| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/16/2009 11:14:19 PM | Nefrini was born in Egypt in 1955. Her parents sent her to University in England where she obtained a degree in design in 1975. In 1976 she met and married her husband, a successful Egyptian architect who worked for a firm in New York. He passed away in 1991 when their daughter, Moswen, who was born in the US, was 13.
Egypt is in Africa. Moswen, whose parents were both Egyptian, wonders why she can't claim Africa as her place of origin, while others her age, whose parents have never even seen the continent, can.
I remember a passing conversation once with Nefrini shortly after her husband died, and someone brought up the subject of "African Americans." She shook her head, sadly yet defiantly. "We worked too hard to come here to be called anything but Americans. I love Egypt, but my husband was American, I am American, my daughter is American. Africa is a memory."
We really need to get over ourselves. Some people sacrifice everything just to be able to call themselves "American." | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 8:03:38 AM |
when your racial minority doesn't make up 54% of the prison population and your minority only accounts for 15% of the population.
I might start thinking about it at that point. might.
And you don't think there is a reason that these stats exist......?
You are trying to make a joke....right? | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 8:16:52 AM | I've always assumed all (wait, most) black people here in the states would refer to themselves as African-American and I always look at them as such. Reason being is the majority of black people here in the states are decedents of slaves brought here from Africa.
So by that logic even people whose grandparents weren't born in Africa can claim they are African-American by dated heritage alone rather than the soil they were born on, so I would say no, you can't have a white African-American because the white people that moved to Africa to live were from somewhere else originally, and that should be the prefix attached to the front of American. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 8:33:30 AM | I think the easiest way to be involved in a discussion in which you wish you hadn't would be to participate in this one. Physician heal thyself! lol
Leave it to "us Americans" to be the ones that even apply a label to those who actually didn't migrate here. I guess one could say that if the landbridge between Asia and Alaska theory was how the "Native Americans" came to be living here then we all migrated here and to prefix "American" seems a little bit like using too many words to describe American. | |
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| enuf already..
Posted: 5/17/2009 9:40:40 AM | The fact of the matter is.. most of the labels assigned when it comes to matter of race in this country is inaccurate anyway...
The most obvious and glaringly overlooked misnomers:
"black"people and "white" people
um..I for one have seen very few "Black" people.. Most every so called "Black" person are actually varied hues of brown .. What genius made the rule that only Mexicans are considered "the Brown race" ....wtf? Does this make me Mexican by default?
And the only white people I see are albinos, Edgar Winter, and Michael Jackson.. Everyone else is pink....
The terms "black" n "white".. are not only misnomers but divisive terms inherently meant to separate/and highlight contrast.... instead of reflecting our commonalities and reality that we are but a myriad of hues in the mural of humanity. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 10:54:47 AM | A friend of mine a native American woman is always saying to white people "You aien't white you pink, pink people...!" Cracks me up.. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 11:00:16 AM | | The answer to the question is "No". African-american is clearly used as a racial designation, and not an ethnic one. Since race is a socially constructed category, and not a scientific one, then the only people who can be considered african-american are those who have been defined, by society, as african-american. It's clear who our western society defines as african american, and it's clearly not white people. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 12:10:22 PM | I'm a white Australian born & bred - my Son is dark skinned - his Father is a full blood Maori from New Zealand - my Son was born in Australia - so what racial group is he spose to fall into? - we call him 'Robert' he is a 'person' NOT a title - he is a mixture of two people that created him & NOT a label of either black or white: | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 1:40:51 PM |
So by that logic even people whose grandparents weren't born in Africa can claim they are African-American by dated heritage alone rather than the soil they were born on, so I would say no, you can't have a white African-American because the white people that moved to Africa to live were from somewhere else originally, and that should be the prefix attached to the front of American.
Respectively this is so flawed Caucasian by defination is this.
