What is wrong with the word 鈥榖lack鈥?
It seems alike with the word 鈥榳hite鈥?
They are both faceless words that do not honor culture.
They are both simple descriptive terms that serve a logistical purpose.
They are both short convenient terms.
So is the explanation that blacks were so embarrassed with their identity that they were looking for a new one.
Something like changing your surname so that people can鈥檛 trace your past?
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I don鈥檛 see any other good reason for establishing the use of the term 鈥楢frican American鈥? Certainly, blacks can鈥檛 expect that the rest of the world should feel an obligation to respect black people鈥檚 recent ancestral culture. Why should any race be granted such an honor?
Whites don鈥檛 ask be distinguished in this manner by being called European Americans; Hispanics don鈥檛 ask to be referred to as South American Americans; Arabs don鈥檛 ask to be called Arab Americans.
So why would anybody be expected to go this extra mile for blacks? I don鈥檛 feel such obligation.
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(If anybody is thinking of answering that blacks came from Africa then don't bother with this. We all came from Africa because that is where humanity started according to decades' worth of scientific findings. But even if blacks had exclusively originated from that geographical area of Earth thousands of years ago then why would the rest of us be expected to care about it? So what? Why should that be special to anybody? It's just a geographical coincidence.)
How did the term 鈥楢frican American鈥?become politically correct in America?
%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;For many, African American is more than a name expressive of cultural and historical roots. The term expresses pride in Africa and a sense of kinship and solidarity with others of the African diaspora鈥攁n embrace of pan-Africanism as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore.
With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s, blacks no longer approved of the term *****. They believed it had suggestions of a moderate, accommodationist, even %26quot;Uncle Tom%26quot; connotation. In this period, a growing number of blacks in the United States, particularly African-American youth, celebrated their blackness and their historical and cultural ties with the African continent. The Black Power movement defiantly embraced Black as a group identifier. It was a term social leaders themselves had repudiated only two decades earlier, but they proclaimed, %26quot;Black is beautiful%26quot;.
In this same period, a smaller number of people favored Afro-American. In the 1980s the term African-American was advanced on the model of, for example, German-American or Irish-American to givedescendantss of American slaves and other American blacks who lived through the slavery-era a heritage and a cultural base. [121] The term was popularized in black communities around the country via word of mouth and ultimately received mainstream use after Jesse Jackson publicly used the term in front of a national audience, subsequently major media outlets adopted its use.[121] Many blacks in America expressed a preference for the term, as it was formed in the same way as names for others of the many ethnic groups in the nation. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement and systematic attempts to de-Africanize blacks in the United States under chattel slavery, most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to a specific African nation; hence, the entire continent serves as a geographic marker. %26gt;%26gt;%26gt; See source %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
There are other recently immigrated cultures that prefer to have their heritages incorporated into their racial affiliation ie indians, most even when they are mixed indian prefer to be associated with their tribe rather America. Irish American is another but again if they have recent immigrant history they do not associate with America and prefer Irish to American. America is such a mixed nation that I believe people in general want to set themselves apart and celebrate their uniqueness by their heritage. I am Irish-Italian and if asked that is what I tell people before I say American. My father is from Lazio, Italy and my mother is from Galway, Ireland. They married in Ireland then immigrated to America. I was born here in America but because of my close ties to both Italy and Ireland I associate with both. I speak Italian, Gaelic, and English. It is just a personal preference and the beauty of America is that you can celebrate your heritage openly without fear of ridicule. I am not ashamed of any of my history to include the fact that I too am American.
How did the term 鈥楢frican American鈥?become politically correct in America?
So what is the politically correct terms for Whites? Caucasian? You never hear a black person calling white people %26quot;Caucasian%26quot; So why do we need to call them African American? Black people need to feel a sense of entitlement for their culture and %26quot;where they came from%26quot; That is the only reason they are given the title %26quot;African American%26quot;
