically doesn't.

As for ease of understanding, if I'm looking at a group of people and I'm trying to point one out to you, and I tell you that it's 'the guy with the hat' when he's the only guy in the group with a hat, are you honestly going to tell me you have no idea who I'm talking about? Or if he's not the only one in the group with a hat, if I point out something else distinctive like his blue jacket, or his gloves, or whatever... are you honestly going to tell me that you still have no idea what I'm talking about? Are you telling me that I have to point out race or else you have no idea who I'm referring to? Because I very much doubt it.

Like it or not, your black Maserati isn't going to feel bad or be offended if it's made to look different than everyone else for something it has no control over. Because it's not a human, or even alive at all... it's a thing. It doesn't have thoughts or feelings. Once again, very easy to project human emotion onto objects that aren't human, and once again, it doesn't translate at all.
Why do you assume that black people would be offended to be called black?
 

Slvrwolfen

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Sep 10, 2008
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Several politically correct words, "musta" (black), "somali" (even if they're not from Somalia)...

I forgot some of them. Then there's a movie quote name, "Yön Timo" or "Tim of the Night".

Finland here.
 

Brutal Peanut

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Oct 15, 2010
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If I am trying to describe their physical characteristics to someone? Black. I wont use 'African-American' unless they came over from Africa and became a U.S. Citizen in their lifetime. Any children they have after they are citizens are U.S. citizens of African descent. I have a friend whose black, and he says black. Doesn't like the term 'African-American', and isn't offended at being called black.

He's black, I'm brown, my husband is REALLY white; colours!
 

rutger5000

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Oct 19, 2010
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Black, but mostly name them after country of origin. In some context negroid is used. Depending on your tone neger (n word) doesn't need to be offencive, but it's considered to be inconsiderate
 

ianeddy44

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Aug 17, 2009
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Slightly off topic, but do any of you find the term "African-American" irritating at all? I find it one of the most ignorant things ever, and it enforces the whole slave association even further. If a person from Africa immigrated to the US and became a citizen, that person would be an African-American. However, a person born in the US has black skin, he is not African at all. A distant relative of his may have been brought here as a slave from Africa, but he is absolutely, 100% American. This "politically correct" language and over-use of euphemisms is really unnecessary and old-fashioned. The simple fact that the "African-American" epithet is still used when referring to black folks immediately reminds everyone of the US slave era, which is passed and has been stomped to the ground, thankfully.
 

octafish

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Apr 23, 2010
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direkiller said:
octafish said:
(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.)
its not any country of English origin doesn't have a history of miss using/misunderstanding native words.
It just becomes proper use after a while(see kangaroo for a good example).
Pardon? The only word in that quote that is anywhere close to a "native" word is Sioux. Aborigine is an Italian/Roman word that ties into the mythology of Rome before it was founded by Remus. Oh and Kangaroo just means an Anglicization of gungurru which means Grey Kangaroo in one specific language. I don't see how that is misusing a word.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
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Canadian: "You with the face" or "" if we're trying to maintain the polite facade. :p

When I have to talk about race specifically, "black". Because... they're black.
 

Merkavar

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Aug 21, 2010
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australia

i guess we call african americans
black
american
people

but our black people arent from africa so
aboriginal
black

but i dont really think about it much, their just people. im more likely to treat people by their actions than their skin colour. like i would treat a white drunk in the park asking for money for the "bus" the same way as a black one
 

jpoon

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Mar 26, 2009
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USA, just call 'em black people, black dude, black chick, etc. Never have once called someone an african-american, takes too damn long.