Why is this even a topic for discussion? How does it affect us as Nigerians?

I'm not fond of replying such topics but I must say at this point I'm really fed up.

These people fought for their right to be considered American citizens, yet they attached the prefix African to their acquired citizenship because of what? Don't know why but there is something wrong somewhere; something that tells me these people do not actually have an identity of their own.

They want to be called Americans as to force the white population to make up for the atrocities they committed against their ancestors, yet they hate these same white people and want to keep a distance from them, thus calling themselves Africans.

Now they are like: why should I be called African when I have little or nothing in common with my enslaved ancestry? So now they want to be called Black.

These same people tomorrow will come out to say they no longer want to be referred to as Black. Black is dark, evil, dirty, ugly, etc.

Then we'll go back to "people of colour". Then they'll say: "Why should we be the coloured ones? Whites aren't white after all: they are actually pink."

I think these people should just shut up and call themselves Americans. That's what I call anybody who was born there or who has lived there enough to be naturalized. They are the only one stressing themselves because outsiders don't care about what name they decide to call themselves.

Italian will call them Americans, the same with the French, Germans, Spanish or British.

Now talking about Britain, should the Africans or the people of African ancestry call themselves African British?

Should the Europeans born and living in Africa call themselves European African?

Make them talk true, that African American dey sweet for mouth, if not they wouldn't come up with such nonsense.

ak47mann:

Black American should be thanking Africans for giving them the first black president,if not the Kenya student by now they will still be slaves in America,

Are u for real? I can't believe any sane person can put that crap up there. This is coming from a citizen of a country that can't even provide ordinary water to it's citizens.
Thanking Africans for giving them Obama? Do u even know the approval rating of Obama presently. Americans ain't that myopic to think the color of a President will do work wonders. The best President America ever had was a White man (Bill Clinton) yet they not asking us to thank white people for giving them the best President?
I wonder which of the planet ape u came from.

oyewolejos:

Are u for real? I can't believe any sane person can put that crap up there. This is coming from a citizen of a country that can't even provide ordinary water to it's citizens.
Thanking Africans for giving them Obama? Do u even know the approval rating of Obama presently. Americans ain't that myopic to think the color of a President will do work wonders. The best President America ever had was a White man (Bill Clinton) yet they not asking us to thank white people for giving them the best President?
I wonder which of the planet ape u came from.

cut the crap,can you name one inauguration in American history that was as popular as barrack obama? i always knew that common American citizen don't think,look your government is like a cult,they run wall streets, oil companies,institutions,especially after 2ND world war they learnt that if they don't secure their empire it will slip away they learn that lesson from (ADOLF HITLER) he was the only man that thought them the power of technologycal weaponry and power of control,through propaganda.Go and read your world history to get a clue b/4 you come and challenge me

[flash=400,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDnxNzAxIec[/flash]

These comments ae ignorant, if you know anything bout American sociology you would now that African Americans are not set up to succeed. When you are born poor you usually stay poor. African Americans have the worse schools in America and they don't teach them about their great history before slavery. Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpfMD9gWNf8

The police is always out to arrest black men and let whites go. That is why so many black men are in jail. While the witness are more likely to be let go America is a very racist society, TRUST ME. There are just no opportunities and getting a job due to bad schools. Many AA 12 graders have the education of 8th grade white people. So many cannot finish university, it is a HUGE jump.

We are all in the same boat and looked at the same. Let's unite as one with a Pan-African movement!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-REUNION-OF-BLACK-FAMILY-WORLD-WIDE/137580649597223

All of you thinking you are Americans are clowns. Allow me to describe you lot in one simple term : IMMIGRANTS.

phreakabit:

All of you thinking you are Americans are clowns. Allow me to describe you lot in one simple term : IMMIGRANTS.

No! they are economic migrants

[b]Update, story on the Oreo (sellout) that wants to diminish his African roots.


Gibre George started a Facebook page called 'Don't Call Me African-American."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/21/v-print/2653580/facebook-page-challenges-how-blacks.html#storylink=cpy





Facebook page challenges how blacks define themselves

By AUDRA D.S. BURCH

In the quiet of his Miami home late one night, Gibré George yielded to something that had been bothering him for almost as long as he has lived in South Florida.
So he sat before his laptop and typed the words that he felt: Don’t Call Me African-American.

