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The term 'African American' was rarely used until Jesse Jackson started popularizing it. The most formative years of my life were spent in the Caribbean. I wa
by hollywood_court 1y ago
The term 'African American' was rarely used until Jesse Jackson started popularizing it.
The most formative years of my life were spent in the Caribbean. I was essentially raised and mentored by two different black men (I'm white trailer park trash originally from Alabama). And both of those men both took great offense to being called African American. The same went for many of the people I knew down there. However, I've rarely heard actual mainlanders take offense to the term.
I've always thought that a person born in the US was simply an American. Not an Irish American or an African American or Scottish American, etc. If you're born in the US, you're simply an American. I've never understood the desire to want to differentiate one's self like that.
Perhaps I feel that way because my own father left when I was a toddler and I never had any kind of strong family connection or culture taught to me by anyone else in my family. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had a strong family unit that shared a common culture or something like that. But I still think terms like that are divisive.
- rexpop 1y agoThe term is divisive? But, when you notice a systematic discrimination against Americans with dark skin, how do you talk about it?
- hollywood_court 1y agoI know you're looking for an argument here. But I talk about it the same way any reasonably educated person talks about it. I know racism and discrimination are alive and well here in the US and elsewhere. I have witnessed it myself many times. My mother was a career long LEO in the south. While I was growing up, I heard her and her fellow LEOs discussing how they would treat black people differently numerous times. The first time I flew home to the states after six years, I brought my black girlfriend with me. Together, she and I saw/heard things that I still think about to this day. I wore a tool belt and was a blue collar guy for the first ~20 years of my career. I heard racist stuff and saw discrimination pretty much every day of my career. I'm not sure what part of my original comment would make you feel like making your comment, but I'm sorry I couldn't offend you further.
- IAmBroom 1y agoAgain, a white person telling us how African Americans/blacks ought to speak and feel about themselves, based on his personal experiences. I hope they aren't the uppity kind who won't listen to reason.
- ryandv 1y agoYes, thank you for calling this out. Really tired of whites prescribing their morality upon other cultures; this is how the Philippines became almost 90% Catholic, and the original indigenous religions were eradicated. Despite all the secular garb and atheist aesthetic, religious proselytization and vicious inquisitions against heretics or non-believers are still very much alive and well today. There's a very long and unbroken history of it, and no - just like the creationists and their "proofs via banana," [0] they do not listen to reason. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLqDGL1FSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLqDGL1FSg
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- pseudalopex 1y ago> The term 'African American' was rarely used until Jesse Jackson started popularizing it. Many words weren't popular until they were. So what?