Anthropology. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of one of the traditional racial divisions of humankind, marked by fair to dark skin, straight to tightly curled hair, and light to very dark eyes, and originally inhabiting Europe, parts of North Africa, western Asia, and India. source dictionary.com
By the dictionary defination alone the question is that any that comes from Africa has the right to be called african American. whether they are a black descent or not. Did you forget the country of Morroco as well as Egypt to name only a few.
I don't think he can be African American but maybe he could be an American African. It is a privlage to be black and a white person should never be allowed the special rights they deserve.
This is not only appalling racist in any fashion IMO... till this type of stereotyping and racism is expelled from our minds, hearts and souls. Racism in any form will never go away. No one is any more special and deserving of "special rights" than anyone else on the face of this earth.
I think politically correct I would be declared French/Native American. If you asked my Paternal Grandfather before his death about 15 years ago he would have proudly named his tribe he was from not giving a damn about native americanism. Till we as a whole throw out the politically correct terms this world will continue to flounder and wallow in self pity and "You owe me " syndrome. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 2:10:51 PM |
Does the term African American solely refer to people of a black heritage? To use the strictest definition, people of Caucasian heritage that are born and raised in say South Africa and then immigrate to America would thus be African Americans.
There seems to be some confusion in distinguishing between “ethnicity” and “nationality”. They have different meanings and are not necessarily related to each other. The term “African” is usually taken to mean someone who is from Sub-Saharan Africa has a black complexion and is of an ethnicity of one or more of those African tribes or regions of present day nations that comprise modern day Sub-Saharan Africa. The physical description is.........being of the “African Phenotype”.
A European cannot fit into those criteria simply through being born in Sub-Saharan Africa although they may claim the nationality of a Sub-Saharan country because of birth and a continuous habitation in that country. If your parents were originally of one of the many European colonising powers that carved empires out of Sub-Saharan Africa and if you were born there, whether you stayed for a few years or your entire life in that country, you still cannot claim to be African as you still cannot fit into the criteria mentioned above.
You may be a national (citizen) of whichever African country you are residing in but you may never claim to be an African as you are of European descent and not of an African phenotype. If you or you as part of a family then migrated from Africa to the US and took up citizenship then you would be described as being a “European American”, born in whichever African country of (whichever) European parents.
Consider for a moment if we change the continent to “China” and so now this European descended person will now be claiming to be a “Chinese American”? I think not, we all know what a “Chinese American” looks like. The term meaning the person is an “Ethnic” Chinese whom is a citizen, a national of the US. A European or a person of European descent whom was born in China can never claim to be an ethnic Chinese simply because the person is not of the Chinese phenotype.
There is no need in getting into sub-categories either when describing one’s ethnic origins. For instance you wouldn’t say when asked that you are an Irish, Polish, English, French American as the Irish, Polish, English and French are all European, so you would simply say “European American” and if ever asked to elaborate only then you would mention the different European nationalities of your bloodline.
Again a “Chinese American” doesn’t say I am a Han, (or a mix any of the other 50 odd ethnic minorities that make up China), American, no the person simply says I am a “Chinese American”.
When the US Gov’t first started using the term “Ethnicity” in the early 1940’s it was used to describe the so-called “Ethnic Vote” which was a conceited odious policy that alluded to the belief in the superiority of the “so called” upper class citizens that were descended from the British, mainly English and Scottish. This so-called “ethnic vote” was used to describe the votes of immigrants such as the “Irish Americans” or the “Dutch Americans” or the “Italian Americans” and so forth. Africans in the US at this point in time were simply referred to as Ni---s.
Citizens descended from the British (Anglo-Celts), simply referred to themselves as “American” and perceived themselves to be “non-ethnic” or of not having an “ethnicity” such was the level of conceited arrogance displayed.
A person of European descent cannot claim to be simply “American” unless the person making the claim is of one of the many native tribes that inhabit the US and even then the claim will always be prefixed with “Native” or directly to the tribe such as “Native American” or “Apache American” or “Mohawk American” etc.
