US

Is the Term ‘African-American’ Accurate in 2012?

Americans Debate if Black or African American Best Describes Them

(AP) The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House. Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past: “black.”

For this group — some descended from U.S. slaves, some immigrants with a separate history — “African-American” is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s. Instead, it’s a misleading connection to a distant culture.

The debate has waxed and waned since African-American went mainstream, and gained new significance after the son of a black Kenyan and a white American moved into the White House. President Barack Obama’s identity has been contested from all sides, renewing questions that have followed millions of darker Americans:

What are you? Where are you from? And how do you fit into this country?

“I prefer to be called black,” said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. “How I really feel is, I’m American.”

“I don’t like African-American. It denotes something else to me than who I am,” said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina. “I can’t recall any of them telling me anything about Africa. They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C.”

Americans Debate if Black or African American Best Describes ThemGibré George, an entrepreneur from Miami, started a Facebook page called “Don’t Call Me African-American” on a whim. It now has about 300 “likes.”

“We respect our African heritage, but that term is not really us,” George said. “We’re several generations down the line. If anyone were to ship us back to Africa, we’d be like fish out of water.”

“It just doesn’t sit well with a younger generation of black people,” continued George, who is 38. “Africa was a long time ago. Are we always going to be tethered to Africa? Spiritually I’m American. When the war starts, I’m fighting for America.”

Joan Morgan, a writer born in Jamaica who moved to New York City as a girl, remembers the first time she publicly corrected someone about the term: at a book signing, when she was introduced as African-American and her family members in the front rows were appalled and hurt.

“That act of calling me African-American completely erased their history and the sacrifice and contributions it took to make me an author,” said Morgan, a longtime U.S. citizen who calls herself Black-Caribbean American. (Some insist Black should be capitalized.)

She said people struggle with the fact that black people have multiple ethnicities because it challenges America’s original black-white classifications. In her view, forcing everyone into a name meant for descendants of American slaves distorts the nature of the contributions of immigrants like her black countrymen Marcus Garvey and Claude McKay.

Morgan acknowledges that her homeland of Jamaica is populated by the descendants of African slaves. “But I am not African, and Africans are not African-American,” she said.

In Latin, a forerunner of the English language, the color black is “niger.” In 1619, the first African captives in America were described as “negars,” which became the epithet still used by some today.

The Spanish word “negro” means black. That was the label applied by white Americans for centuries.

The word black also was given many pejorative connotations — a black mood, a blackened reputation, a black heart. “Colored” seemed better, until the civil rights movement insisted on Negro, with a capital N.

Then, in the 1960s, “black” came back — as an expression of pride, a strategy to defy oppression.

“Every time black had been mentioned since slavery, it was bad,” says Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania history professor and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Reclaiming the word “was a grass-roots move, and it was oppositional. It was like, ‘In your face.’”

Afro-American was briefly in vogue in the 1970s, and lingers today in the names of some newspapers and university departments. But it was soon overshadowed by African-American, which first sprouted among the black intelligentsia.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is widely credited with taking African-American mainstream in 1988, before his second presidential run.

Berry remembers being at a 1988 gathering of civil rights groups organized by Jackson in Chicago when Ramona Edelin, then president of the National Urban Coalition, urged those assembled to declare that black people should be called African-American.

Americans Debate if Black or African American Best Describes Them

Edelin says today that there was no intent to exclude people born in other countries, or to eliminate the use of black: “It was an attempt to start a cultural offensive, because we were clearly at that time always on the defensive.”

“We said, this is kind of a compromise term,” she continued. “There are those among us who don’t want to be referred to as African. And there also those among us who don’t want to be referred to as American. This was a way of bridging divisions among us or in our ideologies so we can move forward as a group.”

Jackson, who at the time may have been the most-quoted black man in America, followed through with the plan.

“Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical, cultural base,” Jackson told reporters at the time. “African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”

The effect was immediate. “Back in those days we didn’t talk about things going viral, but that’s what you would say today. It was quite remarkable,” said the columnist Clarence Page, then a reporter. “It was kind of like when Black Power first came in the ’60s, there was all kinds of buzz among black folks and white folks about whether or not I like this.”

Page liked it — he still uses it interchangeably with black — and sees an advantage to changing names.

“If we couldn’t control anything else, at least we could control what people call us,” Page said. “That’s the most fundamental right any human being has, over what other people call you. (African-American) had a lot of psychic value from that point of view.”

It also has historical value, said Irv Randolph, managing editor of the Philadelphia Tribune, a black newspaper that uses both terms: “It’s a historical fact that we are people of African descent.”

“African-American embraces where we came from and where we are now,” he said. “We are Americans, no doubt about that. But to deny where we came from doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Jackson agrees about such denial. “It shows a willful ignorance of our roots, our heritage and our lineage,” he said Tuesday. “A fruit without a root is dying.”

He observed that the history of how captives were brought here from Africa is unchangeable, and that Senegal is almost as close to New York as Los Angeles.

“If a chicken is born in the oven,” Jackson said, “that doesn’t make it a biscuit.”

Today, 24 years after Jackson popularized African-American, it’s unclear what term is preferred by the community. A series of Gallup polls from 1991 to 2007 showed no strong consensus for either black or African-American. In a January 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent of respondents said they preferred black, 35 percent said African-American, 13 percent said it doesn’t make any difference, and 7 percent chose “some other term.”

Meanwhile, a record number of black people in America — almost 1 in 10 — were born abroad, according to census figures.

Tomi Obaro is one of them. Her Nigerian-born parents brought her to America from England as a girl, and she became a citizen last year. Although she is literally African-American, the University of Chicago senior says the label implies she is descended from slaves. It also feels vague and liberal to her.

“It just sort of screams this political correctness,” Obaro said. She and her black friends rarely use it to refer to themselves, only when they’re speaking in “proper company.”

“Or it‘s a word that people who aren’t black use to describe black people,” she said.

Or it’s a political tool. In a Senate race against Obama in 2004, Alan Keyes implied that Obama could not claim to share Keyes’ “African-American heritage” because Keyes’ ancestors were slaves. During the Democratic presidential primary, some Hillary Clinton supporters made the same charge.

Last year, Herman Cain, then a Republican presidential candidate, sought to contrast his roots in the Jim Crow south with Obama’s history, and he shunned the label African-American in favor of “American black conservative.“ Rush Limbaugh mocked Obama as a ”halfrican-American.”

Then there are some white Americans who were born in Africa.

Paulo Seriodo is a U.S. citizen born in Mozambique to parents from Portugal. In 2009 he filed a lawsuit against his medical school, which he said suspended him after a dispute with black classmates over whether Seriodo could call himself African-American.

“It doesn‘t matter if I’m from Africa, and they are not!” Seriodo wrote at the time. “They are not allowing me to be African-American!”

And so the saga of names continues.

“I think it’s still evolving,” said Edelin, the activist who helped popularize African-American. “I’m content, for now, with African and American.”

“But,” she added, “that‘s not to say that it won’t change again.”

Comments (166)

1 2 3 ... 5
  • ginger100
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:01pm

    Dark earthling American? Dark African earthling living on American soil? Opposite of white American originating from distant Africa? KISS, how about AMERICAN and if you don’t like to be referred as that call yourself WASTED SPACE.

    Report Post » ginger100  
  • Steve8511
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:01pm

    Americans are so stupid. I hate to burst all your politically correct bubbles… But there are white people in Africa too! Americans are -AMERICANS! People have color, white black, yellow….

    Stop being stupid.

    Report Post »  
    • FSM_47
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:12pm

      Exactly

      Report Post » FSM_47  
    • Realist4U
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:56pm

      American Africans?

      Report Post »  
    • MCDAVE
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:10am

      The socialists have to separate Americans Into ethnic groups..Create hatred and racism..That”s how they stay in power and destroy a Republic.

