Current Events > Does it make you uncomfortable when people use "African American"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Instead of using black people or the black community?

The hyphenated approach usually annotates that a person is a second generation citizen, when the reality is that many black families have been in America for several generations.

And just from my anecdotal experience, it feels like those who use African-American are the same people that dont actually have black friends.

What does CE think of this?

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I've never been a fan of the term nor have I ever seen a black person offended by the term "black people" and I was born and raised in a majority black city

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I think "black community" is a bit weird sounding nad never used
AA or black works but there's a difference like when some black British lad won something and the American reported refered to him as an British African American instead of black Britishman or British black man

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clyde_frog posted...

The hyphenated approach usually annotates that a person is a second generation citizen

nah, when it uses the continent/region of origin, it refers to the person's ethnicity (African-American, Asian-American, European-American, etc.).

and no, I don't mind it.

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clyde_frog posted...

the reality is that many black families have been in America for several generations.

Yep. Or else, as an example they're first/ second generation Americans from Haiti. Still black, but really far removed from Africa.

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boxington posted...

nah, when it uses the continent/region of origin, it refers to the person's ethnicity (African-American, Asian-American, European-American, etc.).

and no, I don't mind it.

I know those are the intentions behind the use, but you dont call someone a European-American when their grandfather moved here from Ireland half a century ago.

We had this lecture in my Writings in Ethnic Studies class last fall.

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I've always found it to be a bit weird.

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Why not just call them Americans by now, their families been here for generations. What I'm supposed to call people directly from Africa? Africa Africans? African Germans, African brits, African french? African Canadians?

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It's always been my understanding from black people that African American is sort of white people's term they started using because they're afraid that calling them "black" would be offensive, when it in actuality isn't, and most of them actually prefer the term.

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Kinda weird to me but it doesn't make me uncomfortable . They're American. I'm not European American, I'm American

Native American makes more sense to me but they're also still American

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Hayame Zero posted...

It's always been my understanding from black people that African American is sort of white people's term they started using because they're afraid that calling them "black" would be offensive, when it in actuality isn't, and most of them actually prefer the term.

That's what I've always observed too

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Yeah, it is kind of a weird term that I'm glad is falling out of favor.

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When I grew up in the 90s black was the offensive term, and African Americans the proper one. Then it shifted some time after to be the opposite. So maybe they just remember when they were taught to say it the first time.

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It's almost as cringe worthy as "people of color." Might as well go back to calling them "colored people" and then "coloreds."

I've never seen anyone take issue with being referred to as either "African-American" or "black" irl

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What's worse is that not all black people come from Africa in the first place.. but they all get shoved into that generic title.

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Just calling them black people is fine right? Why would that be an issue?

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Nope

"Blacks" on the other hand...

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I honestly have no idea what to call people. I want to be respectful but I have no idea what's the most respectful term

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AzurexNightmare posted...

I honestly have no idea what to call people. I want to be respectful but I have no idea what's the most respectful term

Black lives matter.

Black people would not be using black for this movement name if it were considered insulting, trust me.

Its similar to how jew can be simultaneously a noun and a slur depending on whos saying it and how

Moment someone uses african american I assume theyre either overly polite in their nature or have no idea how to proceed, which is fine unless they insist on it

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AvantgardeAClue posted...

Moment someone uses african american I assume theyre either overly polite in their nature or have no idea how to proceed, which is fine unless they insist on it

Again, this used to be the PC thing to say, and black was considered in poor taste.

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Ive always thought it was dumb they are americans so are native americans....you dont have an African-Canadian or Africa-Mexican population

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