Not directed at you in particular
but why is it "African American" and not just "American" or "black American"?

If the out-of-Africa theory is to be believed, I'm African-Irish. And I work in a mainly African-English office with some lovely African-English and African-Scottish people.
(blueberrypossum wants to Jaffa your Cake, Sat 3 Apr 2010, 1:37, 1 reply)

It's because
officially it's bad to say "black" in the US when referring to an ethnicity, so the crusaders of an earlier decade decreed that African-American is dignified and not negatively charged in any way.

Except that it's cumbersome and nobody wants to use it. The US has always had a bit of weird culture towards black people, and that seems to get more encoded with each successive generation while most people just try to live their lives.

Note that I'm from Canada - we still say "black". We use the awkward "First Nations" to describe the descendants of the people who lived here before Europeans showed up though.
(Ejaculantern was caught desecrating pumpkins on, Sat 3 Apr 2010, 7:06, closed)

Yep.
I personally think the whole "African American" thing is a silly result of going overboard with political correctness. In general conversation I think it's lame, but here I'm just using it here to refer to a particular group of black people. I've met a lot of Africans and black people from other countries who are totally normal and nice, but my ghetto experience really turned me off of African Americans.

As a (blindingly) white person, I don't feel I have the right to comment on what term is "correct," but I don't know what's so damn offensive about calling black people black when it's normal to call white people white (though I suppose by the same token it's not cool to call an asian "yellow"). It just seems like anyone who would be offended by that is overly sensitive and needs to put their energy towards something more productive.

Anyway, I'm all for the "out-of-Africa" theory of tacking "African" in front of every ethnicity.
(Exempt OH WOW, VICODIN, Sat 3 Apr 2010, 7:46, closed)

"The US has always had a bit of weird culture towards black people"
Slavery summed up.
(thefuckestuppest cheapened this, on, Sat 3 Apr 2010, 10:24, closed)

I wasn't referring to the slavery,
I was referring to subsequent relations.

Besides, slavery gets shit done.
(Ejaculantern was caught desecrating pumpkins on, Sat 3 Apr 2010, 21:11, closed)