I'm Black. Not an African American
 

I agree with some of the points made by the vlogger on the video. We have a distinct culture made in the US, we aren't Africans in America but a new people.



What is your take on this video.

Yep, Black is more fit to Diasporan in the Americans as a Nigerian born in the US can be labled as African American, but Black fit more with the ones with old slave/maroon ancestry.
Black also can be used by other diasporans in the AMericas and not just the ones of the US.

It's rather subjective. Black = African anyway, so what's the difference really?

African is more descriptive of a region, as on the continent of Africa, a Moroccan who is Caucasian is African because he is from the continent, while Black is more of a race, as in descendants of maroons and slaves.

Black Race = A race from Africa. Either way the word "Black" is still associated exclusively with the word "African". You cannot be "Black" without having ancestry from the African continent.

Some Afrmas seem to not like to be compared to Africans, despite they are from the same race, I thinki is about ethnical pride.

You need to blame Jesse Jackson who promoted the use of African American instead of Black, Negro, Colored or any of the other terms previously used. So what do you want to be called identifing all the Americans with predominately African roots?

African - American well this term isn't also very correct
I mean this Morrocan girl is should also be African American since she is from Africa
http://wafin.com/images/mom/112-leila.jpg

---------- Post added 2012-07-12 at 05:33 ----------

Well for some people aborigines/negriots are black

How useful is it to call her African American, and if she did emigrate here, would she even identify with the term? The answer to both those questions is no. As with most other recent immigrants, they are addressed by their nation of origin, as in Morrocan American, Chinese American etc etc. By calling all immigrants who come here from Africa "African American" you are grouping them all together as if they are one monolithic cultural/racial block. A Nigerian is different from a Kenyan, an Algeriaing is differnt from someone from the Congo.

Secondly, she would not identify as "African American", but as Morrocan.




Well for some people aborigines/negriots are black Which further shows the rather pointlessness of this argument, as aborigines share nothing with us, no common history, nor any common ancestry. They are not us, so it is futile to describe them in the same way as us, as we do not identify with them, nor do they identify with us.

In the end, it is our choice how we wish to identify. If foreigners have a problem with this, than they will just have to get over it.

Black fits us fine. But Black Americans are an ethnicity of people of West African descent from Chattel slavery in the,US. Other non BA blacks are called by thier nationalities.

And why you people call yoruselves African American?Just asking

African is a racial term. I doubt anyone thinks of Moroccans as "Africans," least of all Moroccans themselves, unless they are trying to play a juvenile game of "gotcha!" Still, for the sake of precision the term Sub-Saharan African is used to signify race.

Johnnyboy, for whatever it's worth, my view of blacks like you is that of "new world blacks." To me this term reflects not just the racial difference between you and african africans (ie most of you are partly mixed, while africans are "pure," so to speak), but also your historical, cultural and developmental differences. "African American" may have once done the job, but I think many of you yourselves can realize that african africans are "kinda different," so if you were to keep using "African American" it'd mean considering them part of your closest in-group, but my guess is you don't want to do that, because they just seem too different (for now, anyway; 100 years from now, who knows).

We are an American group primarily descended from a collection of different ethnic groups from Africa. Due to isolation, we have developed our own distinct culture. Why do people have a problem with this, just asking?

Becuase I simply can get why people such as Nigerians and Ghaninas cna't call themselves African Americasn if they were born in the US, as they also come from the African continent.

---------- Post added 2012-07-11 at 23:02 ----------

This is a better term

Who says they can't identify as African American? I'm fine with them identifying with us. During assimilation, don't they end up merging with us native African Americans anyway? But how many African Immigrants give up identifying with their home Nations within the first generation? That is the crucial point of this debate, most Immigrants still identify with their home nations to an extent, and adopt that name for their American modifier.

It's very confusing considering the older group wants to be call Negro and is offended if called Black or Colored. Jesse Jackson complicated the matter by promoting the term African American. Now the youngsters want to be called Black and can be offended depending on the individual if called Negro, Colored, or African American. And I'm sure there are many other individual cases.

You must have ran into some abnormal individuals, as I no of no one who is offended by the mere informal descriptor "black". I can understand many being offended by being called a Negro though. I also don't know of anyone who is offended by being called African American, as most identify with this term as well as the informal "black" as well. The two words are interchangeable. This fact is another reason why I see this debate as rather pointless, as when most people use the word black, it is in reference to someone of African descent.

Aframs and NWBs are just Afro descendant. Just like White are European descendant, etc...
Black it would be the most apropriate term (I think most Aframs don't care being called Black)

Culture always prevails over race, so there's no reason why one should be forced or pressured to identify on matters of race firstly and before culture.

I agree that as far as Africa we are not Africans, African.American in its pure sense should refer to recently arrived Africans.