Now to my comment: In the Moment, while I understand exactly where you are coming from, I want to say this. Race is a social construct. Created by the “Self” so they could have an “Other”, a scapegoat, someone to feel superior over. That’s taught in every college level Anthropology class, at least it was at my college. We do not need new categories for mixed race or Black people. Why? Because we already have the “Other” located on papers, test sheets, etc.

I prefer to be called “Black” simply because my family is not just African, but also Jamaican, possibly Haitian, more than likely Irish or English and heck, maybe eve a little Asian. I also remind myself that the racial label is just a label, a construct. It is not biological. The only thing biological is the color of our skin. Facial features are blurred across ethnic lines as is hair texture. I guess you’d have to create a whole new category for Indians because they are the “original” mixed race, Dravidian and Aryan people.

Anyhow, I digress. As for your #8, I have met many Black Americans who are extremely positive and role model material. These people are mentioned just as much as the “bad ones” you talked about in your comment. I see it as a half and half deal. The same with anybody from any background.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/01/22/obama/index.html

2) Looking “Black” is defined by current culture, but Blacks today are more watered down than folks off the boat from Africa. It’s evident when you look at pics of people from all over Africa. Even the tan, light brown North East Africans (whom I’m sure are labeled as just racially Black) don’t look the same as Black people in America.

3) And yes, “Black” isn’t really the proper color, especially when Indians (from the far east) can even be darker than Blacks in America.

4) If you’re mixed with different ethnicities (as in coming from people from certain geographic locations, people who practice a specific regional culture), why not celebrate that? If you’re 1/8 Chinese, 1/8 Indian, 1/8 Trinidadian, 1/8 Congalese, 1/8 Italian, 1/8 Polish, 1/8 Native American, and 1/8 Fijian, are you only allowed to identify as the group whom society chooses you to be? So, so what if you’re mostly black with just a little Irish; the more cultures to celebrate the better!

5) That “one drop rule” really screwed things up. In reality, most Blacks in America are mixed. But all people seem to focus on are the shades of Black, rather shades of “Brown” that Black people are. If you’re mixed, recognize it. Thinking is still archaic, where even if your parents are 2 different races, somehow, that defaults to Black; we’ve gotten accustomed to ignoring mixture of Black with other races. How else did so many Black Americans get curly vs. kinky hair if it weren’t for mixture?

6) It’s true, if you’re not from a certain place, don’t identify the geographic location with your identity, especially racial identity. It just gets too confusing, e.g. African American (When all races can be this & it’s too vague of a term), Irish-American. If you’re American, that should come first. Get off the race thing and just see the variation of being human. At least utilize the nationality as a means of working together, coming together.

7) Why bring God into this discussion, and go off on the topic? We need to see that it’s us who have the control over human societal affairs. It’s up to us to take responsibility, good or bad, for our own actions and solutions.

8) It is true that “African-Americans”/Black Americans are changing the way that the world views Black people, and it isn’t favorable; yes, our president is 1/2 Black, and of course, the US has Oprah. But unfortunately, it’s the negative Blacks who seem to get the most notice, and it’s making people afraid of or ashamed of Black Americans,including folks who are Black and from other countries! Negative depictions of Blacks: crime, sexual promiscuity, loud, obnoxious, ignorant, not studious etc. Something’s gone really wrong since the 60s, the last time that American Blacks really seemed to want to join together to be educated and to enrich their lives.

8) There’s needs to be a new category for people who are mixed race. And, there needs to be a new category for Black people in the US. I understand too that even the origins of being called “Black” were derogatory, hence why African American came about.

9) To put a multi-layered and painful history simply, the difference between being a White American and a Black American is that White people tend to remind Black people how they’re different from White and Black people remind each other how they’re different from White. Otherwise, the cultures are pretty similar. But yes, Black people have had is much harder and way more horrific experiences than White people in the US in the past 400 years. But I’m sorry, hair texture and skin color aren’t enough for me to link myself to belonging to the same culture of another being.

10) My personal rant: An afro is an afro, something folks sported in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and your occasional disco-themed party. If hair curls in obvious ringlets and is not picked out, it’s called CURLY HAIR people.

11) Rant #2: chimpanzees have straight hair, pink faces, and no lips. There is an “ape” to resemble features/characteristics of all races of people.

If only it were so! At the very least you would have to say that there was collusion. Black people did their damnedest to assimilate, but white people wouldn’t let them, so they had to band together for mutual support and defense. That seems to true for most “minorities.”

It also seems that you’re assuming that WASP culture is American culture (which of course it isn’t — the English settlers did not assimilate to the American cultures they found here, they kept their Englishness), so that anyone who comes to these shores and doesn’t immediately speak the King’s English and eat mutton, etc., is just trying to create division. Maybe they’re just sticking to what is comfortable for them, as the English settlers did. And don’t forget, Spanish was an American language before English was; French too, if I believe.

A couple of people have said that in Latin America, identities are national not racial: “Cuban” not “Afro-Cuban” or whatever. I’m not so sure of that even on its face, but I’m also not sure where labels like “Afro-Cuban” originated. If an American asks a black Cuban for her identity, no doubt she’ll say “Cuban,” but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t identify as black when she’s in Cuba. Or that other Cubans don’t label her so. My Mexican friends divvy Mexicans up in racial terms — chino and negro and indio, for example — but to outsiders they label themselves Mexicanos. (There’s also a tendency to play down their indio and negro ancestry, much as we gabachos do; it seems that Mexicans of “pure” Spanish ancestry are interested in ‘creating division’ between themselves and indios.)

Identities are almost never absolute, as ABW has pointed out: they are relative and contextual. How I identify myself (white, American, male, gay, Hoosier, atheist, Irish-French-German ancestry, etc.) depends on the context in which I’m being asked to identify. I agree with ABW that it’s important to respect other people’s self-labeling and -identification, and I think we can go a long way towards doing so if we remember the inadequacies of our own labels for ourselves.

I rather be called black than African American.

My ancestors did not come from West Africa.

Every African-American is not from African understood, but please find out through DNA what you are. We are in 2008 technology is advanced there is no excuse and we have genealogy trees and ancestry trees to research the history. Our ancestors would roll over in their graves if we didn’t at least try. The label Black when used sounds like someone is calling me the “N” word. Have you heard newscasters use it as they described someone or better yet your other people of color brother’s and sisters who are Latin who have every kind of way of describing us being funny and it’s all described as “Black”. I’ve heard it all and it’s not funny.

We have history, culture, customs, language, religion, ancestry, knowledge, and a purpose.

African covers the Sub-Saharan African
American covers-Native, Dutch, and Jewish woman from the Bronx

Donada
Thank you

i’ve found many problems with the term “african-american”, mostly, the fact that it is used to describe a race. there’s no race mentioned in that two word phrase.

firstly, african just means the continent one was born on, which I assume, would NOT apply to the majority of dark-skinned americans. lots of blacks here in america were born here, and plenty have come from the islands, or other countries altoether. my ancestors came from the british isle, and i can trace it in my family tree. but the last four generations were born on american soil – therefore, we just see ourselves as americans.

secondly, the term american is not a race, its just a nationality. enough said there.

i would not assume to know what dark-skinned people in america would prefer to be called, as i feel ‘black’ still carries a lot of bad connotation, but i does seem to be the only one that actually fits.

i’m american, and i’m white, but there’s no need to call me a white-american, because it’d be overkill on the obvious.

i’m white, and i’m proud, but not because i’m white. i’m just proud to be me. the white thing came by default, and there’s lots of crap that comes with it.

have a great day, and keep fighting for your dignity.

-travis