Why are blacks called African Americans?

[Remodeling Maidiac]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Because calling them "negro" started to hurt their feelings. Given enough time, "African-American" will be looked back upon and seen as extremely racist, and they'll come up with a new name that will also be seen as offensive over time.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Why are blacks called African Americans?

Because most black Americans aren't able to determine from what country their ancestors were removed; moreover, much of Africa in the 18th century wasn't politically divided into nation states as we think of them. Thus there is no country to specify as might Italian Americans and so on. It was a continent of regions and tribal areas, not a place apportioned by political boundaries.

17th and 18th Century Map of Africa




Map of Africa 1885

 

[Mac1958]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship. I'm not called a Scandanavian American. Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Nothing more than an artificial mechanism to divide us into identity groups for socio-political advantage.

In other words, Identity Politics.
.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

3 different responses in 3 posts. Interesting. When was the term African American coined Mac? Are you sure it's political?

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

Political correctness...

They are Americans plain and simple!

PC Police want the african added to it so you can make Black Americans feel speical but in the end they are just Americans like the Irish and Italians that have been here for Generations...

Now I am Canadian-Americian because I was born in Canada but live here...

 

[Mac1958]

3 different responses in 3 posts. Interesting. When was the term African American coined Mac? Are you sure it's political?

Well, I looked it up. :The origin of the term ‘African American’

Jesse Jackson may have popularized the term in the late 1980s, but a Yale researcher finds what may very well be the very first written instance of "African American" - and it was published 233 years ago.

So it probably just depends upon the context in which it was used. But if Jesse Jackson brought it back, then yeah, I'd say there is a strong political element to it.
.

 

[Unkotare]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

No one alive today was brought here.

 

[Unkotare]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

No one alive today was brought here.

Who said they were?

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

No one alive today was brought here.

Who said they were?

Then why post that? I wasnt asking about slave names or adjectives

 

[Unkotare]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

No one alive today was brought here.

Who said they were?

Then why post that? I wasnt asking about slave names or adjectives

Did you skip your coffee this morning?

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

No one alive today was brought here.

Who said they were?

Then why post that? I wasnt asking about slave names or adjectives

Did you skip your coffee this morning?

I don't drink caffeine. No crutches are needed.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why to say "people of color" is dandy but "colored people" is not.

 

[Auld Phart]

Wonder if people would think I was nuts if I referred to my self as English-Irish-Scots-German American?

 

[Unkotare]

Because many people brought to America in bondage were so separated from their families and kin, and forbidden education, that they don't know exactly where in Africa their origins lie. Someone who's family immigrated to America from Italy doesn't call himself European American because he knows what specific country his family is from. Many people brought to America were robbed of that part of their identity.

No one alive today was brought here.

Who said they were?

Then why post that? I wasnt asking about slave names or adjectives

Did you skip your coffee this morning?

I don't drink caffeine. ..

You should start.

 

[blastoff]

They didn't like being called colored people so they decided on black for a while, but then decided they didn't like that either and came up with the AA moniker, but didn't change the name of the NAACP for some reason. No one knows what's next but I think they should go with Ray Nagin and work chocolate into it somehow.

 

[Marion Morrison]

It's not like they were born there or have duel citizenship.
I'm not called a Scandanavian American.
Whites in Africa aren't called American Africans or British Africans.

Some PC asshat. I say blacks and black people.

Here's why: Some black families have been in America 3-400 years, it's time to drop the Africa off after a couple hundred years.

Unless they're first-generation immigrants from Africa, the term "African American" is incorrect.


Matter of fact I do know a 1st-generation immigrant from Africa: White with Dutch ancestry.

 

[Geaux4it]

I agree. It's a PC thing.

or

We needed to find a reason for their abusive behavior. They beat their women and other terrible acts. So, we needed to make them sound not 'so American'

Thus, African American. Explains why some are not much more evolved than the days of spear chucking

-Geaux

 

[rightwinger]

Because calling them "negro" started to hurt their feelings. Given enough time, "African-American" will be looked back upon and seen as extremely racist, and they'll come up with a new name that will also be seen as offensive over time.

When I grew up, they were called "colored" or "negro" you could even hear the word "n*gger" on TV

But colored and negro became associated with Jim Crow restrictions and n*gger became a dirty word

For most of my life "black" was the acceptable term. Highlighted by the "I'm black and I'm proud" movement
Since then, blacks seem to be searching for a lost culture that "black" does not define. It is not their fault that their culture was taken away from them