Okay, I know I used it in the previous story...
But I find the term African-American insipid, as apparently many others do. I know when I taught college, the working-class blacks prefered to be called "black." The blacks in my family prefer to be called "black."

In college, I described a computer lab user who'd just left as "black." A woman went off on me for my insensitivity and insisted I use the term "African-American."

I replied that he's not American: he was a Nigerian exchange student.

I'm surprised I wasn't taken to task for calling him a "Nigerian" as it sounds close to "nigger."

Also, if white Afrikaners become U.S. citizens, does that make them African-American?
(ChiTown Guy Dating when 35+: sane, single, attractive - pick 2, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 1:14, 9 replies)

No, it makes them
Americans. ;)
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 1:25, closed)

Which is still silly
since the Americas are quite a bit more diverse than just the USA.
(Uncle Washy, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 1:32, closed)

You mean
Amerikaans ?
( b3th Not shit. Not mod., Mon 5 Apr 2010, 10:11, closed)

A friend at university in the UK spent a year as an exchange student in the States.

This was a subject you avoided as he would give forth at length at how he found that people there could not accept that he vehemently objected to be being catagorised as African-American, as he was British and black (and from Birmingham).
(Scooby Don't, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 1:32, closed)

Exactly
I had a college friend visit England in the 1980s, and they didnt understand why he called himself "Mexican-American." They wanted to know which one he was.
(ChiTown Guy Dating when 35+: sane, single, attractive - pick 2, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 1:38, closed)

"250 million people with an identity criisis"
As I've heard said about the US...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Mon 5 Apr 2010, 8:17, closed)

had a discussion with a mate of mine about this sort of thing
my view: if there is someone across the room to whom you are referring, and they happen to be black, it is fine to say "the black guy" in the same way it would be to say "the blonde guy" or similar. It is a physical characteristic used with no negativity.

My mate couldn't understand this and was suggesting he'd probably try and select some other characteristic to use.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 10:31, closed)

It's often something imposed on a race by someone who feels superior
Many of my friends are Indian and they scoff at the term "Native American" saying "that's something some rich white guy figured out in some stuck up Ivy league school, I'm an Indian, dammit!"

I think it's another way for small people to keep other people in the place they imagine for them. Then they give themselves pats on the back, "Gee Virginia, I am really open minded and liberal, I just spoke to an African-American man for 15 whole minutes!!! I'm going to throw a party to tell all my friends about how diverse I am!"
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 18:30, closed)

'I think it's another way for small people to keep other people in the place they imagine for them'
Nicely put. I also think that the would-be UltraEnlightened folks like to turn the words they use for other people into another way to put themselves above others while keeping smug and condescending, especially when those words aren't generally used by the people in question (see 'differently abled').
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 20:26, closed)