| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 6:07:44 AM |
The below site projects that the White,non Hispanic population percentage change from 2000-2050 will go from 69.4%(2000) to 50.1%(2050). At this rate it is a good chance that
the White population will fall to less than 35% by the end of the 21st century.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/usinterimproj/natprojtab01a.pdf
Even at 40% whites would still be the majority. Unless the one of the groups of Blacks/Hispanics/Asians decide to wipe out the other two or something. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 6:15:14 AM |
Even at 40% whites would still be the majority. A grammar school math teacher's worst nightmare.
I guess irrational fear will make some people cling to irrational ideas.
I shouldn't be laughing. Fear like that isn't funny. It's alarming. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 7:24:45 AM | A grammar school math teacher's worst nightmare.
I guess irrational fear will make some people cling to irrational ideas.
I shouldn't be laughing. Fear like that isn't funny. It's alarming.
Oh look! Another troll-style post from you. I would expect better of someone with a doctorate, now THAT is alarming!
Please explain how my post has "irrational fear" or anything else attatched to it? Since you seem to have taken it upon yourself to be the grammar police, I would like to point out that your last two sentences would have been better executed had you used a comma instead of a period. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 8:01:04 AM | | Egypt is in Africa. So technically Egyptian-Americans should be considered African American. They are American and have roots from Egypt, which is part of Africa. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 8:07:09 AM | ^^True enough, although Egypt is also considered part of the Middle East, and as we all know, that is a more commonly-used term at the moment and therefore gives a more accurate representation.
This conversation could apply to any regional reference that is generally based on race. Whether or not a white person "can" be referred to as African American doesn't seem to be relevant to the point of using the term. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 8:18:20 AM |
Whether or not a white person "can" be referred to as African American doesn't seem to be relevant to the point of using the term.
It is absolutely relevant! Not only is it relevant, it is the original question. Who are you to say that the question is not relevant?
The crux of the original question is that not all Africans are Black. There are White Africans. Therefore, any white Africans that immigrate to the United States would thus be African Americans.
To use the label of African American solely to refer to Black people of African origin would appear to be a racist application of the term. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 8:34:18 AM | It is absolutely relevant! Not only is it relevant, it is the original question. Who are you to say that the question is not relevant?
Don't get yourself all worked up. I didn't say it's not relevant, period. Go back and read again. Taking things out of context is smarmy. And get off of your high horse with the "who are you to say" crap. We all have opinions. Deal with it.
Crying racism to back up a point is disappointing. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 9:17:14 AM |
I didn't say it's not relevant, period.
Yes, you did.
And get off of your high horse with the "who are you to say" crap. We all have opinions. Deal with it.
It was my question, I guess only I can then determine if something is relevant to what I asked.
Crying racism to back up a point is disappointing.
Pay attention, we are discussing using a term to define races. If we exclude certain people due to their ethnicity, racism is a part of it.
Quit looking for a fight when there isn't one. Although, I know this is your style, it just doesn't play well. You can express your opinions in a civil way. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 1:55:11 PM | Whether or not a white person "can" be referred to as African American doesn't seem to be relevant to the point of using the term. It is absolutely relevant! Not only is it relevant, it is the original question. Who are you to say that the question is not relevant? The crux of the original question is that not all Africans are Black. There are White Africans. Therefore, any white Africans that immigrate to the United States would thus be African Americans. To use the label of African American solely to refer to Black people of African origin would appear to be a racist application of the term.
This seems to me like a lot of b.s. kind of discussion, perhaps searching for arguments to accuse the minorities of racism. It wouldn't be the first time that this would happen in these forums.
The only issue that seems relevant to me nowadays, given that most of the hate and opression is directed against the people that come to work for low-wages in the USA, is the issue that the people that are referred in the question here are immigrants, as in "any white Africans that immigrate to the United States." So for me the important question is: did those people immigrate to the USA legally? Because if they didn't, then they should be called "illegal aliens" just like you call most of my compatriots from the south of the Rio Grande all the way to Tierra del Fuego.
And here you are trying to give them a name to mask their true identity, so that you can slight the true African-Americans, the descendants of the slaves brought from Africa. You should know why they were brought here against their will.
An immigrant is just that: an immigrant from a specific country. And even if that immigrant becomes a citizen, that is a naturalized American.
Don't give me any baloney. I know what I am talking about. I was an immigrant, and now I am a citizen, and for most Americans I still am an alien, and most of them don't believe, or accept that I am an American. Maybe I should start saying that I am a Hispanic-American (which I was before, and still am) citizen, and I may have better acceptance, and they won't ask me if I have a green card. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 7:01:28 PM | If a Native American can be an Indian I see no reason why a white person can't be an African American.