      Report Post »  
    • ModerationIsBest
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:39am

      Such a great response, “I’m American.”

      Report Post »  
    • Chuck Stein
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 2:04am

      Not only are there white people in Africa, but the group of whites that have been there the longest (since the 1600′s) call themselves “Afrikaaners”!

      Report Post »  
    • philipzhao
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 5:43am

      Muslim Americans
      American Muslims

      Report Post »  
    • old white guy
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 8:36am

      right steve. i think african american, irish american scots american is just foolish. you are an american. skin color is of course a different thing as we have many shades of color.

      Report Post »  
    • mtnmyk
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 9:05am

      “African-American” is a nationality and an inaccurate one at that in most cases. “Black” is a color and an inaccurate one at that. “*****” is a race and, when describing President Obama and most others in this country, it too is inaccurate. If it is necessary to affix a description to President Obama, then “American” would be the most accurate. Let’s stop trying to divide us. In the end, we’re all in this together.

      Report Post »  
    • Wolf
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 9:23am

      Right. To declare oneself to be ‘african-American’ is a sure indicator of a racist.

      Report Post »  
    • Cabreramiggs
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 10:07am

      Agree.

      Report Post »  
    • robbrunson
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 10:08am

      I myself prefer just be called American. When you see me, I am a person of color. thats all it should be! the left in this country are so hypocritical it is almost amazing!

      Report Post »  
    • mikem1969
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 10:15am

      Let me make this simple, if you were born in AMERICA, you are an AMERICAN plain and simple. Now if you were born in Africa and came to the US, became a US citizen, then and only then are you AFRICAN AMERICAN.

      Report Post »  
    • smokeysmoke
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 10:46am

      no its black man,,, or black american….

      Report Post » smokeysmoke  
    • oneshiner
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 11:20am

      Agreed. We’re Americans regardless of the color.

      Report Post »  
    • Judy72204
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:40pm

      We are the melting pot. When you come to America you can become American. No other country offers this. You can move to Germany, but you will never be German. When the Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons, Jeremiah Wrights, or leaders of any hate group (white or black) can’t polarize people for their monetary gain anymore than we can be one as Americans. Stop labeling and pointing out our differences focus on what makes us American.

      Report Post »  
    • AOL_REFUGEE
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:41pm

      I think ‘BARFrican American’ would be more accurate, since they’re getting to be so nauseatingly annoying with their racist accusations.

      Report Post » AOL_REFUGEE  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 3:23pm

      Agreed. The term “African-American” was never accurate.

      1. Africa is a continent, it is not a country.
      2. It is impossible to hold dual citizenship with America and “Africa”, as there is no country called “Africa”.
      3. Native Americans can’t hold dual citizenship, to my knowledge. I‘ve never seen a country that allows you to hold dual citizenship without first renouncing your originating country’s citizenship. Maybe someone can correct me on this one.
      4. Native Americans, regardless of skin color, cannot hold dual citizenship unless they actively seek to do so. Calling Americans “African-American” is insulting and completely non-sensical. It’s also shockingly stupid on the part of the person using the term.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 3:26pm

      Although she is literally African-American, the University of Chicago senior says the label implies she is descended from slaves. It also feels vague and liberal to her.
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      She’s not LITERALLY African-American.

      Assuming Britian doesn’t have a law stating children born in the country are automatically “British”, then she’d be Nigerian-American, assuming she can hold both citizenships simultaneously.

      Good lord. Christopher Santarelli is usually a better contributor.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • SgtB
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 7:39pm

      Whoa now! Don‘t call all Americans stupid just because we have alot of ignorant race baiting gov’t dogs out there who want to divide us and our tax dollars by racial affiliation.

      There are plenty of Americans out their like myself who only refer to themselves as American. On every form that requires race, I always opt for other and put American. As long as this is a required piece of information, American is the only appropriate and non-racist answer.

