Much as I try I cannot understand for the life of me why one section of the United States of America’s people are labelled “Afro-American”; surely if these people were born in the USA they are Americans regardless of there ethnicity. So why call them Afro-Americans?
Is this something that perhaps they have labelled themselves to distinguish them from the rest of the Americans; if so it’s obviously been a big mistake.
So what if their ancestors did arrive in the Americas as slaves, they are not!
It appears to me that too many sections of American society are more than happy with this appellation; mainly from the uppercrust, the lowest classes and the law enforcement sections of the community. I suppose one can throw in the military and the media for good measure.
Middle Americans, who I firmly believe are in the majority, do not look on this group as anything other than Americans which is as it should be and possbly because the “Middle” is open to everyboby; it’s just getting there thats the trouble!
But to be singled out and seemingly wanting to be singled out as a seperate people is doing more harm than good. Surely it must be a degradation for these people to be called anything but what they are; Americans.
Will America ever wake up? Not in my lifetime you can bet on it!
😦
LordBeariOfBow 
Yes, it’s African-Americans, and also Asian-Americans. But not, for some reason, European-Americans. I’m not sure what all of that says.
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Neither am I John but the comment I received from Dougsboomerrants goes some way to mudding the waters more. 🙂 Thanks for the comment John, they are always welcome.
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Actually it seems that “nigger” is a variant of the Spanish/Portuguese “negro”, meaning black. I can’t answer for how the River Niger got it’s name, but it seems that might not be the source of the negro variants. Nonetheless, here in the States we are so afraid of the “N” word that everyone refers to it as the “N” word… except of course when the blacks talk to each other, as I mentioned.
I understand that a “boomer” is also a designation for a big nuclear submarine. I suppose being an American baby boomer there are days when I might feel like a punch up ‘roo, and some days when I feel like a bloated submarine. Mostly though I feel the passing of time. Do clocks go backwards down there too? Maybe I WILL move there.
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Our water does go down the gurgler in the opposite direction but that’s about it, except our seasons are in reverse. For a explanation of the word
https://lordbeariofbow.com/2013/04/15/australia-heading-for-the-gurgler/
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Nooo.. it’s not a class thing. If anything, it’s chest thumping pomposity by what individual races wish to be known. Insane political correctness.
Actually that is a fair question although understandably asked when you don’t live in America. Although, I have to surmise that Aussies have aboriginal citizens and Asians that are differentiated from the “regular” Australian population, we Americans make note of those races that may define our so-called “melting pot” diversity. It’s actually a human trait. Regarding “Afro-Americans”, well, we live in a world of (ridiculous) political correctness. In my lifetime alone black Americans have been defined as “negroes”, blacks, black-Americans, Afro-Americans, and now African-Americans. All these have been preferred designations through the years of the black communities. This is not white Americans asserting some demographic identifier. Strangely a lot might have to do with how law enforcement tends to identify individuals in routine paperwork… and how this permeates from TV cops shows. Although in this day and age can one identify anyone as being truly “American”? By that, I mean, “the suspect was a an Asian-American male…” How does a cop know that up front? The suspect might look Asian, but is he an Asian-American? “Was the victim an African-American?” or is a more accurate statement, “was the victim a black male?” But political correctness always gets in the way. If it’s a white person we are just generic.. “a white male”; we are never “a white-American” because the white male could be an Aussie here on vacation. Complicated? Yep. Back in the 1970’s I would have been labeled a WASP (white anglo-saxon protestant). We are a nation of labels. If you know a way out of it let me know.
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Well in answer to the last question you could emigrate to Australia.
We do indeed refer to the Aborigines and Thursday Islanders as such but that is because they receive special benefits and unless they are identified as such they will miss out on those benefits.
When I first arrived in Australia in 1951 they were not even treated as second class citizens, they just weren’t classed as anything but Aborigines usually referred to by the derogatory term “abo’s” I am happy to say that this is rarely heard these days, pretty well all the different ethnic races that now make up the Australian population have been and still are called many different things, Wogs, Balts, Dings, Poms (of which I’m one) and so on, but now it’s usually in fun with tongue in cheek and nobody seems to take offence; which is the way it should be. Thank you for your comments they are really appreciated.
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To complicate the African-American thing all the more here in America, blacks speak among themselves, as you might already have heard, in what’s called “ghetto” slang where they constantly refer to each other as “nigger”… the one word that represents everything bad about black oppression and enslavement here in America. If a white person uses it, that person is damned to the eternal pit fires of racist hell. But it’s ok for blacks to use it toward each other. Go figger. Maybe I WILL move to Australia; I can likely relate better to kangaroos and dingos than to most of the humans that inhabit this country.
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Yes I noticed that about the Negroes, which in itself does not strike me as a derogatory term, to me it makes the same sense as Caucasian or Asian or Aborigine.
It was brought home to me whilst watching the Television series “The Wire”; I personally deplore the use of profanities, but then I’m an Atheist, but this series could not have been made any other way. It must be some type of reverse snobbery. I found it fascinating that three of the main characters in that program were British, two Englishmen and one Irishman. I was also surprised to find that Stringer Bells real accent is the same as mine; pure Cockney! 🙂
You may be able to enlighten me as to the truth of my belief that the word “nigger’ derives from the River Niger on the west coast of Africa from where the traffic flow of slaves across the Atlantic began. on arrival on the shores of America they were cargo from Niger, hence “nigger”; fact or fiction?
As for kangaroos and dingoes I doubt many Australians have ever seen them except in zoos, I have had the dubious pleasure of meeting a kangaroo in the wild but never a dingo. You might be interested to know that “Boomer”s is a name applied to the ‘roos. the big ones that like to have a punch up. 🙂
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