The Facebook page with the provocative sentiment summed up a moment of racial and ethnic clarity for George and, perhaps, a shifting consciousness for others. For more than a year, the page sat idle — among countless other Internet identity declarations — liked, disliked and commented on mostly by a circle of friends. Then, almost as quickly as you can point and click, the page burst onto the larger social media radar, offering an open, instant public forum to discuss how people of color define themselves in an America more diverse than ever before.

“I was just trying to express my personal feelings. I prefer to be called American, but if you must further define me, then use the term black or person of color. The term African American just doesn’t settle right in my stomach because it’s not accurate,” said George, 38, a party promoter who holds regular events in Hollywood and Miami Beach (For Oyibos)[/b] . “I am not in anyway disavowing my African heritage, but if you are going to call me African American, then call white people Euro-Americans. That would make the playing field even.”

In creating the page, admittedly on a whim, George — who also has Caribbean roots — stepped squarely into the national discourse of how and what Americans of African descent should be labeled, a debate that has raged from the earliest days of race classifications when America lived in black and white. George and his page appeared in an Associated Press article earlier this month distributed nationally, fueling the discussion on websites, blogs and radio. Before long, the BBC was calling for an interview about the usage of the African American versus black. Along the way, the page generated almost 2,200 likes and an online conversation that took on a life of its own.

‘PIVOTAL MOMENT’

“We are at this pivotal moment where some people believe we are losing the complexity and the diversity of the African diaspora by calling ourselves African American, that it is not a broad enough term to include the range of blacks living in America,” said James Peterson, director of Africana Studies and associate professor of English at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. “This conversation is.gathering steam now and is a by-product of diversity.”

In South Florida, a mosaic of ethnicities, the Black Affairs Advisory Board had been discussing whether to change its name a few years ago. The group is planning to sponsor a workshop this year to explore cultural differences within the African diaspora.

“We were trying to find a way to be more inclusive because we have so many blacks here who are from different countries,” director Retha Boone-Frye said. “The term we developed was Black World Community, which does a better job of covering people from here or Jamaica or Bahamas or Haiti or Nigeria.”

Peterson said the term African Americans, popularized a quarter-century ago, pertains to blacks in the United States whose lineage is tied to American slavery, considered the historical starting point of the group. But to some like George, that description does not adequately cover immigrants or Caribbean blacks living in the U.S. whose narrative, culture and path is different, even though many also descended from slaves. The term was created as an upper-case nod to both the new and former homelands, similar to Irish-American or Italian-American.

AN ALTERNATIVE

It was also an alternative to the term black, which had grown out of the pride of the Civil Rights Movement and, later, the Black Power movement but then took on a host of negative connotations within popular culture.

“Black was an early classification centuries ago — and seen as derogatory — that whites used to describe people of color. People later fought to have the term colored used and when that got bad, they didn’t use it anymore. The black power movement in many ways reclaimed the term black and it became powerful, and then it also became negative,” said Anne H. Charity Hudley, associate professor of education, English and linguistics and Africana studies at The College of William & Mary. “Then came African American, a term that was supposed to encompass the diaspora. The social message was we are all together and that is where our strength comes from. But some want to be identified closer to their origin, which is where you see the tension.”

The issue of self-identification came into focus again when the nation elected its first black president, the son of parents from Kenya and Kansas, and a steady stream of black immigrants continues to drive the issue.

‘LARGER ISSUE’

“The larger issue is that over the years, people of the African diaspora lost the right to name themselves,’’ said Charity Hudley, co-author of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics. “It’s not really about what is right or wrong but how people see and think of themselves, which is a personal choice.’’

That may resonate particularly in South Florida, where immigrants from Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas and other nations make up one of the nation’s largest concentration of Caribbean immigrants.

To George, the term African American, however noble in its creation, dismisses his father and the half of his family tree that comes from St. Lucia. He grew up in New York in a home dominated by the West Indian culture. Because of his brown complexion, he was often referred to as African American. It wasn’t until he moved to South Florida in the early 1990s, where people often define themselves by nationality, that he began to think about how he identified himself.