      Report Post » SgtB  
    • B_rad
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 10:52pm

      Not all Americans are stupid. Not all who use this term are stupid. They have been bullied into using this term to describe people with dark skin or be considered racist. I’ve always considered the term “African-American” insulting. Besides being an inaccurate term for several reasons, it forces people to assume divided loyalties between the country they live in and a continent they’ve likely never even visited and is thousands of miles away.
      I asked a good friend of mine if she considered herself “black” or “African-American”, to which she claimed the latter. When I asked why, she said because her skin is not black. When I said that my skin is not white, she got the point.
      I remember a news report showing an American woman, who had been on an international flight, describing a black man as African-American. He was not American, he was a native and current resident of a country in Africa. And what are we to call blacks who live in France, Germany or Canada? African-French, etc.? If I were to go abroad and need to describe a black person, I’d be laughed at (at best) if I used the term African-American. If it doesn’t work everywhere, it doesn’t work anywhere. Political correctness has destroyed our language and it is time we take it back.

      Report Post » B_rad  
    • Wilbur Longshank
      Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:15am

      Okay so what the hell do you want us to call you now???????????

      Report Post »  
    • smithclar3nc3
      Posted on February 6, 2012 at 8:22am

      My sister was a home care provider for this old blackman. He always had a ne wjoke or two up mhis sleeve whenever I visited. He was dealing with social service worker about applying for new mobility chair when the workr asked him his race he said black. She siad oh you mean African American sir. He said no I‘m black none of my family as ever been to africa we don’t have any family there and none of us are planning on visiting it anytime soon. I black but you did get the American part right though.

      Report Post »  
    • Lil z Grand Pooba
      Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:11pm

      Very TRUE. I met a man a few years ago, And while we were talking and I asked him where he was from and he told me Africa. He was very much a white man, and I laugh and I said oh so you are a true
      African American. If you were born in the United States you are AMERICANS.

      Report Post »  
  • SacredHonor1776
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:51pm

    “That act of calling me African-American completely erased their history and the sacrifice and contributions it took to make me an author,”

    You know people throwing down the label of “white”, completely erased my history, cultures, and sacrifices and contributions of my ancestors!

    I’m heinz-57 and proud of it… I decend from europeans of many nations, native americans, and other ethnicities…

    But because people label me as ‘white’, i‘m told it’s somehow wrong to look at my past, or that I ‘have no culture’…

    Likewise, politicians in ‘western’ political created ideas like blood quantum laws; ‘1 drop rules’ or basing ‘ethnicity’ on percentage of blood in one’s background. Thus I‘m told that I’m not related to ‘native americans’ because I don’t have enough blood. Yet, I’m proud of that part of my heritage… Although there are some tribes that would take me, with little questions asked, as they challenge the ‘western’ ideas of blood quantum.

    This forgets the fact that cultures are often not something based on ‘ancestral heritage’, but more to do with environment one grows up in, and who they believe they are. What beliefs and practices they take up over the course of their lives.

    Report Post »  
    • MetalPatriot
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 4:50am

      Exactly! You know at community college all the paperwork, including the nurse/health office, asks you to check 1) Hispanic/Latino 2) White/non-Hispanic 3) Asian 4) Eskimo 5) other

      It’s offensive to know that funding is based on race.

      You’re either American or not. I’m not a “Euro-merican”…that’s retarded…and so are the racists and propgandists that promote this type of thinking (J.Jackson).

      Report Post » MetalPatriot  
  • KangarooJack
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:51pm

    What is an AMERICAN? Born on American Soil?=American. It’s that simple. Don’t go screaming at me-I’m a very big supporter of kicking Illegal Aliens out of this Country. BIG time! -BUT BUT! born on American Soil = American. {Which means, all those illegals claiming to ONLY want what is best for their kids oughtta think about it…} When ‘HYPHENS’ are encouraged, as a badge of honor…I say to them…WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING BADGES!!!

