Re: Whiteness?

Nik Taylor wrote:

>> I.e. African-American does not mean purely &
>> simply 'an American citizen whose forebears come from Africa'.
>
>Right, it's simply an alternate term for "Black", neither of which terms
>seem particularly accurate, since "Blacks" aren't literally
>black-skinned any more than "Whites" are white-skinned.
>
>Also, I suspect that an Australian Aborigine living in the US would
>probably be called "African-American", making it even an more absurd
>term than it already is!
Absolutely true.  An old neighbor of mine made that complaint -- he had no
connections to Africa, but was always called "African-American".  Of
course, my
Jamaican friend makes the same complaint.  He knows his ultimate origins
are in
African, but he claims Jamaica as his heritage.

Marcus





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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
  -- Kenneth Hale
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