“Every one of us has to deal with how we define ourselves. When I was thinking about that, I thought American first. And while I understand the terms that are used to refer to us, I think they are outdated,” he said. “Black or person of color is a modern reflection of who we are.”

[/b]

^^^ This guy (promoter) is obviously another victim of blatant ignorance, just like a lot of other Africans.

I don't see why there is so hate hatred between African-Americans and Africans. Neither one of us is superior to the other.

I see my self as Black, but only as a term of distinction between me and other races, not me and other Africans, whom I also consider Black People.

I say that Continental Africans and Diasporic Africans need to start admonishing the ignoramuses that try to pry us apart with their divisiveness without throwing the baby out with the bath water.

There is an infinite amount of good that can and will come from us uniting with each other.

I must say I was shocked to read the name calling and stereotyping of black Americans on this forum. Name changes for black Americans are all about identity; a place to belong. Some Africans have said loud and clear that they want no association to blacks. Black Americans had a difference experience and you have no right to judge anyone else. We should be supporting each other rather than tearing each other down.

I think one of the lessons we should have learnt, is that the divisions within African people a few centuries ago, allowed Europeans to kidnap and murder millions of our ancestors in their white new world. Africa knows the destructive nature of Europeans through colonialism in Africa; for many nations, this occurred for less than 100 years.

Africans in the Americas were tsken.from there homeland and were treated like animals for generations. There cultural and political leaders have alwsys been proud of Africa, while acknowledging the importance of an African Identity.

The important issues of an African identity the respect for African hertitage,our traditions and the legacies of our ancestors is something Africans everywhere on the Planet have to face. Ironically, looking at the start of this thread, the Africans who were stolen during enslavement, began defining the modern African identity during the 19th century in the Caribbean and America. Where they learnt through unimaginable suffering, the price of our disunity.

Pardon my manners, Hello Nairaland!

chidebe: I just heard on BBC that African-Americans now to be called Blacks as they don't want anything to do with Africa. My take: THIS IS AN ACUTE CASE OF IDENTITY CRISIS. Meanwhile, the same report quotes a Nigerian diasporan as wanting to be called CONTINENTAL AFRICAN, whatever that means!

As a black person from american we have embraced being called black. Don't judge us because you do not know us or our culture. I prefer black over african american because I feel it gives unity with black people all over the world. Yes I am from africans but most blacks here feel they have never been to africa (and many don't wanna go but there are others such as myself who would jump at the opportunity to go to africa for a few weeks) so don't call them that. We only really think about it when you ask us though so here you will see it both ways. I don't know but to when in professional settings I say african american. Does it matter? We know we are from africa.

Africans gotta stop judging and looking down on blacks in america. That sh!!!t is not cool.

brownusagirl:

As a black person from american we have embraced being called black. Don't judge us because you do not know us or our culture. I prefer black over african american because I feel it gives unity with black people all over the world. Yes I am from africans but most blacks here feel they have never been to africa (and many don't wanna go but there are others such as myself who would jump at the opportunity to go to africa for a few weeks) so don't call them that. We only really think about it when you ask us though so here you will see it both ways. I don't know but to when in professional settings I say african american. Does it matter? We know we are from africa.

I cant blame them. How else would they survive if they went back to Africa? Afterall here in the US they can survive on section 8 housing, food stamps, social security just by virtue of being a single mother, disability, unemployment insurance? Where else in the world can i get paid for merely having babies? Where else in the world can i get a new car with no discernable source of income? Yeah they would prefer to stay in America. No shock there...

michelin89: I'm not fond of replying such topics but I must say at this point I'm really fed up.

These people fought for their right to be considered American citizens, yet they attached the prefix African to their acquired citizenship because of what? Don't know why but there is something wrong somewhere; something that tells me these people do not actually have an identity of their own.

They want to be called Americans as to force the white population to make up for the atrocities they committed against their ancestors, yet they hate these same white people and want to keep a distance from them, thus calling themselves Africans.

Now they are like: why should I be called African when I have little or nothing in common with my enslaved ancestry? So now they want to be called Black.