    Report Post » KangarooJack  
    • SacredHonor1776
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:54pm

      “Legal” (as in lawful) immigrants American citizens are Americans too…

      Report Post »  
    • BubbaSC
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:54am

      Sorry Bud your description doesn’t hold water.
      Canadian = American Born on North American Continent
      Mexican = American Born on Central American Continent
      Brazilian = American Born on South American Continent
      Peruvian = American Born on South American Continent
      Colombian = American Born on Central American Continent
      Salvadorian = American Born on Central American Continent
      And many others on the Central and South “American” Continent. Just throwing that out there What gives us the exclusive right to the word AMERICAN?
      I am a PROUD South Carolinian of Southern Heritage and I AM DAMN PROUD of IT!

      Report Post » BubbaSC  
    • SacredHonor1776
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:56am

      US Citizen might be a better term… But “American” is the term generally used to describe people from USA… Otherwise there is no other ‘term’ that defines all members who are US citizens. If “American” isn’t exclusive, then people of the US are a people without a nationality.

      Report Post »  
    • handsmcml
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 7:30am

      There are two American continents. A North and a South. Anyone born on either of these is an “American” and has every right to that label. There was a time when the citizens of the USA considered themselves citizens of the State of their birth and would prefer that title. For instance, I would be Californian. The idea of being called American arose after the Civil War when the Emancipation Proclamation made all freed slaves citizens of Washington DC. Also, about this time, people began to move around the country for economic reasons. We lost our connection to an individual State. It was harder to say, “I am a United States of America citizen,“ than to just use the shortened term ”American.” With apologies to those born in the other American countries, we stole the name. The real question is, how many generations does it take to make someone simply an American, with no hyphenation. My father was born in Germany and never became a citizen. That does not make me “German-American” because I have no emotional ties to Germany. Even he would have called himself “German” and not “German-American.” If we go back far enough, everyone’s ancestors came here from somewhere else. The real question is, “What will we do now and from this point forward?” Will we allow ourselves to become Balkanized-Americans and allow this nation to be split into infinitely small communities or do we Unite for the better good. United we stand but divided we fall.

      Report Post » handsmcml  
    • DD313
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 10:59am

      @Bubbasc: You are confusing continents with countries. Canadians, Mexicans, Cubans, and U.S. citizens are all North Americans. Brazilians, Argentinians, Peruvians, and Colombians are all South Americans. There is a New World, but no single American continent. There is, however, just one country on earth which contains the word “America” in its name. That’s US! Interestingly enough there are a number of countries that have or had the words “United States” (or its direct translation) in their names, including Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. You call people from those countries by their unique names as we call ourselves AMERICANS by ours.
      e countries

      Report Post » DD313  
    • SgtB
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 7:47pm

      @BUBBSAC, your ignorance is astounding! Citizens of the United States of AMERICA are referred to as American because our nation is colloquially referred to as America and the only other viable substitute is United Statsian, which frankly sounds ridiculous. I can see how you’d be confused hailing from a state that thinks vinegar and rep pepper makes barbecue sauce, but we are American. This just happens to be a unfortunate result of our nation’s name.

      Report Post » SgtB  
  • williaml
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:49pm

    That term never was accurate !
    The only people that can qualify to be african americans are imigrates that come FROM AFRICA and become american citizens.

    Report Post »  
  • go2gym
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:34pm

    It never was accurate. Black people are black people. White people are white people. I doubt black people in Spain are called African-Americans. It’s just stupid and nothing more than politically correct nonsense. I really don’t care what someone calls themselves, but to combine nationalities (yes I know Africa is a continent, not a nation) and equate it to a race is pretty stupid. So if you have a friend in the USA, who is white and from an African country, and you tell someone your friend is African-American, we‘ll assume he’s black based on that phrase. That’s plain stupid. Go to Europe and call a black person as African-American and they’ll probably look at you like you have 3 arms.

