african american whaaaaa??????

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by MrFun
You mean you wouldn't like the government to change every seven months?

Considering what we have, might not be such a bad thing. Too bad Tuscany's overrun with American yuppies. Maybe moving there wouldn't be so bad.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Tingkai

I've always found the various something-American terms fairly stupid when not applied to first-generation immigrants

Why?

Good question. Probably because they denote a form of identity I find ridiculuous.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Actually plenty of Italian Americans want to go and see the mother country.

Same with Scandinavian-Americans.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Last Conformist


Good question. Probably because they denote a form of identity I find ridiculuous.

Do you think it is ridiculous to call a horse, a horse?

If someone's great-grandparents moved from Italy to the US then the great-grandchildren are Italian-American. To deny that is to deny reality.

[DaShi]

Sigh, this thread is exactly what is wrong with race relations.

[Kaak]

Che: it seems like you keep responding to what you want me to say, instead of what i actually do.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by General Ludd
What about americans, why do they call themselves american?

America is not just the USA, you know. It's mexico, columbia, cuba, and so on.

Ha! We squated on the term decades before they ever became independent so like it or not when someone says "American" they probably aren't refering to the rest of the western hemisphere.

[Al B. Sure!]

here's a query...

what about that peculiar American custom of inter-marriage? let's say you have a kid, chegitz. what will your child be? he'll have a long list of ethnicities until you got the the -American. or how about me? my mother's family is Lithuanian, Polish, German, and Russian. My father's is Lebanese, Egyptian, and Sudanese. if i married my last girlfriend, for example, whose mother is black and whose father is puerto rican but with the (as far as i know) non-spanish last name of Cospolich, what in god's name would our children be?

this whole idea of putting people into nice, neat, little boxes like African-American is the very anti-thesis of modern America with our concept of race and ethnicity is irrelevent. people are people. americans are americans.

american=mutt

[Lorizael]

Alright Che, you've got something very large up your ass that needs to be removed. I'm going to say a few things here that you may disagree with. If, because you disagree with them, you call me a racist, I will report you to the moderators, because I won't stand for that kind of hate driven ****.

I call people whatever they want to be called, because I don't believe that I have any right to infringe upon anyone's identity. However, I still believe the term African-American, as well as all the other -American terms, to be foolish, and I'll tell you why.

I'm going to explore my identity for a bit. Now then, the accepted label for all people that have black/brown/dark skin - whatever, just not Arab or Indian - is African American. Alright then. An entire continent is ascribed to people that may or may not have any ties to that continent. Now this ascribing is done by politicians, mind you, because it's the PC thing to say, and politicians don't know what all of "them" people want to be called.

That said, I should be called a European American, and not white or caucasian, because it is consistent with that term. But no one would consider me to be European American, because I am primarily of Western European descent, and that term usually applies to those of Eastern European descent. Obviously, this term is innacurate.

But, for some strange reason, with those from Europe (and Asia as well) we choose to classify a little bit more intensely. Thus, you have Italian Americans and such. In that case, I should be called a Germano-Polish-Welsch-Czechoslovakian American, but no one would ever use such a term, because it is incredibly cumbersome.

Just as well, most African Americans should hold similar labels because they come from many different parts of Africa, and there are definitely some parts they would not have come from.

Odds are, however, they have no idea what their origin is. Rarely do most care enough to investigate that sort of thing. I've asked many of my black friends (God I hate saying that; I hate identifying them by their skin or their origin or what have you. They're just ****ing people.) where they come from in Africa, and they usually just laugh.

So I've yet to find an appropriate term for myself. Now you said that many Italian Americans wish to go back to Italy, and many African Americans wish to go back to Africa - if only to visit. But there are many people that would want to visit Italy and Africa, yet have absolutely no historical tie to those places at all.

I want to visit Italy. I am not an Italian American. I want to visit Africa, I am not an African American. What again should I be called?

Obviously I should be called whatever I wish to be called, but I cannot find a label for myself, or for any other group, for that matter, that is entirely consistent and innacurate. These labels do two things, and two things only.

They create artificial differences where there are none. We don't all have to be exactly the same, but what's the point in marking differences that don't matter? If a culture is truly different, you can recognize that.

But most African American culture is not based on the fact that several hundred years ago, the progenitors of that culture were forcibly removed from their continent. Religion is a prime example. No African American practices the various forms of animism and mysticism that were prevalent in Africa. Instead, they are mostly Christian, sometimes very strong Christians.

The other effect of labels is to give a group power. African Americans (rightly) feel that they do not have the power that the random majority of whites/caucasians/european americans/americans have, and they attempt to give themselves power by giving themselves a cohesive voice. Thus, they create a single identity through which they can act.

Unfortunately, their creation of a single identity detracts from the identity of America as a whole, or from humankind as a whole, and this weakens the power that we as an entire species possess. If we recognized everyone as a single thing, we would have ultimate power, and we could destroy the remnants of racism in this country and the world. But instead we sacrifice this chance at equality and freedom in order to remain politically correct. How very short-sighted.

I am just a part of this universe. I don't segregate with words.

[Imran Siddiqui]

*applause*

[Al B. Sure!]

Lorizael speaks like a republican

and it can not be stressed enough how 'black culture' was born 400 hundred years ago and grew in america far seperated from africa. that there is an american culture seperate from english can not be doubted but there are similiarities because americans weren't forced to disavow all old ties to england and were able to have continued contact with england. Blacks had no such luxuries and were forced to create a new culture of their own here in America.

granted, during the 20th century, particularily post-Garvy, there has been a small movement of Blacks attempting to re-connect with Africa but this is an incredibly small movement that hasn't re-connected much. they may study african art, culture, and music and create organizations with high flung named like "African Liberation Association" or god knows what but they remain an outlier group of the black consciousness.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Tingkai


Do you think it is ridiculous to call a horse, a horse?

"Horse" is a biological classification, "Afro-American" is a sociocultural one. They've got very little to do with one another.

If someone's great-grandparents moved from Italy to the US then the great-grandchildren are Italian-American. To deny that is to deny reality.

Reality? The kind of identities we're speaking of reside solely in peoples minds - they have the same kind of reality as do dreams, aspirations, prejudices. Why should someone born and bread in America identify as Italian? I don't deny that some do, but I find it even less sensible than what you normally get with socioethnic identities.

[Al B. Sure!]

i think the best arguement against this hyphenation is what happens for mixed race people?

i would hope people who are in favour of hyphenation hope we have a society reminiscent of MLK's dream where people love each other no matter their race... hyphenation is an idea that does not work in MLK's dream.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Ha! We squated on the term decades before they ever became independent so like it or not when someone says "American" they probably aren't refering to the rest of the western hemisphere.

It's about time someone respnded.

And in turn, when soemone says "africa" they probably aren't refering to the boers. So the two terms go together to make African American, meaning someone who is living in the USA but of native-african decent. Niether term is technically 100% correct, but words rarely are. It's a matter of context.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Caligastia
That must be why we need more diversity here in America...so we can be more like Africa.

Africa would be a much better place these days if the CIA had not kept overthrowing every democratic government on the continent.