These same people tomorrow will come out to say they no longer want to be referred to as Black. Black is dark, evil, dirty, ugly, etc.

Then we'll go back to "people of colour". Then they'll say: "Why should we be the coloured ones? Whites aren't white after all: they are actually pink."

I think these people should just shut up and call themselves Americans. That's what I call anybody who was born there or who has lived there enough to be naturalized. They are the only one stressing themselves because outsiders don't care about what name they decide to call themselves.

Italian will call them Americans, the same with the French, Germans, Spanish or British.

Now talking about Britain, should the Africans or the people of African ancestry call themselves African British?

Should the Europeans born and living in Africa call themselves European African?

Make them talk true, that African American dey sweet for mouth, if not they wouldn't come up with such nonsense.

Another example of africans looking down on us. When you step your foot in america then the white people will think you are a black american. They will not care you are from nigeria or the moon and will treat you the same as they treat me. Africans do not seem unified. Maybe if you all didn't get so caught up in nationalities, then the CONTINENT as a whole would do a lot better.

brownusagirl:

Another example of africans looking down on us. When you step your foot in america then the white people will think you are a black american. They will not care you are from nigeria or the moon and will treat you the same as they treat me. Africans do not seem unified. Maybe if you all didn't get so caught up in nationalities, then the CONTINENT as a whole would do a lot better.

The funny thing is i have encountered more anti-African sentiment from BLACKS in the US. Its funny but i tend to get along more with whites here than the blacks... most of them think i came here to steal their jobs anyway or i'm only with them for green card purposes.

brownusagirl: Africans gotta stop judging and looking down on blacks in america. That sh!!!t is not cool.

You guys look down on Africans as well.. It's a two way thing...

davidylan:

I cant blame them. How else would they survive if they went back to Africa? Afterall here in the US they can survive on section 8 housing, food stamps, social security just by virtue of being a single mother, disability, unemployment insurance? Where else in the world can i get paid for merely having babies? Where else in the world can i get a new car with no discernable source of income? Yeah they would prefer to stay in America. No shock there...

Child please! I have never been on welfare. All of my family and friends went to college and are professionals. Stop watching so much tv hun cuz its frying your brain! I hope you never come to america cuz you won't fare well here. You sound like a stupid white person.

You are hating us yet the whole world wants to be US! That is our culture that is highly sought after! Our music, movies, clothes, books etc etc etc

.

davidylan:

The funny thing is i have encountered more anti-African sentiment from BLACKS in the US. Its funny but i tend to get along more with whites here than the blacks... most of them think i came here to steal their jobs anyway or i'm only with them for green card purposes.

All the africans I know who choose to embrace us are embraced back. If you are standoffish with us then we will do the same for you. I know some who only stay to other africans so of course no other black students embrace them.

brownusagirl: Africans gotta stop judging and looking down on blacks in america. That sh!!!t is not cool.

I think you are generalizing everyone and I have NEVER looked down on any blacks in America! In fact, only ignorant people will do that but not everyone is ignorant! Things like these really surprise me when I hear that people in America think they are being looked down on, which is really very subjective! Perhaps, the person who feels looked down on does not contribute positively to society by getting up everyday to do some decent work, work hard, get an education, etc! I should keep this short by saying that you should not generalize everyone because I do not look down on any blacks or anyone for that matter! I heard something similar from an Haitian girl, who obviously has been hanging out with ignorant people especially her sister from what she told me, and she said Africans don't like Haitians. Generalizations like these are ridiculously ridiculous! Hope you remember this next time that not every African fits the mould of ignorant people who look down on other black people!

.

CyberG:

I think you are generalizing everyone and I have NEVER looked down on any blacks in America! In fact, only ignorant people will do that but not everyone is ignorant! Things like these really surprise me when I hear that people in America think they are being looked down on, which is really very subjective! Perhaps, the person who feels looked down on does not contribute positively to society by getting up everyday to do some decent work, work hard, get an education, etc! I should keep this short by saying that you should not generalize everyone because I do not look down on any blacks or anyone for that matter! I heard something similar from an Haitian girl, who obviously has been hanging out with ignorant people especially her sister from what she told me, and she said Africans don't like Haitians. Generalizations like these are ridiculously ridiculous! Hope you remember this next time that not every African fits the mould of ignorant people who look down on other black people!