People get confused when sticking to old archaic outdated definitions of nationalities and ethnicities from a time prior to human migrations, when the world was very insular in that people herded themselves into groupings of similar habits, cultures, physical appearances and language, forming tribes who then created set borders which in time became countries. With the branching out of humans from those old world countries into the new world the new world has become populated by multi-ethnic populations that have either displaced or absorbed the original natives and are still attempting to corral similar people together in a manner that is hostile, discriminatory and perpetuates the “us” versus “them” divide that is pervasive in the new world resulting in destabilising tendencies.
Even contemporary anthropology dismisses the archaic and outdated early 19th Century German doctrine of the four races as meaningless drivel that has been thoroughly surpassed by the mass movements and intermingling of mankind across the surface of the Earth. I have read that the term “Caucasian” has been dropped from official EU terminology in reference to its commonly believed context and if even used at all nowadays, is used to describe the people and or language of the inhabitants of the Caucus Mountain Region of south west Asia which was where the German anthropologists originally coined the racial type from (Cauc-Asian).
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 2:14:29 PM | As far as I'm concerned, if you were born in (North)America, there is no doubt in my mind that you should not be classified as other as American or Canadian. There shouldn't be even a debate on this.
Who cares if your ancestor were slaves? The past is gone and all we can do now is built a better futur together. You're an american and that's all there is to it!
Leave it at that
[Geez, people like to complicate things all the time... ] | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 2:43:26 PM |
Does the term African American solely refer to people of a black heritage?
I believe it was meant to, although the term itself is ambiguous enough to leave room for situations like the one described in the article. I think he's just trying to milk them for money with a frivolous lawsuit. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 2:50:27 PM | I was in Middle school when I first remebering someone shoving a form infront of me...a form that told me to classify myself...To check a box and tell the Government what group I belonged to...
I never woke up one day and stated, "I think I will start to catagorize myself and my fellow countrymen"...
All throughout my life, on all the subsequent forms I ever had to fill out, there was that Little Box...asking-"How are You different"...
I didnt create that little F-n box...
From here on out...I have just become an "Other-American" | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 3:29:04 PM |
When the US Gov’t first started using the term “Ethnicity” in the early 1940’s it was used to describe the so-called “Ethnic Vote” which was a conceited odious policy that alluded to the belief in the superiority of the “so called” upper class citizens that were descended from the British, mainly English and Scottish. This so-called “ethnic vote” was used to describe the votes of immigrants such as the “Irish Americans” or the “Dutch Americans” or the “Italian Americans” and so forth. Africans in the US at this point in time were simply referred to as Ni---s.
Citizens descended from the British (Anglo-Celts), simply referred to themselves as “American” and perceived themselves to be “non-ethnic” or of not having an “ethnicity” such was the level of conceited arrogance displayed.
"Irish Americans" are British(the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), many of the "Irish Americans" emigrated to the US from what is now Northern Ireland were in fact Scottish who fled their country during the Highland Clearances. The British are not "Anglo-Celts", the English are in fact referred to as "Anglo-Saxon(from Saxony in Germany) with a fair bit of Norman(northern France) thrown in, the Scottish heritage includes Celts(also Irish), Picts, Scots and a smattering of Viking. What "ethnicity" do you want to choose?
This whole preoccupation with (previous)nation identity is ridiculous, until 2005 I was Scottish now I am American. America, the country I now reside in and am a citizen of, is recognized world wide as having certain geographical boundaries(as are most other countries) and citizens(born or naturalized) should be simply referred to as Americans. In my 40+ years in the UK I never heard anyone referred to as Italian-Scottish or German-English or French-Irish, they were simply Scottish, English, Irish or British(I must apologize at this time for not including the Welsh in this post as I have several Welsh friends!) | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 4:04:02 PM | As far as I'm concerned, if you were born in (North)America, there is no doubt in my mind that you should not be classified as other as American or Canadian. There shouldn't be even a debate on this.
