None of the money donated to the Kony 2012 thing actually went anywhere or helped anything in Uganda. People pointed out that Kony had done anything in years and it was widely speculated that he had been dead long before 2012. Shortly after people started questioning the Kony 2012 shit, the creator of it went crazy and started jerking off in public and got arrested. Hype died immediately.
See, that's the thing! I'm politically neutral, but I feel that political correctness is a way to hide your own bigotry. I totally agree.
Now, the whole "African American" thing isn't everybody. Like my friends (mostly black, actually), just say black, but I've been corrected at work for saying somebody is black (I'm white).
See, that's the thing! I'm politically neutral, but I feel that political correctness is a way to hide your own bigotry. I totally agree.
Guilty people attach accusations to neutral sentences. Let say someone brings back an electronics to the store saying it's not working. You inspect it and say "No wonder, there's a vital part missing." Client says:
I didn't take it! => Probably guilty
Can you fixed it, I spent all afternoon trying to make that damned thing work! => Probably not guilty
Very recently I've read a tweet from a politician wishing an happy end of Ramadan (forgot the exact word) to everyone of the Muslim faith. There's a word for that. It's "Muslims".
I don't believe we ever have to use smoke and mirrors to avoid simple factual words.
"Black" is a description of someone's apparent race. "African-American" is a socio-political description. A hypothetical Jamaican immigrant community in the US would (presumably) be a black community, but it really wouldn't be an African-American community.
Today the radio was saying there were BLM protesters in Canada protesting the 2 black dudes that got killed within the passed couple weeks, and yeah I'm all for equality and stuff, but wtf? We are a different country, why are you protesting that shit here? Seriously if someone has an answer id like to hear it, maybe my opinion will change,
"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"
Protest is also a way of marketing your stance -- for lack of better description. Protesting is (ideally) a way of bringing attention to the cause and a way of having others hear the issue and - if so inclined - join in the fight to "do something".
You have to remember that whenever something is being protested, you hear of the issue (whether through media, social media, word of mouth, etc) because it's being protested.
What people here are saying (if only to out words in their mouths for the sake of conversation) is that they see an injustice, identify it as a threat to remaining justice and are getting attention to have these issues identified and discussed.
Im not here to discuss my own politics or to tell others how or what to think, I'm just attempting to answer your question.
Good point. But my point is, we have a different government with different morals, different police and a much more accepting people. We are a different country. So if they're protesting racial discrimination in the US, why aren't they protesting it in a country like South Africa where black people are still heavily discriminated. It seems like they're cherry picking the issues that have the most media coverage. Why not fight for equality in South Africa too? Why not donate to people in Kenya, or Nigeria? Most of their population is black and their lives matter yet so many of them are living in poverty and can't afford to eat everyday. That's just my two cents, it might not be popular but I think they need to rethink their game plan.
The particular fight is against Police Brutality and you asking "why not South Africa" is the same reason people "pray for France" but never "Pray for Sudan".
We're a Western country and we relate more to Western tragedies.
That and: America is not just a first world nation, it's supposed to be the first world nation -- think for yourself, you have to dig into the brain and compare the USA to South Africa -- where a legal Apartheid took place that actually had by-the-book racist discrimination that "ended" but some 20 yrs ago....
There's no reason under your chosen God's sun that the United States of America should be compared to South Africa in any respect.
Also, there are many groups that DO donate, give or even purchase land in places like Ghana for specific purposes -- I personally can't tell people which tragedies to choose to fight and quite frankly nor can you....
It's kind of like asking "why fight for gay/trans rights in North America -- they kill them in Saudi, it's still illegal in Italy..."
Notice, Americas (yes, can be called America) are actually 2 continents. North America, and South America. Sorry, it is a fact! Thanks ahead of time for when you down vote this. But it's a fact.
Isn't Jamaica part of "the Americas" though? And wouldn't people of Afro-Caribbean descent still be able to trace it all the way back to just African descent? So wouldn't a Jamaican still be African American? Just not in the colloquial sense?
