Current Events > People who say "African American" instead of black

(+) Yeah! (+)

Need to stop it. Also "people of color"

It's racist to use the word black.
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Do Nigerians, Brazilians, Haitians and Jamaicans get mad when you call them African American?
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How the fuck do you expect us to not be constantly offended if we just stick to one politicallly correct term? Everyone will just use the right term and we cant call them racists.


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Look at my African-American over here!

I'm white, but I dont think there's anything wrong with saying black. But when someone says "Blacks" I cringe.
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Veggeta X posted...

Do Nigerians, Brazilians, Haitians and Jamaicans get mad when you call them African American?

Some do. In their cultures being black doesn't carry the stigma of cyclical poverty, prone to violence, and lack of education that it does here. In a real sense, they're getting here and essentially discovering for the first time that they are considered 'black' here. When you consider that a lot of those immigrants are themselves highly educated and successful and still putting up with racist assumptions from people who only see their skin color, and you can see how some of them have come to resent the association altogether. In some respects they're right to be mad, but oftentimes they're wrong to blame their frustrations on black America, rather than the stereotypes propagated about black America.
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Give it another year or two and we'll be saying "dark people" or something like that
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hollow_shrine posted...

Veggeta X posted...

Do Nigerians, Brazilians, Haitians and Jamaicans get mad when you call them African American?

Some do. In their cultures being black doesn't carry the stigma of cyclical poverty, prone to violence, and lack of education that it does here. In a real sense, they're getting here and essentially discovering for the first time that they are considered 'black' here. When you consider that a lot of those immigrants are themselves highly educated and successful and still putting up with racist assumptions from people who only see their skin color, and you can see how some of them have come to resent the association altogether. In some respects they're right to be mad, but oftentimes they're wrong to blame their frustrations on black America, rather than the stereotypes propagated about black America.

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2012/01/28/affirming-a-divide
https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/04/05/inenglish/1491390844_576668.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Brazil
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hollow_shrine posted...

. In their cultures being black doesn't carry the stigma of cyclical poverty, prone to violence, and lack of education that it does here

for Haitians, Jamaicans, and other Caribbean nations it absolutely does

"People of color" is a preferred term now. I think you're confusing it for the last two letters of the NAACP.

we also say stuff like Asian-American, Arab-American, Latino-American, etc.

I don't see anything wrong with using those terms.
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Veggeta X posted...

Do Nigerians, Brazilians, Haitians and Jamaicans get mad when you call them African American?

Probably not. They don't seem very sensitive about innocuous things.
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_Rinku_ posted...

"People of color" is a preferred term now. I think you're confusing it for the last two letters of the NAACP.

I don't know who made that decision though. Like I personally prefer being called Black than any other term. I never cosigned on "POC."

EndOfDiscOne posted...

Give it another year or two and we'll be saying "dark people" or something like that

"African American" and "Black" have both zig-zagged in and out of popular use in America for good reasons in my thirty years of life. Both can be culturally effacing, but both can also be useful. Maybe a new term will arise, referring to people of a skin tone darker than a certain shade. But our understand of race is pretty down on the idea that race can simply be boiled down to skin color, especially because dark-skinned people with kinky hair can be found all over the globe. It also fails to account for how larger society's reaction to that skin color factors into our categorizations of race as well.

This is all just to say, a new term fixating exclusively on skin color as a basis for categorization seems unlikely, because such a term is already obsolete.
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"people of color" doesn't just relate to black people, too; it just means people who aren't white
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Isn't Black the absence of colour? So people of colour dont really make sense.

If i have to be called white, they get to be called black.
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_Rinku_ posted...

"People of color" is a preferred term now.

Funny because people get mad if you say "colored people" instead. It's like the same thing.
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Non-Chinese Asians hate it when you call them Chinese, and I can kinda see why but ignorance is bliss to a lot of people.
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Dusk_ posted...

Isn't Black the absence of colour? So people of colour dont really make sense.

If i have to be called white, they get to be called black.

white people are the ones who designated themselves as being white, not black people

EndOfDiscOne posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

"People of color" is a preferred term now.

Funny because people get mad if you say "colored people" instead. It's like the same thing.

no it's not. "colored people" is how black people used to be referred to, while "people of color" refers to more than just black people
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I love when white people hunch down and whisper the word black when mentioning it.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

"People of color" is a preferred term now.

Funny because people get mad if you say "colored people" instead. It's like the same thing.