Last time I looked....Mexico was on the NA part of the continent.......
Gonna anger a whole lot of hispanics this way... | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 4:30:27 PM |
those who have been defined, by society, as african-american this phrase was not created by society...it was coined the group themselves because there developed among blacks in America a growing desire for a term of self-identification of their own choosing. With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s, blacks no longer approved of the term Negro.
I don't understand the need to declare my race or sex when identified by another moniker than my name--I am an American and to add anything to that dilutes it. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 5:05:55 PM | [I don't think he can be African American but maybe he could be an American African. It is a privlage to be black and a white person should never be allowed the special rights they deserve.
That's a racist statement if I've ever seen one. Sheesh. ]
I don't understand how I am racist just becasue I don't think a white man should be involved in the rights and privlages of black people. Why in the world would a white man need the help of the NAACP. Or should a white man be entitled to black scholarships. I guess I am racists becasue I think black things should stay black. Obviously white people don't need special groups like this becasue they never encounter racism being that they are the majority. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 5:15:11 PM | 'White people don't experience racism because they are the majority...." ? O.K. Whatever you say..Messages this short cannot be posted unless your not Byrd.. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 6:30:24 PM | Just a question, not to start an argument, but I need help understanding:
There is a Miss America contest...black woment were not allowed to enter so a Miss Black America contest was started(they are celebrating 40 years this year). It was considered racist to have this Miss America contest and not allow black women who were American to enter so rules were changed and black women were allowed to enter the Miss America contest. But the Miss Black America contest continues but white women are not allowed to enter. If the Miss America contest is open to all American women why still have a contest that is selective to entrants..especially since a great number of the recent winners and high ranking placements in the Miss America contest were black women. Does this not continue racism perpertuated by those who seek to stop it? It is still called the Miss Black America contest not the Miss African American contest. Should tthere be a contest for those who consider themselves black and one for those who consider themselves African?
I have worked with EEO a great deal--if you don't think discrimination is alive and working...try being a white middle aged male...he virtually has no rights. I don't think punishing the current generation for the sins of the fathers (generations removed) and giving to the current generation for sins against their fathers (generations removed) changes anything. A great deal of the white Americans or European Americans are the decendants of people who came here after slavery was long gone and they thereby had nothing to do with it. Many of them came here as indentured servants.
Not all who call themselves African Americans are decendants of those who were transported here against their will. To continue to attach themselves to a life to which they truly have no connection is a bit odd. My family is of French extraction but I don't call myself French American or European American...I am an American. Logistically I could only be French/European American if I was first generation of French/European parent and second generation of an American parent.
Any correction can go to far to the opposite. I think that we should all just be American, your gender and race should only count for census. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/17/2009 7:02:03 PM | | I am sure you know you are being cheeky and politically incorrect but your point is well taken. I find it terribly interesting how people always want to define themselves in terms that they believe are favorable. Just like fascists who call themselves conservative and sluts (men can be sluts too) who call themselves liberal. Plenty of people go along to get along and call (whoever they are) whatever the name du jur that they like. From what I have seen of the former Rhodesia today, if I were a white who escaped from there with my life, forget the property, I would call myself smart. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 5/18/2009 1:48:05 AM | What genius made the rule that only Mexicans are considered "the Brown race"
Where I come from the brownies are endearingly referred to in that sense (brownie) by themselves and us whiteys alike and consist of to name a few hawaiians, tongans, samoans, figians, guamese, filipinos, tahitians, maori, portuguese, south americans, new guineans, balinese, laosians, cambodians, vietnamese, mexicans, puerto ricans, indians, africans, dominicans, haitians, cubans yada yada yada.... so I guess I'm not aware of the genius made rule.
Then again we don't disciminate. Everybody's an open season .
An african american, a pollack and a priest walked into a bar and sat down with a blonde, a portuguese from Durban and a fiddle player. The bartender walked over and said " What is this some kind of a joke ?" | |
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