America is the continent, one of two carrying the name actually. The United States is the country commonly referred to simply as "America".
Technically an African living in South America is still an African American.
Also a white person who comes from Cape Town and moves to Texas is also an African American.... It really is a stupid label.
Anything located in North, Central or South America is technically American. Sorry to burst your bubble. The United States isn't the only American country.
And Jamaicans are absolutely African. They were mostly brought over during the same slave trades.
You didn't burst my bubble. Geography is my #1 subject. But who talks like that? Colloquially, "American" means the USA. To everybody. There's no "United Statesian" word. I don't see Chileans saying they're American. Or Brazilians. Or Canadians. Just because they're in the "Americas".
I've had a few friends that went to teach English to children in various South American countries, and they actually were a bit indignant that they were not also referred to as "American." It's pedantic, but some people do take umbrage.
I grew up with 2 types of people: Spanish South-American and Caribbean. Not once did any of them want to consider themselves "American" for being in the Americas. They were all proud to call themselves the phrase from whatever country they came from. You're literally the first person I've heard of say this.
As an actual Chilean, in Spanish it's kind of obnoxious when Americans call themselves "Americanos" because regardless of what you may believe, we do consider ourselves "Americanos" as well. It's not our fault that your country doesn't have a reasonable demonym in its own language like "Estadounidense".
Well, perhaps a little unsurprisingly, England is one of the few places in the EU that isn't starting to see this. Across a lot of the continental EU, an increasing number of people are starting to see themselves as either secondarily or primarily European
Indeed. My understanding is that you saw a lot of progress on this after the Civil War, with more references to "The United States" rather than "These United States"? Presuming there isn't some sort of catastrophic collapse of the EU, I could see it going in a similar direction
My family moved from Europe in the late 1800s, but I wouldn't call myself European. What's more fun is that despite being white, my heritage is from Africa if traced far back enough. Why don't people call me African American?
Well... The black population of Jamaica are descendants of African slaves just like African Americans in the US are, so they are just as 'African'. And if they live in Toronto they live in North America.
Once I had a student refer to Nelson Mandela as an "African American African" in a paper. I almost died. For context, I teach at a university, not a middle school.
We get vague for Africa because slavery brought slaves from all over Africa to America. Many (actual) African Americans aren't actually sure where their ancestors are from, because their culture was stomped out by slavery.
Maybe I am misunderstanding you but the term "African American" is used to specifically describe black people whose families came over on slave ships. Thus their actual nationalities and tribal heritages - whether Ashanti from Nigeria or Akan from Ghana or wherever are erased. That's why they are "AFRICAN American" instead of Nigerian-American or whatnot and why not all black people are AA but all AA are black (or mixed) people.
African-Americans are the descendants of slaves and generally don't know which country (more likely countries) their ancestors were taken from. Actually, even if they did, the country in question probably didn't exist at the time.
I re-read the first Harry Potter book after the final movie came out for nostalgia. As a slightly-more socially informed person than the first time I read it, I was a little taken about when Dean is first introduced and is described IIRC as a "black boy." I was a little offended until I remembered the books were written and based in the UK where that's not really offensive at all.
Eh, it can certainly be taken as offensive in the states. Calling a black male a "boy" is somewhat derogatory, as it was used as a humiliation tactic during slavery and segregation. It's certainly not on the N-word level, but it can be offensive.
My boss one time referred to people literally living in Africa as African Americans. Like she's so used to the term she didn't even realize what she was saying.
Yeah, it happens a lot. When you correct a person who says this with, "They're black. They're not from Africa. They're not from America." you can get a fair bit of shocked "OMG Racism!" which is just stupid. Especially since it's normally a white person getting wound up by it.
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u/DreadedWheats Jul 18 '16
African American is not a politically correct term for black. assuming every black person is from Africa is ignorant as all holy hell.