    Report Post »  
    • Freevoice1960
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 3:36pm

      This same non-sense happens in Europe and the old term “Afro” as mentioned in the article applies. Thanks to the twisted leftist tribalist thought process of multiculturalism people from certain countries which the progressives them to be third world countries fall under the term out-siders “allochtonen”….citizen or not. As it is in the United States the black intelligensia is leading the charge to keep people’s mind in the past so that they can stay busy pushing their agenda of perpetual misery.

      Report Post »  
  • SacredHonor1776
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:27pm

    “And there also those among us who don’t want to be referred to as American.”

    This applies to people of any ethnicity, creed or culture…

    Do you have an ‘American citizienship’? Then you are American…

    If not, then maybe some slipped through the cracks, and needs to be deported…

    If you are a citizen, and don’t want to be America, then you should have the right to drop your own citizenship (and move to the country of your choice)…

    Report Post »  
    • nolefan2
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:12pm

      Amen!!

      Report Post »  
    • momsense
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 6:29am

      If you don’t want to be called American—don’t be here. Go somewhere else and you can be called whatever you want.

      Report Post »  
  • NorthernX
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:23pm

    Albatross-Americans?

    Report Post »  
  • NorthernX
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:23pm

    How about Millstone-Americans?

    Report Post »  
    • Raven249
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:31am

      I’ll stick to American mutt. lol Bit of this, bit of that, if I have any claim to a culture, it’s Southern, which is American. Never did get the whole hyphenated nationality deal.

      Report Post »  
  • EARLJAC
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:19pm

    if you know your history blacks did not give themselves that name just like they did not call each other n….. until it was a common thing to be called by those from the other race. i repeat there are crazys in every race.

    Report Post »  
  • deathspiral
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:03pm

    Just wondering, but does anyone with American ancestors that are born and are citizens of other countries refer to themselves as “American-__________”. Fill in the blank with the country of your choice. I am going to answer my own question and go out on a limb and say No. Perhaps I am mistaken…if so, please reply and let me know.

    Report Post » deathspiral  
    • watchingandwaiting
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:46pm

      Not anymore. A century or so ago many people were called by their ancestral country name such as Irish-American but I believe that only applied to those who were first generation immigrants.

      Report Post »  
    • circleDwagons
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:19pm

      I’m an European-Hispanic-Southern American, i want my GOD given rights!!!

      Report Post » circleDwagons  
    • josh345
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 8:46am

      I call myself different things based on where I am. In a foreign country, I am American, but in America I am American-Jewish. At the same time, I have ancestors from many other countries (Ireland, Slovakia, Poland, etc) which I am proud of.

      Report Post »  
  • nighttrainno9
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:01pm

    “******” is closer.

    Report Post »  
    • EARLJAC
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:12pm

      you know that was not funny. there are some of those in every race. you no better than jesse jackson . grow up

      Report Post »  
    • Macman1138
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:13am

      Yes, that was right on time and very funny.
      They call each other that and worse…I have heard it many times.

      Report Post » Macman1138  
  • LeadNotFollow
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:50pm

    …
    Black folks are the only race, who cannot decide what they want to be called. Every so many years, they change it. I’m sick of all the political correctness.
    All the rest of us go by a color. Pick a color!!!
    Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.

    Report Post »  
    • SacredHonor1776
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:28pm

      Why don’t we just drop the need to put people in boxes based on colors… and just be Americans?

      Report Post »  
    • floridacockleburr
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:43pm

      Really the only race that changes how they want to be labeled so they can be offended at all times.

      Report Post » floridacockleburr  
    • josh345
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 8:47am

      Well….what about American Indians/Native Americans, who hold conventions every few years to pick another name?

      Report Post »  
  • SFsuper49er
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:49pm

    Who knows ! I could be something else tomorrow … I stick with black. Don’t see any harm.

    Report Post »  
  • jay1975
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:41pm

    “Insert whatever you feel like”-American is a term(s) used to keep everyone separate. If we are truly to be a melting pot, rather than a “diverse” nation, then it starts with identifying oneself as an American above all other titles.

