What Is An African-American?

Hi,

I'm new to posting here although I've read the threads for a few months now.

A friend told me that the U.S. somehow changed the legal definition of an African American recently because Obama was running for President? Is this true?

He said it has something to do with ancestors who were slaves? If this is true doesn't this sound like some sort of PC conspiracy to divide and conquer WITHIN the black community?

Isn't this the NWO template? Create groups and pit them against each other, each begging for the nanny government to take their side of the battle?

Anybody else hear of this?

Update:

I spoke with my friend and he said that the new legal definition of African-American includes only those who are descended from areas in Africa where slaves came from. He insists he read this a few months back.

Can anybody confirm this?

I searched Google and nothing came up in the first few pages that addressed this specifically.

Thanks!

It's the same nonsense as me calling myself French-American because my family came from France. It's pointless and stupid PC labeling (contradiction?)

You live as a citizen in America, you're American. It's pretty simple. If I moved to Argentina I wouldn't call myself an American-Argentinian, would I? No! I'd be an Argentinian.

It's just another way for people to party up, divide themselves, feel special, etc...

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I dont know about legal definitions or labels and really dont care.. What I do know is no matter what country that I decided to move to I would always be an American first and whatever else second..
I suppose that if I decided to become a citizen of that country then I would begin to consider myself English, German or Italian etc.. but it would be hard to get used to..
But I do find it ridiculous PC labeling for someone who family has lived in the US for several generations to still use the term (African) American, or whatever..
Its stupid and in my opinion it does nothing for unity, if anything it probably drives the wedge between races even deeper...

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
It's the same nonsense as me calling myself French-American because my family came from France. It's pointless and stupid PC labeling (contradiction?)

You live as a citizen in America, you're American. It's pretty simple. If I moved to Argentina I wouldn't call myself an American-Argentinian, would I? No! I'd be an Argentinian.

It's just another way for people to party up, divide themselves, feel special, etc...

I agree. I'm just wondering if there is some conspiracy related to Obama in the re-defining of the term African American.

i just thought of something why aren't white people called "European-American"? i'm white and i think that it is wrong for white people to be the americans and everyone else is african american or mexican american or what ever

reply to post by thisguyrighthere



Couldn't agree with you more.
I have never understood that about Americans?
African-American, Irish-American, Italian-American.
What's wrong with just plain and simple American.

Wouldn't dream of calling myself Irish-English and I know my friends would never call themselves French-English (Normans, Huguenots etc), Greman-English, Italian-English etc, gee, the list is endless.
I'm English.

Could you imagine anyone calling themselves Greek-Australian or Italian-Argentinian.

Why can't you just be American?

[edit on 11-10-2007 by Freeborn]

Originally posted by Freeborn

Could you imagine anyone calling themselves Greek-Australian or Italian-Argentinian.

Sooner or later we'll all be Italian-German-Swiss-Brazilian-Moroccan-American-Indonesian-Chinese.

It's like all those poor poor kids with last names strung together because their parents were goofballs.

Hi, my name is:
George Smith-Van Heusen-Warner-Woodcock-Alensin-Terwilleger. The third.

Poor kid.

If you believe in evolution, we all are Africans.
I want compensation from all the tribes that enslaved my ancestors, the later ancestors enslaved by the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, various Muslim nations, France, Germany, and the English who enslaved my Irish ancestors, the Americans who used my most recent ancestors as indentured servants, and lastly all the Current Africans who pushed all my various ancestors so far north that I lost my natural pigment.
It's been a while, so can't we just get over it----please????

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

Bingo, I also find it funny a lot of people believe segregation actually ended.. it simply changed.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
George Smith-Van Heusen-Warner-Woodcock-Alensin-Terwilleger. The third.

Poor kid.

Remember The Strokes? New York band briefly touted as the next big thing a few years ago.

Julian Casablancas
Nick Valensi
Albert Hammond Jr.
Nikolai Fraiture
Fabrizio Moretti

All American, obviously.

Nah, I think African-American is a beautiful thing. Just because you are an American and love this country doesn't mean you have to give up your identity and forget where you came from.

