Joanna said...
You know DV, I don't think I have ever heard one of my friends refer to themselves as "African American".Last time I heard a Black person call themselves "African American" was in college in '91.
But, I think that a lot of white folks like to latch onto the term "African American" because they have this misguided notion that calling someone Black is an insult.
that dude said...
What Joanna said. Wasn't it Jesse Jackson who popularized the term? I always hated it and never accepted it in my life.btw, ALWAYS hated the term "urban" too. It's a bullshit marketing term to avoid saying "black". How are all these country southern rappers "urban"?
Pink said..
I heard my Guyanese friend refer to herself as African American and I busted out laughing.It sounds even funnier with a Guyanese accent.
But other than that I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to themselves as African American either...
3 comments:
Yes, it was Jesse Jackson who coined that mess. I recall when the term was released, and even though thought to myself, "how did they come up with that? Who did they ask? Was there a vote? And why don't white folks get a cockamamy label...seeing that they ain't even from here?"
I actually do hear Black folk use the term; same ones who get highly offended if you use the term nigger (or nigga...yeah whatever)...mostly older women. My wife and her family are from El Salvador (Spanish Americans? Hell no, just Spanish...and still incorrect), and her brother used the term African-American the other night and I too busted out laughing. "Please man, we Black.". He uses nigger/nigga with his other brothers though...
Shit's a mess.
Its totally hilarious that the colored, negro,black, african-american, jiggaboo ,coon, spook,spade, spear chucker, in the age of technology still can't get a grip on who she or he is, a HUMAN BEING, which is the last thing these plantation owners want you to think of yoursef as... why are you so turned off by anything African when you give yourselves african names, hairstyles, where africanclothing and most of you have the shit on backwards and can't even name the cloth or its origin.... what did your friends laugh about... did they already know that your dumb ass didn't know that you definitely weren't connected to Africa and why didn't you say I'm a nigger-american (in lower case)... the massa has dumbed you down so much you don't know what to call yourself....Like they told you after and during KATRINA... you are a REFUGEE .... which means not native to a region...so where are you from???? Go get you a BLACK piece of paper and see if your skin matches...African is not about COLOR...its about SPIRIT... The MASSA did his job!!! He took your Spirit and your SOUL...Thats why the confusion exists my niggah!
What makes you think that people are turned off by things that are African? Personally I just think it's disingenuous for me to define myself in relation to a place I've never been and an entire continent when I can't even narrow down a particular region because I have no clue. I don't think there's anything wrong with people who feel that connection defining themselves as such, but I don't. I would love to visit certain parts at some point but if and when I do, I'll be just that: a visitor. No one there is going to regard me as one of them and I wouldn't know enough about their culture to feel "at home". I'm proud of anything that contributed to my genes but I'm too far removed to actually consider myself African.
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