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

robot slipper

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In the UK, black. On official forms (for benefits, doctors/hospitals, census etc.) the category is usually "Black or Black British" followed by a sub-heading of "Caribbean", "African", or "Other Black background". In the "White" category, the options are usually "British", "Irish", or "Other". Then there's the Asian category, the catergory for all the permutations of mixed races, and then Chinese, and the "I do not wish to state" box.

Side note about the recent UK census - I was most pleased to finally find some kind of form which actually cared about my NVQ Level 1 French!!
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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Lethos said:
Why do you assume that black people would be offended to be called black?
I don't assume that all will. I assume that enough will to make it worthwhile to just avoid using this particular method of pointing people out in a crowd when there are other, better ways of doing so that are neither difficult nor inconveniencing.

I grew up in a small town in New England. It was about as close to a real-life "Leave it to Beaver" set as you could get. At the time I was in grade school only about 5% of my town's population was made up of various minorities. I grew up with everyone telling me the same stuff that's being said in this topic; that it's not offensive, that no one's going to be bothered by it, etc. I believed it, because at the time, I had no real-life experience to work with. I had to trust the wisdom of the people who had lived and experienced more than I had. Then I moved to Georgia for a few years, then moved to North Carolina where I attended university. Between my time in both states, where I had far more exposure to this sort of thing than I had back home in New England, I encountered enough instances of people telling me that it wasn't cool to do it - even when it's done in a friendly and respectful manner - that I made the decision - for myself - that I would try to set aside my upbringing to avoid an easily-avoidable situation where someone could become upset. I'm not telling people that they have to handle things the same way I do. I'm telling people how I handle things, because that's what the intent of this topic was.

People can call it being politically-correct. That's fine. I call it being a decent person who genuinely doesn't want to go around hurting other people's feelings - intentional or unintentional - especially when it's something like this which is so incredibly easy to avoid. If someone's going to go around behaving in a manner that upsets others for little reason other than trying not to be the dreaded 'politically correct' label, I really don't know what to say to them. I just find it pretty inconsiderate.
 

Lethos

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Tuesday Night Fever said:
Lethos said:
Why do you assume that black people would be offended to be called black?
I don't assume that all will. I assume that enough will to make it worthwhile to just avoid using this particular method of pointing people out in a crowd when there are other, better ways of doing so that are neither difficult nor inconveniencing.

I grew up in a small town in New England. It was about as close to a real-life "Leave it to Beaver" set as you could get. At the time I was in grade school only about 5% of my town's population was made up of various minorities. I grew up with everyone telling me the same stuff that's being said in this topic; that it's not offensive, that no one's going to be bothered by it, etc. I believed it, because at the time, I had no real-life experience to work with. I had to trust the wisdom of the people who had lived and experienced more than I had. Then I moved to Georgia for a few years, then moved to North Carolina where I attended university. Between my time in both states, where I had far more exposure to this sort of thing than I had back home in New England, I encountered enough instances of people telling me that it wasn't cool to do it - even when it's done in a friendly and respectful manner - that I made the decision - for myself - that I would try to set aside my upbringing to avoid an easily-avoidable situation where someone could become upset. I'm not telling people that they have to handle things the same way I do. I'm telling people how I handle things, because that's what the intent of this topic was.

People can call it being politically-correct. That's fine. I call it being a decent person who genuinely doesn't want to go around hurting other people's feelings - intentional or unintentional - especially when it's something like this which is so incredibly easy to avoid. If someone's going to go around behaving in a manner that upsets others for little reason other than trying not to be the dreaded 'politically correct' label, I really don't know what to say to them. I just find it pretty inconsiderate.
I guess it really depends where in the world you are. I live in a pretty diverse area (South London) and I have not met a single black guy who took offence to being called black. In fact a popular comedian here, Reginald D. Hunter, was originally from America and states how he often found it funny how far people would go to not call him black when he considered being called black a compliment.

Maybe there is a difference between how the UK and US integrates minorities or something.
 