What it is, is a ridiculous label that makes no sense at all.
I refuse to use it, so do my black friends who are not from Africa. However, I have a white friend and she is from Africa, literally. She is truly an African-American, as she holds duel citizenship


However, if we must use that term, I would like to be refered to as that "Scottish-American" chic.....as im Scottish (both sides of my family) and live in good ol America.

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

That said, does anybody know if the U.S. government changed the qualifications for who is an African-American!?

My friend insists he read an article about this and that they changed what an African-American just so Obama wouldn't meet the criteria. It was supposed to relate to what part of Africa somebody came from, e.g., a slave country or not. Slave ancestors = African-American.

I'm thinking if this is true there must be some malicious/conspiratorial reason for it. To pit blacks against blacks? To bait Obama?

Any ideas?

reply to post by greeneyedleo


I think the label itself is a bit cumbersome, but I do think it's cool when blacks wear dashikis and try to revive some other elements of their culture. Maybe the label should be done away with, but by no means should we be like the Borg and urge others to "assimilate".

reply to post by uberarcanist


Oh, I agree with you.

My father used to be a pastor and we had a few families in our church from Africa. One of them being a tribal leader. They were so much fun to be around and listen to their stories. And they always wore their native clothing. Loved it!

I haven't heard of this, thanks for post. Sounds interesting. When the majority of population accepts everyone is the same thing altered slightly, peace will not be far off.

Nameless Americans

Once, the people now known as 'African-American' were politely known as Negroes.

For reasons we don't really have to go into here and don't make sense anyway, some white folk hated and despised Negroes. They called them by another name -- a corruption of the word 'negro' that gets you into big trouble nowadays if you so much as think it, let alone utter it out loud.

By association with that horrible word, the name Negro began to sound insulting and demeaning. So nice people, especially nice Negro people, began using the euphemism 'Coloured' (as in National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, NAACP) instead.

But after some time, the term Coloured began to sound patronizing and negative. Some Coloured people, especially the really angry ones, threw off what they called 'Whitey's labels' and proudly began calling themselves Black. And that is what a lot of Black people, especially Black people outside America, still call themselves.

But again, after some time, that word started to sound just as negative and patronizing as Coloured. This was especially so in America, where some Black people still feel put down by white people. So Black people in America started calling themselves 'African American' -- even though most of them have just as many non-African ancestors as Mitt Romney does, even though Mitt Romney himself has hundreds if not thousands of African ancestors, even though all Americans are in truth African-Americans because we are all Africans. The human race is of African origin.

But fear not. The term 'African-American' will eventually, in its turn, become tainted by association with the putatively oppressed and despised minority it represents. Black media radicals will denounce it. Leftish liberals will take up the cudgels. People like me will post messages on the internet explaining how the term is nonsense because, at the end of the day, everyone's an African anyway.

In this way, and not before time, the term 'African-American' will be moved from the hopper marked 'politically correct' into the one marked 'derogatory and racist'. Its place in the PC lexicon will be taken by a fresh, new, as-yet-unsullied term. Which, in due course, will grow tainted by association and have to be replaced by yet another.

The problem -- that one group of Americans feels oppressed and despised by another -- will remain. And as long as that persists, a certain 'ethnic group', despite its immense contribution to American history and society, will never be able to find itself a name that sticks.

[edit on 12-10-2007 by Astyanax]

reply to post by Astyanax


This reminds me of a friend who moved here from S. Africa. She was whiter that Mitt Romney. She took the LSATs here to get into law school, and actually giggled out loud when she saw the section in the front that asked to identify her ethnicity. She proudly checked off African-American knowing full well how stupid the question was.

Which brings me back to my point. Are white people from S. Africa considered African-American? Or for that matter are blacks from S. Africa considered African-American?

reply to post by Astyanax

a corruption of the word 'negro'

Actually it isnt.. the word you are referring to, which I will not say as I would likely be immediately banned was a started because of where some of the blacks were from, a country called Niger and possibly Nigeria.. its funny how, identifying a person by the country they come from can turn out to be considered a hate crime if used today..






[edit on 10/12/2007 by Kr0n0s]