Is 'black' mildly offensive?

[gsdx]

Well, you brought your Dad into the discussion and left the door open about your own thoughts..Your Dad does not post here but you do. Tell us your thoughts..

If you are uncomfortable expressing yourself then forget about it...There's no point in playing a game of Dodgeball...

You must have 'missed' this little emoticon at the end of his sentence: :~/

(Can you see it now?)

 

[T-Rexx]

Christ, even Rush Limbaugh calls them African Americans [edit: which is how i came upon this idea] (i've heard him several times on his show and he consistently calls them African Americans, so I don't think he's being cynical).

You miss the point.

Rush calls them African-Americans because he considers it mildly offensive. But it's a mild enough term that he thinks he can get away with it.

 

[gsdx]

There are times when it's useful to be more specific than just saying "American."

I was being a bit vague in my statement, I suppose. The point I was hoping to make that I have never heard the terms African-Canadian, or African-European, or African-Mexican, etc.

I've heard only African-American and, as was noted in a post above, the term is often applied to all black people (including Nelson Mandella) around the world. That's where Political Correctness fails.

 

[Sha-Rok]

We're not Africans though, how in the hell do we embody a whole continent when most of the slaves that fell victim to the system was from a particular area of the continent. What is so fucked up is that we don't know the true name of those areas because everything was carved up thanks to colonization..*sigh* whatever..Sub-Saharan is probably the most accurate term I've found.

 

[AlmondMilk]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my mom back in elementary school about race. I asked why white people were called "white" when they were shades of light tan color (I would tend to think of all the crayola colors) and black people were shades of brown. Then my brother jumped in and told me that I was racist =.= It's funny because when I refer to myself, I call myself Asian. I've never been called or heard of being called yellow.

I don't think calling someone black is offensive. It seems to be the norm... And as people have mentioned, being politically correct doesn't always work. You can call someone African American or African European, etc, but...it just doesn't work. I guess the reason why some people would want this distinction is because being called black is very vague and in a way ignores the person's roots. But I think if someone were interested in what your nationality was, they would ask you and there you would say, "Oh, I'm American" or whatever.

 

[bendted]

You miss the point.

Rush calls them African-Americans because he considers it mildly offensive. But it's a mild enough term that he thinks he can get away with it.

Now I am thoroughly confused. African American is not "getting away" with anything. What am I missing?

 

[Sha-Rok]

Most Italian Americans aren't Italian, and most Irish Americans aren't Irish.
But, like African Americans, their group has a particular history and perspective that is somewhat different from the histories and perspectives of other Americans.

They may not be from Italy or Ireland but I guarantee you they can trace directly back to when their family immigrated too America. So theres really no question and its viewed as something to take pride in. If we were to use this viewpoint we all should be hyphenated Americans because none of us was here before colonization.
I'm just saying look at the symbolic relationship between these terms used to describe our ethnicity. I'm just going to start calling every one I perceive to be white European-American.

 

[gsdx]

We're not Africans though, how in the hell do we embody a whole continent when most of the slaves that fell victim to the system was from a particular area of the continent.

Several years ago, I was good friends with a family which lived just outside of Johannesburg in South Africa. I've lost track of them, unfortunately. I believe they moved back to England where they originally lived. Anyway, Lynn told me of Whitney Houston going there for a concert. The first time she appeared on stage, she said, "I'm home at last!" She was practically booed off the stage. Africa was no more her 'home' than the US was home to the audience.

The reason you haven't heard those other terms isn't that they don't exist and aren't used. More likely, they just don't come up in your life.

I don't think so. I've never, ever, heard the term 'African-Canadian', either in news reports, television programmes, documentaries, or any other times. I don't believe the term exists. It appears to be an American PC phenomenon.

 

[bendted]

Limbaugh is mocking what he views as "politically correct" language.

OK, that makes sense I suppose. It's definitley something he would do.

 

[LilBit]

Well, you brought your Dad into the discussion and left the door open about your own thoughts..Your Dad does not post here but you do. Tell us your thoughts..

If you are uncomfortable expressing yourself then forget about it...There's no point in playing a game of Dodgeball...

As gsdx mentioned, the emoticon (and the fact that I censored the word) should have made it clear that I disapprove of the word. I actually got into a fight with him recently about his offensive attitudes towards, among other things, race in America.

Since some people don't seem to care for reading between the lines, my point in bringing him up was this: we have more important issues to worry about than whether we refer to a group of people as "black" or "African-American." (Hell, within my lifetime, "Negro" was still an acceptable term.)

What we need to worry about is the bigotry that underlies the choice of language. Not everyone is as overt about it as my dad, but racism is still abundant in this country, and worrying about whether we refer to people as "black," African-American," "colored," or "spearchuckers" isn't going to get us at the root of the problem.

Whoa -- I hope you were just joking.

I wish I were.

 

[MisterMajestic]

What we need to worry about is the bigotry that underlies the choice of language. Not everyone is as overt about it as my dad, but racism is still abundant in this country, and worrying about whether we refer to people as "black," African-American," "colored," or "spearchuckers" isn't going to get us at the root of the problem..

I agree.......

 

[MisterMajestic]

^^^^Unclean is a Brotha..Don't let the White Dude in his AVATAR box Fool'ya......I agree with some of his Views when we discuss race & current events..

 

[ChickenGuy]

My dad always seems to use the word 'coloured'.

And when I say to him that he should be saying 'black', he says to me he considers THAT word offensive.

P.S. My dad doesn't have a racist bone in his body. It's just the word that he somehow happens to use.

 

[Zabotugi]

I never say African Americans.
That's sounds weird. I just say black.

Dykes
faggots
niggers
crackers
rednecks
spics
sand niggers

Those are my favorite words.
I call my Brazilian friend baby spic and he think's it's cute.

How is a Brazilian a "spic" when the word applies to spanish speakers?

 

[Sha-Rok]

Why? I don't understand the extreme reaction.

White people aren't actually white. Asians aren't literally yellow.

Look up the word Black. There are extremely negative connotations behind the word. I refuse to embody that. The majority would fail a color test in this country. If my skin tone is brown why am I black?

BTW: Calling Asians "Yellow" is offensive too.

 

[MMMonsterBoy]

I find 'African American' to be deceiving. Why is that 'Irish Americans' and 'Italian Americans' are considered to be people who either a) Moved from their previous location to America or B) Has two parents from those locations though child was born in America. My parents were not born in Africa, and neither were their parents...the list goes beyond that too. I did not move from Africa to America, and neither did my parents. While I am not denying that the bloodline could be traced to Africa, for me it was generations upon generations upon generations...and so on. The term 'African American' is outdated. Though not really 'offensive' as it is not entirely accurate.

I find the term 'black' to be less offensive, though still inaccurate. My skin isn't black. However, it really is not much of a big deal [for me]. Though the term is not technical...

I would rather be called 'American' on the account of I was born in America and so were my parents and so were their parents...so on....I celebrate "American culture" on a day to day basis as that's the way I raised because that's how my parents were raised!

 

[lucem-ferre]

...Ever since we gained a Black President Ignorance has run rampant...HELLO...

actually, our president is mulatto.

 

[BostonPirate]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrYCrdJyaDg[/ame]

 

[BostonPirate]

in contrast to black, mulatto is an offensive term

yeah

I cringed when I read it.

 

[theFallenGod]

Question...

Would you refer to a white South African person who immigrated to America as an African American?