AngloDoom

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English here (shocker) and I just say 'black' and everyone I know does, after a moment's pause to wonder if saying 'black' is impolite.

There's still a lot of doubt over what to say, but I've never seen anyone who wasn't white as the driven snow take offence to identifying someone as 'black'.
 

Fishyash

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To my knowlege in the UK, the demographic is usually termed as "Black british". If you need to tick a box in a form it might say african/carribean descent (or afro-carribean) instead.

But honestly I haven't really seen a PC term in england. So black is pretty much it. OBVIOUSLY though you don't really say it in their face. It's there to identify someone as accurately as possible. A side point, not a central point, as that would show that you're judging them. So I would say it's more tactful to not even mention anything about skin colour or race.
 

direkiller

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octafish said:
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.
kagraroo= I dont understand your question
now it refers to an animal
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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Lethos said:
Maybe there is a difference between how the UK and US integrates minorities or something.
That's what I'd put my money on.

There's a lot of social inconsistency in this country. How one region perceives something is often completely different from the way a different region perceives it, all while the potential exists for neither way to reflect the way this country as a whole is "supposed to" perceive it. It ends up that nearly everything has to be taken on a case-by-case basis.

I realize that obviously differences of opinion exist on social issues pretty much everywhere in the world. This country's just kind of odd in that it's socially acceptable for people to be radical on both sides of an issue - at the same time - often justified by region, or upbringing, or religion, or whatever reason you want to come up with. So often the only way to 'play nice' with everyone is to walk the tightrope right down the center.

I love my country, please don't get me wrong. But it could use a lot of enlightening in many areas. And yes, I include myself among those people.
 

SilentCom

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I always rather disliked the politically correct terms. I think it would be better if Americans are referred to as American instead of trying to distinguish people by their skin color. Also, most "African-Americans" i've talked to say black. Many if not most "African-Americans" grew up in America and their family living in America stretches back several generations. Most "African-Americans" don't even know what country in Africa their long past ancestors came from and can't even speak an African language. I think its more fair to just call them American if referring to their nationality and black when referring to their skin color/ethnicity.

Heck, there are some "African-American" people who are white. I'm referring to someone from Africa (such as South Africa) with caucasian ancestry but born in Africa then moved to the U.S.A.
 

marurder

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Limecake said:
I frankly think PC terms are stupid, especially when it comes to race. All they do is re-enforce the idea that people of different skin color are different from us (Hint: they aren't)
Agreed

Cazza said:
I live in Perth Australia. We call them Australians.
Agreed, or sarcastically "our indigenous brothers"

Limecake said:
I guess if you wanted to be specific the PC word is probably African Australian. Though I have never heard it used.
In what way does Africa come into that name other than copying America?! The Aboriginal population of Australia has NOTHING to do with Africa. Not against you, but people who WOULD say that [are just stoopid].

Limecake said:
I have heard used South African descent or South African Australian (Perth gets a lot of South African immigrants). Others I have heard are Zimbabwean & Somalian Australian/immigrants. Depends on which country they are from.

They have also been applied to white people from thoughs countries. I have heard South African Australian applied way more to white South African as I have met more of them.

I personally stick way with immigrant/race tag as I believe it's wrong. I never get called white-Austrlian or anything appling to my descent. So why should I do it to others. Most people in Australia feel the same way I guess. Most people just call them Australians.
I understand and agree with the sentiment, but I have no problem with people calling me white (I deal with that all the time) or 'foreigner' - lao wai - in China, I stand out like a sore thumb and get stared at on a regular basis (not in a big Chinese city like Beijing where they are used to foreigners).

