Just wondering how you guys usually describe such persons.
I've got a beef with people who use "African American" to describe all blacks, thinking that this is a more racially sensitive term. It of course ignores that there are plenty of black people who don't originate in Africa, and it also makes Americans look dumb when they call black people living in other countries "African American".
Luckily we don't have that nonsense in EU just yet. I'm sure we'll get there soon though. And seriously, what the f*** is a caucasian? I feel like a crab!
" I've got a beef with people who use "African American" to describe all blacks, thinking that this is a more racially sensitive term. It of course ignores that there are plenty of black people who don't originate in Africa, and it also makes Americans look dumb when they call black people living in other countries "African American". "
I say black all the time. Like "hey look at that black guy" or "see that black dude over there". If they can't get used to it then deal with it. They call us white boys.
"Before I used African American, but then I was told it was fine to say black and to ignore all of the political correctness. So black. Though I'm not quite sure on if Asians should just be called Asians or yellow. "
Just Asian. The only time I've been called yellow was when some Racist white dude called my friend the N word and me a "Yellow chink motherfucker." It resulted in me throwing a huge rock at the dude's car, that he was driving in, and broke his back window/windshield.
The dude had problems. Not because he was always yelling out curse words at any of us, but because he always drove like he was running from the police; hitting around 40 mph in a residential neighborhood that only allowed 10 and almost always close to running someone over. Happy ending though, I guess he got some help since 4 years later he seemed to calmed down more and no longer screamed racial slurs at us.
EDIT: OP, did something happen that made you create this topic, or was it just a spur of the moment thing?
Not everyone who is of dark skin come from Africa, or associate themselves with Africa. Hence I prefer "black" for the sake of both informality and correctness.
Black. Everybody is technically from Africa I am not a European American. (hey, are you supposed to say an European... it sounds really wrong) Not all blacks are of African descent. Black is short and simpler than African American.
" @DudeGlove You win, this thread is kind of insulting. "
I'm dying to know why.
@dudeglove said:
" I call them by their first name, or their surname if formality is the order of the day. "
And if you were asked to describe such a person to someone who didn't know them, particularly if you didn't know this person's name, how do you think you would go about describing them?
Can you think of a better term to describe black people that doesn't use the term black or African American? To ask people whether they describe black people as black or African American is to immediately bias the question.
@gunslingerNZ said:
" @GIVEMEREPLAY: Or how about you just don't label people to begin with...you suck. "
I don't get where this insane concept comes from. Why in God's name would we give away an ability so useful? The police could no longer put out accurate profiles for criminals, making them harder to catch, discrimination would be harder to identify and root out because we aren't willing to use the terms that actually apply, and we would generally become far less efficient in categorizing who's who. So why should we give up these categorizing terms? Just so you can feel better about pretending like everyone is identical and shouldn't be identified as being different (even when they actually are)?
Can you think of a better term to describe black people that doesn't use the term black or African American? To ask people whether they describe black people as black or African American is to immediately bias the question.
That shit's disrespectful, no matter what your intention may be. How about "dark skinned" for fucks sake.
" Black. My black friends call themselves black, so I don't see why I should say anything different. "
Exactly, I think you'll find black people really care about that sort of thing, its proper discrimination you should look out for. Like not giving someone a job based on their race and so on. Calling someone black is not racist.
Stop thinking in such political correctness terms, it's simply just called black. It's not insultive, racist or anything negative, that's what you call someone who is black.
The label is probally created in america because of political correctness, like african american, that's just societies way of trying not to offend others. Not everywhere around the world is politically correct.
@GIVEMEREPLAY: My point being that there are no black people where I live so it never comes up. If there was a single black person standing in a crowd, and for some reason I wanted to point him out, I would say the black guy. I don't say nigger, jigaboo, porch monkey or any other one of the million things you can call someone based on their skin colour, because it's rude and it just makes the person who says it look like a complete tool. If they are Asian then I say Asian, if they are Black I say Black, if they are Indian I say Indian. The only people who try so desperately to make up a label to call someone based on their skin colour, are the racist and pregidous asshats who are just looking for some way to feel superior to others by making a name for them and labeling them.
Black is the most sensible thing to say. White people in America don't call themselves "European Americans". They just say "white". If anything, "African American" is a degrading term because it associates Black Americans with another region, as opposed to categorizing them as Americans with brown skin. It's also just plain incorrect some of the time. Not every Black person comes from the continent of Africa.
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