re: Your mind will wrap itself in knots if you ponder the term 'African American'

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What's our invention? Slavery?

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The role of blacks in society up to a certain point, and the culture that defined that role.

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if you ponder the term 'African American'

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Why would I waste time doing that?

Dividing people by race. It essentially only exists in western nations. Especially English colonies.

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Dividing people by race. It essentially only exists in western nations. Especially English colonies.

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Yeah...no.

It's really not that hard the term African-American is used because due to the Atlantic Slave Trade they don't know what country they're originally from.

A white or black person who family came to American after the Atlantic Slave Trade and knows their lineage would say they are Nigerian or South African or Ethiopian or _____________(insert country) -american

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I know a white guy who was born and raised in South Africa and when he moved to the US as a teenager and then applied for colleges, he was told he couldn't put "African" or "African American" on his applications because he was the wrong color.

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Back in the day, a buddy of mine in undergrad engineering at LSU was a white South African who listed himself as African American. He still does it at every opportunity.

I think it's awesome.

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It's really not that hard the term African-American is used because due to the Atlantic Slave Trade they don't know what country they're originally from.

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It's more fun to be ignorant of this so we can call the blacks uppity.

I just call them blacks

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The term came about because white progressives a few decades back thought that the label of "black" was negative. Black is associated with darkness and evil in all societies. That needed to be fixed so they relabeled them as African Americans. True story.

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No, false, ignorant story. In the 1980's and 1990's, the population of people with recent Caribbean and African ancestry increased significantly, highlighting that we didn't have a word for those Americans with roots that dried up in the African diaspora. That's why the term African-American exists.

"Those people are Nigerians. Those people are Haitians. Those people...hmm...what we call those people in Harlem that doesn't start with n?"

That's where the term comes from. Amazing how willfully ignorant so many around here are. The term has a specific meaning for a specific purpose, and it doesn't mean the same thing as "black."

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We just finished Black History Month, a celebration of black culture.
But we aren't supposed to judge people by skin color so we say African American. This would mean 'Black History Month' is offensive?

But that only applies to people with colored skin, so white immigrants from Africa can't use the term.

But it does apply to people of color outside of the US, hence phrases like African American Briton. Has there ever been an African American African listed in a story?

Best not to think about this too much I guess.

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Well I have a dumber term for you

"Native American"

Now they do not want to be called "Indians" but they do not mind being called "natives" of a land named after an Italian.

It would be like Martians invading earth, calling it "Applesauce", and us demanding to be called "Native Applesaucians".