If know plenty of white africans, some are African Canadians. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 7:35:34 PM | Interesting....hmmm....
well I for one know of many people from Africa...born there....several generations their family are from Africa...and none of them are Black in colour.
Some are Caucasian ...Dutch or English etc..from South Africa or Rhodesia..not sure if it is still called Rhodesia...I think it is now called Zimbabwe.
Some are brown like me...South Asian ancestry originally generations back from India, Pakistan..etc.
ya...so I guess if they come to the US to live...and become citizens..they can be classified as African American no matter what colour they are.
I for one would like to see people stop identifying themselves as Hyphenated Citizens.
Be American.
Be Canadian..... I am in Canada btw.
be proud of where live and where you are a citizen.
Stop the freakin hyphens....
you see Irish , Italian, so many groups identifying themselves as from that ancestral home...when most of them have never set foot there...they are several generations removed from there.
I am not saying you should not be proud of your heritage or not celebrate your heritage..but show some patronage to your country and remove the hyphen. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 7:59:28 PM | Technically if said white person was born and raised in Africa he/she could be label an African-Whatever.
But then again whites or not native to Africa they're from the colonial mind-set of Europe hell bent on colonizing another continent...how do you think we came up with the name The America...I don't think the native Indians called it that! | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 10:15:26 PM | Uhh If a person was born and raised in Africa no matter what their ethnicity and move to the US and become Citizens of course they are African americans....  | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/12/2009 10:59:44 PM | | I've even heard of white Jamaicans. Imagine that! Breaking down these classifications, it's really all just semantics. Black, white, brown are just colors of our skin, they say nothing about our heritage or where we came from in & of themselves. So, yes, a white person can be an African-American. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 9:01:10 AM |
Even at 40% whites would still be the majority. A grammar school math teacher's worst nightmare. I guess irrational fear will make some people cling to irrational ideas. I shouldn't be laughing. Fear like that isn't funny. It's alarming.
Oh look! Another troll-style post from you. I would expect better of someone with a doctorate, now THAT is alarming!
Please explain how my post has "irrational fear" or anything else attatched to it? Since you seem to have taken it upon yourself to be the grammar police, I would like to point out that your last two sentences would have been better executed had you used a comma instead of a period.
Shahara
"grammar police" ???
It seems to me that you were correcting his math, not his grammar. The word
" grammar" you used, referred to elementary school, not English"grammar".
At any rate, 40% is less than half which means that all others comprise 60% of the total population. In my world as a retired accountant, 40% would be deemed as "minority status" with 60% being majority. I would certainly rather have $60.00 than $40.00 in my pocket any day! | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 9:33:55 AM |
The crux of the original question is that not all Africans are Black. There are White Africans. Therefore, any white Africans that immigrate to the United States would thus be African Americans.
To use the label of African American solely to refer to Black people of African origin would appear to be a racist application of the term.
I absolutely agree!!
Now try this on for a little fun. Remember Sen. John Kerry who lost to George W.Bush in2004? His wife ,Teresa was born in Africa (Bio below) . I would consider her African- American, however I wonder if she considers herself African American.
Perhaps she considers herself as Portuguese-American.
This whole thing can get complicated with the many variables that the citizens of America are comprised of; racial, ethnicity, place of birth, parents place of birth etc.
Teresa Heinz Kerry
Born Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira
October 5, 1938 (1938-10-05) (age 70)
Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa
Residence Boston, MA
Nationality American
Other names Teresa Heinz Kerry
Ethnicity Portuguese
Citizenship American
Education University of the Witwatersrand (B.A.)
Known for Philanthropist
Political party Democratic
Religious beliefs Roman Catholic
Spouse(s) H. John Heinz III (m. 1966–1991) «start: (1966)–end+1: (1992)»"Marriage: H. John Heinz III to Teresa Heinz" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Heinz)
John Kerry (m. 1995–present) «start: (1995)»"Marriage: John Kerry to Teresa Heinz" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Heinz)
Children H. John Heinz IV
Andre Heinz
Christopher Drake Heinz | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 9:42:39 AM | He would be most accurate to say he is Euro African or just African.
You can't just move to a country and say that you are FROM there. That's like me moving to Mexico and saying I'm an American Mexican. No I'm not. I'm still Euro American. It has to do with where your decendants are from and your birth place. It has absolutely nothing to do with where you relocate to.
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 10:03:38 AM | In regards to the above post. I'm not sure if your aware of demographics of North Africa. North Africa is vastly populated with peoples that we here in the USA would not consider African American. These are all clearly Nations of Africa, yet we don't consider some of these peoples African American if they move to America. Arab's clearly make up the majorities in many North African Nations. Yet we consider them Middle Eastern.