    Report Post »  
  • hi
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:13pm

    No one in any other country calls blacks “African-something.” My black friend uses the term black, not African-American.

    Report Post » hi  
  • LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:09pm

    To answer the Headline; No. It isn’t. Not even close.

    Report Post » LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS  
  • David Foxfire
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:02pm

    I prefer the term “Brother”, as in “Soul Brother,” myself. Ethnically Neutral, rolls off the toungue, and reminds those who hear it that we’re all in this world together. And only the most thin-skinned poltically motivated jerk would gainsay it.

    Report Post »  
  • barber2
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:01pm

    I think the fact that they chose to take the title of African-American really represented their anger at being taken from their native roots and brought here as slaves. Understandable . They were showing their pride/anger at their ancestors being taken from their homeland. Until they choose to call themselves American-Africans or just plain Americans, the anger remains. Barack Obama’s father and many from the less advanced cultures resented their colonial rulers. Strange as many here now are much more advanced than those in their native countries. But many African-Americans are still angry about what was done in the past. ( that’s why the Race Card works so well for the Democrats who like to feed off of that residual anger – even though the Democrats were largely responsible for the old KKK repression )

    Report Post »  
    • tmplarnite
      Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:40pm

      “Anger” about being taken from their home country…Jeez give me a break….“they were captured and sold into slavery by BLACKS”…There own people. So get over yourselves…nobody alive today is/was a “slave”…they’re a slave to a “myth” and POS like Jackson and Sharpton… it’s about time the blacks GREW UP…this blame and anger gets them NOWHERE. Either get over it and move on in life… or buy a “ticket” and get the Heck out….go back! …but I do not see anyone of them doing that…there is no EBT and or Freebies back there…and heaven forbid they should go to work like the rest of us!!!!!!!!

      Report Post »  
    • tmplarnite
      Posted on February 5, 2012 at 12:14pm

      ‘The Formula” is Human 1st, American 2nd, productive citizen 3d….ethnicity last!

      Report Post »  
  • Mateytwo Barreett
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:55pm

    About done with the whole hyphen thing!

    Report Post » Mateytwo Barreett  
  • gemmeri
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:37pm

    I am an American. I am a U.S. citizen. I was born here. I am descended from numerous ancestors, mainly Dutch & Irish. I am an American. I live in North America. I am also a Californian, although I prefer to tell people I live in the state of Jefferson, because I do not support the agendas of the bigger California cities. Unless an individual enjoys citizenship in both Africa & the US, there is no such thing as an African-American. I know one family who enjoys dual citizenship because their mother was European & their father was American & that’s how it works. If you want to be black, okay, but some of us are color blind & we prefer it that way. We just want to know if you are a good person or not & whether you can be trusted.

    Report Post »  
  • LiveforFreedom
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:36pm

    No it isn’t ACCURATE at all!! We are the only Country in the World that has to have a identifier in front of being an American! Have you ever heard of a African-Russian, or Polish American! Simple minds need to have a label placed in front of our Nationality!!!

    Report Post »  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:35pm

    I want to be called a European American from now on. I demand that ‘European American’ be a little block on all government crap when they ask for ‘race’. Why not? Can’t I make up what I want to be called just like blacks can???? If ‘*****’ is not on the government questionaires then Caucasian or white should not be either. I want Europen American on all official paperwork.

    Report Post »  
  • Hyena
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:23pm

    My sir name originates from Scotland. I am not Scottish-Amercian….I am an American.

    My paternal grandmother was full-blooded German. I am not German-American….I am an American.

    My mother’s maiden name originates from Ireland. I am not Irish-American….I am an American.

    Report Post » Hyena  
  • Tigress1
    Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:13pm

    What difference does it make what country of origin your ancestors were? If you and your parents were born in the U.S.A. then you are AMERICAN. Nuff said.

    Report Post » Tigress1  
1 2 3 ... 5

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love