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'American' is understood from the context of national incarceration rates which are by definition nation specific. So you're choosing between 'black' or 'africa
by metamemetics 17y ago
'American' is understood from the context of national incarceration rates which are by definition nation specific. So you're choosing between 'black' or 'african' and black is the more appropriate term and what the incarceration statistics refer to.
>"African-American is special in that it does not imply any link to Africa at all."
It does and\or should. Continuing to propagate unclear vocabulary does a disservice to language.
- maxklein 17y agoThe phrase I would have liked to see there is Black-American. Language by definition is unclear. For example, "Caucasian" originally means people from the Caucasus region, but it has been adapted to refer to the american racial construct of "white". If you look at the biological definition of Caucasian, it's very different from the general used U.S meaning, in that it includes indians and somalians etc. So you can't attack "african-american" as a word but find all the other vague and misappropriated words like "caucasian" okay. And if it actually happens that all basterdized words are removed from language, we would be left with only grunts.