OT European Americans

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dviss1 said:
Why don't we call white people this?

Why separate me from my country of birth by referring to me as African first?
Click to expand...
Don't ask me.

1. We're both Americans.
2. In general I call people what they want to be called. I didn't come up with African American. I was told it was the right term for years.

3. The only time it should even really matter is when I'm trying to describe someone. As in...Dviss1 is the black guy who moves like a 20 year old in the 3 on 3 tournament videos.
 
dviss1 said:
Why don't we call white people this?

Why separate me from my country of birth by referring to me as African first?
Click to expand...
Honestly I think the term 'African American' was born out of political correctness, but it doesnt make much sense to me either. I think just 'black' seemed too brash sounding maybe, since nobody is actually literally black (or white, for that matter).
 
jonnyboy said:
Honestly I think the term 'African American' was born out of political correctness, but it doesnt make much sense to me either. I think just 'black' seemed too brash sounding maybe, since nobody is actually literally black (or white, for that matter).
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen this? I've quoted it often in the forum.

It is Smokey....

 
dviss1 said:
Why don't we call white people this?

Why separate me from my country of birth by referring to me as African first?
Click to expand...

Because that's what your relatives demand!?

I don't use that term because except for my nephew whose father is a Nigerian citizen, I don't know ANYBODY with a direct connection to Africa.

You're an American, a natural-born citizen of the greatest country on Earth. Why should you stand for someone's diminishing of that?
 
lawai'a said:
haoles, brah
Click to expand...

Yeah, racism against non-Islanders of any color was pretty evident among the lower class males when I spent a couple weeks in Hawaii.

Really the only state I've been to that openly accepts it without apology, simply advising tourists to expect that they may be beaten for going to "the wrong" beach.
 
dviss1 said:
Why don't we call white people this?

Why separate me from my country of birth by referring to me as African first?
Click to expand...
There is no logical reason.
 
MARIS61 said:
Yeah, racism against non-Islanders of any color was pretty evident among the lower class males when I spent a couple weeks in Hawaii.

Really the only state I've been to that openly accepts it without apology, simply advising tourists to expect that they may be beaten for going to "the wrong" beach.
Click to expand...
When we went to Hawaii there was absolutely no racism displayed anywhere.
 
dviss1 said:
Why don't we call white people this?

Why separate me from my country of birth by referring to me as African first?
Click to expand...
The president of the NAACP refers to "African-Americans", so I'm now officially confused.

Incidentally, I saw a great made for tv movie about Thurgood Marshal last night. Very impressive.
 
dviss1 said:
Why don't we call white people this?

Why separate me from my country of birth by referring to me as African first?
Click to expand...
I call you dviss myself....and in fairness, people are called Irish Americans, Italian americans, Jewish americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans etc....and I don't believe European americans started the African American tag but all ethnic American backgrounds have tags...it's not just African americans...George Carlin did a bit about this topic that's pretty interesting. Sort of like Canada has French Canadians eh?
That being said in the end we should just call each other americans in my view with the occasional reference to assholes thrown in..
 
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Historically, Hyphen-Americans has always been done to designate lesser. In some groups, it was embraced (take ownership of it), but in most cases it's trying to separate classes.
 
Call me whatever you want, just don't call me late for Thanksgiving dinner.

Makes EA Sports sound kind of racist...and boring.
 
julius said:
Historically, Hyphen-Americans has always been done to designate lesser
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I have never associated this as a lower designation....you often read the word proud before the adjective...
 
I'm largely Irish American and even though we weren't considered upper class immigrants at the time, I know of no Irish American who is offended by being called that
 
I think it has to do with modes of immigration and cultural background. White people all immigrated to America and its easier to figure out their lineage. So we have Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans and such and its somewhat common or use to be common to refer to yourself or others that way. Since black people came over mostly from slavery, its harder to determine their direct heritage so they are referred to as black or African-American instead of Nigerian-American or Congo-American. African-America is more politically correct than black. I've also heard European-American and Asian-American but neither are very common.
 
riverman said:
I have never associated this as a lower designation....you often read the word proud before the adjective...
Click to expand...

That's the "ownership" aspect I was talking about. I'm talking about the original use of the phrasing. It was used as a slur against people who weren't "Real" Americans (i.e., foreign born or the incorrect European heritage or whoever is whoevers enemy at the time). As in, they don't really represent what it means to be an American. It created a division and started the growth of the "other" among us. And any time those people said they wanted to just be Americans, they were then ask "why are you such and such American than!?"

Well, they weren't the ones who created the label... But anyways, it wasn't until groups that were "hyphenated" Americans had became accepted as part of the whole, that the hyphenated Americans started to use the term as a sense of pride. And now that we've, for the most part, grown past the labeling of sub groups as not being considered Americans, and the -American name taxonomy doesn't bear the insult it used to, although there are still groups that fall into the grouping of not being "Real" Americans (currently, "Muslim-American" is probably used as much as an identifier that the person is not a "Real" American).

I know that Maris will just point out that me pointing out historical facts proves I'm racist or some other nonsense, but actually understanding history plays a role in why things happened or will happen.
 
I prefer to identify by blood type. O Positive American here. Emphasis on the POSITIVE.
 
We should all have to carry around our 23 and me results.
 
riverman said:
I have never associated this as a lower designation....you often read the word proud before the adjective...
Click to expand...

Proud is used as a code word for poor or low breeding.

He’s got nothing but pride.
Proud immigrant, proud servicemen, proud workers.

Never hear proud hedge fund manager, proud billionaire, proud CEO.
 
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