All the below numbers come from the CIA-The world fact book
Libya
----Berber and Arab 97%, other 3% (includes Greeks, Maltese, Italians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Turks, Indians, and Tunisians)
Egypt
----Egyptian 99.6%, other 0.4% (2006 census)
Tunisia
----Arab 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other 1%
Algeria
----Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1%
Morocco
-----Arab-Berber 99.1%, other 0.7%, Jewish 0.2% | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 10:15:39 AM | ^^^Middle Eastern is not a country or continent. It's a description of a large area similar to mid western America. Those born in Egypt and Libya and so forth are indeed African. There are five continents to be from. It's pretty simple to choose one.
America has a large population of people of Arab decent. Does that make America Middle Eastern? No. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 11:37:36 AM |
You can't just move to a country and say that you are FROM there. That's like me moving to Mexico and saying I'm an American Mexican. No I'm not. I'm still Euro American. It has to do with where your decendants are from and your birth place. It has absolutely nothing to do with where you relocate to.
I will agree with that idea. By my experience, most Americans probably agree with that idea also. When I say that I am an American (I am a naturalized citizen and I have a USA passport,) they seem very puzzled because I look very hispanic, and when I speak they have no doubt that I'm not an American.
I have this idea for this discussion, I would agree to call "African-Americans" all the people with roots in Africa (a continent), as soon as you can convince all the people who call themselves Irish-Americans, or Polish-Americans, or Italo-Americans, etc. to agree to call themselves "European-Americans." That would be just fair, since Europe is a continent, and those other ------ - Americans are just from a specific country within Europe. Let's compare apples to apples, continent to continent in this case.
So, for the guy from South Africa, he should call himself a "white South-African-American." He could do that if he wished to do so, but only if he immigrated legally; otherwise I would call him an "illegal alien," and I would make him go back to his country and stand on line to apply for a visa if he wants to come back here. | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 1:48:37 PM | Why can't he be a plain "American" and leave it at that? If some tool waishes to identify themselves with some "subset group" or minority, fine...but it has no place on a job application or credit application. You either ARE something or you are not, and are just another "wannabe".
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 2:03:35 PM | To answer the OP, I say yes! If a person comes from Africa and is white and migrates to America and becomes an American, then if they want, they can call themselves an African American. Though why any American citizen (regardless of skin color) would want to refer to themselves as anything other than "American" I cannot understand!
Personally, I'd like to see Americans simply refer to themselves as Americans. What could be more equalizing than melting into the melting pot and simply recognizing yourself as an American.
I wonder if Americans who migrate elsewhere refer to themselves as (American Germans, American Chinese, American Mexican)...? Doubtful!
edit: Tranquillo, welcome and do not change to accommodate those who do not recognize you as a new American citizen but only judge by appearance and accent. To me, that you immigrated legally and refer to yourself as an American is as patriotic as hotdogs and apple pie. Just fly an American flag and they'll come to recognize your intent to BE AMERICAN.
my opinion, thanks! | |
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 5:28:30 PM | i have become addicted to this message board but not as much as ivillage.com
the only person that made sense on this board is ms westernrose. i would suggest folks to do the following:
enroll in an african american study history or literature class
visit s. africa....the whites are not africans but called afrikaners....like charlize theron and arnold vosloo (played in the mummy (1999) as the high priest/mummy).
why not just email either actors that question ?
volunteer at salvation army, women's shelter, habitat or school in the inner city
this reminds of a white woman interviewed several years ago when i worked at a housing authority...she insisted she was a native american indian (she had blond hair and blue eyes) and was telling me all the free money and government stuff she was getting being a native american. i asked her is she tells people this right out or is this only when she goes to apply for government benefits (foodstamps, tanf, etc)???
i assume this is possibly what will happen when or if reparations for slavery happens, there will be alot of white folks, etc coming out of the woodworks claiming to be black or great-great grandma or granddad was black????
this is so sad to see how people and what they are truly thinking but to scared to say or ask a person directly to their face.
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| Can a White person be African American?
Posted: 8/13/2009 6:59:48 PM | I think the one thing that bothers me most about this whole idea, is that we refer to people by their ancestry first, then American, as if the ancestry is more important than their current nationality. I was born here in the U.S., Kewanee, IL to be specific, at 7:27 on a rainy Monday evening in June of 1958. The woman who bore me was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, as were her parents, but her heritage two generations back and beyond is Russian aristocracy. My father , also born in Kewanee, IL has roots that go back to England for the family name (mid 1800's), but Germany as well. So what am I? While I may be of German and Russian descent, I am an American, first and foremost. To add a little twist to this, my parents met while my father was in the Navy with the Rhine River Patrol in Schierstein, Germany. They cooked up my brother, had him there, then had me and our sister here. Where do suppose that leaves my brother?  | |
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