Re: Whiteness?

> From: Adrian Morgan
>
> Mike Adams wrote:
>
> > Hum, if it is wrong to be american-european/european-american, then
> > why is it not wrong to be african-american?
> >
> > Me, I am an American, just happen to have most of my ancestors that
> > I know of, came from Europe.
>
> I first learned the term african-american some years ago from one of
> the Dictionary Supplements in the annual Year Books published by
> World Book Encyclopedia -- this gives a list of words that have
> recently entered the English language in the opinion of the editors.
>
> I thought it was a beautifully poetic term. Rhythmic and dignified. I
> had no *idea* that it had political connotations (we're wonderfully
> insulated here in Aus).
Although the term originally had political connotations (as did the original
shift from Negro or Colored to Black), neither Black nor African-American
carry much of those connotations any longer.  Certainly not among
African-Americans and diminishingly so among other Americans.

> Years later I was shocked to learn - from a magazine interview with a
> well-known American negro - that the term had its origins in extreme
> political correctness and that many actual black Americans find it
> distateful.
It has been my experience that the few, usually older, people left who still
refer to themselves as "negro" (few?  even my 87 year old mother calls
herself Black even though visually she is indistinguishable from
European-Americans) might find the term "African-American" distasteful.  But
the number of "African-Americans" that find the term "negro" distasteful far
outnumbers those few.  "Negro" carries far more political and historical
baggage than "African-American" and given the oppressive content of that
baggage, few African-Americans use it any longer.

BTW, exactly what is an "actual black American"?

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates