The "Black" to "African American" movement

[JoeHillsTSD]

Recently, I've noticed that there is this sort of "movement" going around. I guess it now "politically correct" to call black people "African americans". Everyone is doing it. Even in my classes, it has almost become taboo to call black people black (if you aren't black yourself, of course). I still associate as black, and don't understand why this has become a thing. I even discussed this with my parents, who, not until I mentioned, didn't really understand it either. Even my older sister wasn't really aware of this.

[StoppingTime]

People have been trying to sway to calling black people "African Americans" for years, I don't think it's anything new.

I have two main problems with it:
1. Not all black people who live in America were born here, grew up here, or even call themselves "American."
2. Why isn't "white" taboo if black is? People say white all the time, and it's rare to see someone yelling, "NO! It's caucasian."

[Stryker125]

This isn't really that new, but it never made much sense to me. Where exactly is African America?

[Gwen]

It's because for some reason, some people like stirring up shit and using the racist card whenever someone says "Black".

[Professional Russian]

If they want to be called "african American" I want to be called "Caucasion" nbow whot the hell is going to remember that. Lets leave it with Black and white. its easy and everyone's used to it

[PinkFloyd]

Okay, in this case, why can't I be called "Caucasian" instead of "White"?

[JoeHillsTSD]

That's the thing: black people aren't the ones who want the change. It's been non-blacks who have been making this change. All of my black friends refer to me as black, and vice versa.

1. Not all black people who live in America were born here, grew up here, or even call themselves "American
I have a similar problem with this: not all black people came from Africa. I have a teacher who refuses to check off "African American" on surveys and applications because she says she, or her family, aren't from Africa.


This isn't really that new, but it never made much sense to me. Where exactly is African America?
It's always lingered there, but there wasn't many people using the term until now. Maybe because we have a black president?

[Nellerin]

Recently, I've noticed that there is this sort of "movement" going around. I guess it now "politically correct" to call black people "African americans". Everyone is doing it. Even in my classes, it has almost become taboo to call black people black (if you aren't black yourself, of course). I still associate as black, and don't understand why this has become a thing. I even discussed this with my parents, who, not until I mentioned, didn't really understand it either. Even my older sister wasn't really aware of this.

Blacks should be called Black. If you want to get really technical, every single person in the USA (black, white, asian, etc) are all African Americans since that is where we originated from.

In modern times however, if someone is Black then that is simply what they are, they could easily be removed by multiple generations from any African heritage.

But personally, I think we need to stop distiguishing people by race at all. :yes:

[LouBerry]

People have been trying to sway to calling black people "African Americans" for years, I don't think it's anything new.

I have two main problems with it:
1. Not all black people who live in America were born here, grew up here, or even call themselves "American."
2. Why isn't "white" taboo if black is? People say white all the time, and it's rare to see someone yelling, "NO! It's caucasian."

Pretty much this.

[xmojox]

Everyone I know in real life who is black thinks it's stupid. They consider themselves to be Americans. My guess is the whole thing came from some politically-correct white guy trying to over-compensate for racism.