You know it's not. One of those terms has a bad history in America. Also, one of those terms was chosen by a group of people of a variety of racial backgrounds to describe themselves as a group. The other one was chosen by an oppressive racial majority to describe a minority, and its use was echoed constantly from water fountains, to legal proceedings, to propaganda ti reiterate the nature of that oppression. Self-determination is key. These things aren't the same at all.
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People of color is like the universally accepted term and is not the same as the offensive term that is in reverse order
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I just say black people.
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Why do people care what "we" black/African-Americans or Persons of Color in general prefer to call ourselves?
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We don't.
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boxington posted...

we also say stuff like Asian-American, Arab-American, Latino-American, etc.

I don't see anything wrong with using those terms.

There never was.

Only PC culture minded folks who want to turn everything into a problem.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

It's racist to use the word black.

No it isn't.
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If I have to refer to someone by their skin color, I'll say either "darker-skinned," "tan-skinned," or "light-skinned."

Every 10 years they want a new designation for the PC term it seems.
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Veggeta X posted...

Do Nigerians, Brazilians, Haitians and Jamaicans get mad when you call them African American?

We correct you to either black or our native nationally.
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boxington posted...

"people of color" doesn't just relate to black people, too; it just means people who aren't white

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"colored people" is putting emphasis on the color

"people of color" is putting emphasis on the person

not really hard to grasp why one is offensive and the other isn't
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dark americans
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mario2000 posted...

"colored people" is putting emphasis on the color

"people of color" is putting emphasis on the person

not really hard to grasp why one is offensive and the other isn't

"black people" and "blacks" put emphasis on the color too
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I was born and raised using "black." People have never told me otherwise.

Until I get a signed memo by 51 percent of the black population I will continue to use "black"

Also:

Dusk_ posted..

Isn't Black the absence of colour? So people of colour dont really make sense.

It depends. I believe different sciences/whatever have different views. It can be used either way.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

mario2000 posted...

"colored people" is putting emphasis on the color

"people of color" is putting emphasis on the person

not really hard to grasp why one is offensive and the other isn't

"black people" and "blacks" put emphasis on the color too

As does "white boy", in fact "white boy" is offensive.
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Vertania posted...

If I have to refer to someone by their skin color, I'll say either "darker-skinned," "tan-skinned," or "light-skinned."

Or you can just call us White, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, Mocha, etc.
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what bo
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... yeah just use black or african american and get on with your life people
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KamenRiderBlade posted...

Vertania posted...

If I have to refer to someone by their skin color, I'll say either "darker-skinned," "tan-skinned," or "light-skinned."

Or you can just call us White, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, Mocha, etc.

Not red. Red-skinned is too close to redskins which is racist.
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I like mocha.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

mario2000 posted...

"colored people" is putting emphasis on the color

"people of color" is putting emphasis on the person

not really hard to grasp why one is offensive and the other isn't

"black people" and "blacks" put emphasis on the color too

you don't know the history behind the term "colored people", do you?
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I've seen many more people in my life be offended by being called african american than being called black. This may just be the circles I run in but I don't think I've ever seen anybody offended by being called black.
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Those three terms have different meanings tho
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My mom doesn't like calling herself African-American, though she was born in Africa and she's a citizen in the USA, but I'm pretty sure she just fuckin hates the Africa now. lol

I'm slowly getting over calling myself black culture wise, but I'm obviously still black by skin tone.
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I like to say "human people with higher levels of melanin in their skin than their pale human people counterparts"

hollow_shrine posted...

EndOfDiscOne posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

"People of color" is a preferred term now.

Funny because people get mad if you say "colored people" instead. It's like the same thing.

You know it's not. One of those terms has a bad history in America. Also, one of those terms was chosen by a group of people of a variety of racial backgrounds to describe themselves as a group. The other one was chosen by an oppressive racial majority to describe a minority, and its use was echoed constantly from water fountains, to legal proceedings, to propaganda ti reiterate the nature of that oppression. Self-determination is key. These things aren't the same at all.

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

KamenRiderBlade posted...

Vertania posted...

If I have to refer to someone by their skin color, I'll say either "darker-skinned," "tan-skinned," or "light-skinned."

Or you can just call us White, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, Mocha, etc.

Not red. Red-skinned is too close to redskins which is racist.

Pretty sure "yellow" can be highly offensive too.

Vertania posted...

Pretty sure "yellow" can be highly offensive too.

Speaking as a Yellow Colored Man, it's only offensive if I take it that way from a person who says it in a mean / derogatory way.

Otherwise I'm pretty neutral to it all together.
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