Comments on: Black or African American?

By: Elahe Izadi

Elahe Izadi — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:57:00 +0000

Unfortunately, I’ll have to close the comments’ section to this blog post because of a few commenters who are repeatedly posting racial slurs. Thanks to everyone who offered thoughtful feedback and comments.

By: Randymau416

Randymau416 — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:52:00 +0000

Hey Bitter-do us all a favor and start planning your Valentines Day gift for your girlfriend.

Oops sorry, I guess I thought you might be a normal person with some sort of reasonable intelligence. It must suck to be as lonely as you to sit around in front of your only friend(the computer) and hurl insults to cover up your feelings of inadequacy.

Maybe you can take your computer on a date tomorrow then? At least let it have some of those chocolates that you engulf while sitting there on your lard-ass daily.

-KISSES XOXO

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Charlize Theron is African American.

By: Elijah405

Elijah405 — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:32:00 +0000

I would ask that the moderator of this forum reviews posts before they can go up. This way we can effectively silence trolls like this one who have nothing meaningful to add to a discussion but hate and vitriol. I feel sorry for this person, it must be rough to live in such an isolated world organically.

By: Jenjenallison

Jenjenallison — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:41:00 +0000

I wonder about this often, since an incident where I refered a manager to “the two black ladies” who needed additional help and those ladies lost it on me. It was simply a descriptor so he knew who to speak with, but was unfortunately taken the wrong way.

I will call anyone whatever they prefer to be called! I love how the Braxton’s have cute names, like chocolate and snowflake…and think we could settle this easily by referring to people as chocolate or vanilla, or latte or cappaccino or espresso…whatever works for the skintone.

By: Guest

Guest — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:58:00 +0000

This is purely an American phenomenon because America fetishes “race” (for obvious reasons).

The equal of “African American” is the term “European American”. Yet, we do *not* call White People “European American”. We call them White. We refer to them by their RACE.

Why, then, is it “wrong” to call Black People “Black”? Especially since “Black” is equal to “White” as a racial descriptor? Is there something wrong with being Black?

We can’t possibly know every White Person’s ancestry so we simply call them “White”. We don’t call them “European American” for a simple and obvious reason: not all White People are from Europe.

We refer to all people by their *COUNTRY OF ANCESTRY*, not their *CONTINENT OF ORIGIN*.

Hence, German American, Australian American, Icelandic American. How useless, innacurate, and offensive would it be to erase difference with “European American”?

How is a person of Haitian or Carribean descent (who lives in the United States) served by “African American”? Why are they accurately described by their ethnic origin in other countries but flattened into “African American” in the U.S. by virtue of skin color only? It seem offensive and reflexive.

All humans of all races are ”People of the African Diaspora”. That continent is, according to the fossil record, where life and humans began. The question is: what does it serve to erase real difference and real understanding worldwide in favor of indulging White Guilt in one country that has repressed culpability?

Ignorance is served. Only in America.

By: Cia0912

Cia0912 — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:17:00 +0000

My parents were born in the Caribbean islands. (Their origins stem from Jamaica and Cuba). I was born in England. But because I lived in US, I was called African-American. Really!! Seriously!! Now I live in the Middle East. I wonder what I am called now.

By: Bakari Kamau

Bakari Kamau — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:07:00 +0000

Just call me Black. “African American” strikes me as guilty white-people talk. We can dice up ethnicity and heritage over a long conversation, but I like to make it easy.

By: kgc31

kgc31 — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:23:00 +0000

Very interesting topic and I think about it a lot. My husband’s family is Jamaican, my family is Egyptian, but he’s African-American and I’m not? But my parents were actually born on African soil. It’s just too complicated.

By: Frenchie

Frenchie — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:06:00 +0000

As a Haitian-American from Miami now living in DC, I prefer to be called Haitian-American lol. However, I do realize that ethnic differences are not immediately obvious to others so the term black, although limited in its “one-drop” American context, is preferable when having to choose between 2 evils. I prefer not to be called African-American because it doesn’t correctly encompass my history or background. Additionally, there continue to be tensions between “member of the African diaspora, “exotic” blacks and African-Americans “regular” blacks. That often painful and tense history continues to prevent black immigrants from feeling as if African-American can ever be an all-inclusive term and, thus, makes “black” our default.