OT:
People who cant deal with it shouldn't hide behind PC but rather raise themselves to a higher level. The dumbing-down of society is leading more and more to nanny-states where people never accept responsibility for their actions.
 

octafish

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direkiller said:
octafish said:
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.
kagraroo= I dont understand your question
now it refers to an animal
That is a myth, totally incorrect, the word for kangaroo in the dialect of the area it was identified is gungurru, Anglicized to kangaroo. You can read the full research paper documenting the Guugu Yimithirr language as collected by James Cook and Joseph Banks here. [http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/HavilandOceania.pdf]
 

Kurokami

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Limecake said:
Lost In The Void said:
Canadian, or black I guess if I needed to get specific.

I frankly think PC terms are stupid, especially when it comes to race. All they do is re-enforce the idea that people of different skin color are different from us (Hint: they aren't)
They are different. You said it in your own sentence.

I call black people black people, even though really they're brown. Nobody here seems to care, I also call white people white and asian people asian. Doesn't make them foreigners.
 

kaizen2468

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That's something that has always annoyed me. To me, you're only "African-Canadian" or "Japanese-Canadian" if you were born there and immigrated. People born in this country are Canadian. That's it.
 

PiggyJibbleFish

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Cazza said:
PiggyJibbleFish said:
Cazza said:
I live in Perth Australia. We call them Australians.

I guess if you wanted to be specific the PC word is probably African Australian.
A girl in my class once said, without a hint of sarcasm, "I don't know that many Abori... Oops! Sorry. I mean African-Australians."

I could have cried.

OT: Australian, yeah. Black is also acceptable, methinks.

Please tell me someone corrected how wrong she was.
I don't think so. It was a moment of such unadulterated horror that I think we all just went into shock. Besides, it's funnier if she doesn't know.
 

Cazza

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marurder said:
Cazza said:
I guess if you wanted to be specific the PC word is probably African Australian. Though I have never heard it used.
In what way does Africa come into that name other than copying America?! The Aboriginal population of Australia has NOTHING to do with Africa. Not against you, but people who WOULD say that [are just stoopid].
Either your not understanding my post or Im not undersatnding your post. I'm not talking about the Aboriginal people. Which I believe to PC term is Aboriginal people or koori (Though that changes depending on where they are from).

I'm also not talking about an African-American. I'm talking about recent immigrants from Africa to Australia. Like a South African Australian could be called African Australian. Even a white person could be called African Australian.

It doesn't have anything to do with America. It's just a word. It's not like every country needs to have their own language that uses none of the words from other ones.
 

-Samurai-

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Lacebad said:
I already posted in this thread but I just wanted to add a fun fact for you all.

I'm Irish right. Our word for man is fear (pronounced far) and our word for black is dubh (pronounced like dove) so you'd think "fear dubh" would be "black man"

NOPE!

it DOES mean black man but black man means THE black man, old nick himself, the devil.

The Irish for black man, as in someone of african decent is, fear gorm. gorm (pronounced guhrum)
is..blue. so it's blue man. I have no idea why blue. I would have thought our word for brown would have been closer but whatever.
Remind me to never, ever attempt to learn the Irish language(which I'm not going to attempt to spell).
 

luke10123

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Ok, I have to ask, is it really that bad to refer to some as 'a black guy'? same as 'a white guy'. it's not derogatory, it's a physical description! would anyone think that's racist?

distinguishing is not discrimination.
 

Pikeperch

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As previously stated, in Sweden it's common to say "svart" (black) "färgad" (coloured) or "mörkhyad" (dark-skinned). "Neger" (or "negress" for women) but it has become more problematic in later years, maybe due to its similarity to the english "******".
For instance, the pastry "Negerboll" is now almost always called chocolate ball in cafés, and there was a neighbourhood called "Negern" that was renamed a few years back.

I'm actually reminded of a book I read a while ago called "Lagom finns bara i Sverige och andra myter om språk" (Moderately only exists in Sweden and other language myths).
At one point the author discussed how he had used the word "neger" from childhood, in the same way we would use "blondin" for a blonde. He used it during a party, where a woman took offense and said that "I have friend who is... what you're saying. I'll see what he thinks of that!". A few days later when they ran into eachother it turns out that her friend's reaction had been "Well, that's what I am!".

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.