And I see your point but I'm stating what I see. I had a professor from Ghana say that when he was a student, he was advised not to really mix with the other black students. Good for grades but bad for social life. Many are unaware of the issues here that blacks face. One did not even know about trayvon martin. This was crazy to me because it could have happened to any black man not just an american one.

brownusagirl:
And I see your point but I'm stating what I see. I had a professor from Ghana say that when he was a student, he was advised not to really mix with the other black students. Good for grades but bad for social life. Many are unaware of the issues here that blacks face. One did not even know about trayvon martin. This was crazy to me because it could have happened to any black man not just an american one.

This is strange to me though and I do not see how anyone who is a loner of a student will get better grades in a competitive school than his peers who choose mutually smart friends, form effective study groups, discuss assignments and challenge each other with academic work! I do not dispute what you see from daily life but not every person of African origin is like that and in fact, anyone who thinks like that is so ignorant while he/she thinks he/she is enlightened!

CyberG:

This is strange to me though and I do not see how anyone who is a loner of a student will get better grades in a competitive school than his peers who choose mutually smart friends, form effective study groups, discuss assignments and challenge each other with academic work! I do not dispute what you see from daily life but not every person of African origin is like that and in fact, anyone who thinks like that is so ignorant while he/she thinks he/she is enlightened!

Fact!!

brownusagirl:

Child please! I have never been on welfare. All of my family and friends went to college and are professionals. Stop watching so much tv hun cuz its frying your brain! I hope you never come to america cuz you won't fare well here. You sound like a stupid white person.

You are hating us yet the whole world wants to be US! That is our culture that is highly sought after! Our music, movies, clothes, books etc etc etc

Dumb. I've been living here 7 yrs already and i'm a black Nigerian. all you responded to was FACT. That a few minority of American blacks are the exception to the rule does not make it "stupid". Go to Detroit and weep.

With regard to your last point... yes the world wants to be "you" (unfortunately they could care less about the blacks here). Yes American culture is highly sought after but what they truly mean is WHITE AMERICAN culture. Yes your music is highly sought after... but music from WHITE AMERICA. Yes your movies are highly sought after but WHITE HOLLYWOOD (no one cares about Tyler Perry outside of Atlanta Georgia). Yes the world seeks your clothes but those made by WHITE AMERICANS. Yes the world longs to immigrate to America but lets face it, if it was 80% black no one would come there.

Face the facts my dear. You are just tagging along and an inconsequential part of what is essentially a colony developed by white Europeans.

brownusagirl:

All the africans I know who choose to embrace us are embraced back. If you are standoffish with us then we will do the same for you. I know some who only stay to other africans so of course no other black students embrace them.

I admit there is an minority of african americans that i relate with, mostly upwardly mobile colleagues in corporate America who dont thumb their noses at Africans. The rest are not worth the time. I would rather embrace Africans than go around with drug-addled lazy bones simply because we have the same skin color.

davidylan:

Dumb. I've been living here 7 yrs already and i'm a black Nigerian. all you responded to was FACT. That a few minority of American blacks are the exception to the rule does not make it "stupid". Go to Detroit and weep.

With regard to your last point... yes the world wants to be "you" (unfortunately they could care less about the blacks here). Yes American culture is highly sought after but what they truly mean is WHITE AMERICAN culture. Yes your music is highly sought after... but music from WHITE AMERICA. Yes your movies are highly sought after but WHITE HOLLYWOOD (no one cares about Tyler Perry outside of Atlanta Georgia). Yes the world seeks your clothes but those made by WHITE AMERICANS. Yes the world longs to immigrate to America but lets face it, if it was 80% black no one would come there.

Face the facts my dear. You are just tagging along and an inconsequential part of what is essentially a colony developed by white Europeans.

Kmsl! Hun please! Tyler perry makes quite a bit to say only those in atl know him! Kmsl! Thanks for proving me right! Oh and ps hip hop is a black american thing and many of the pics of people emulated are black americans. Beyonce, jay z, kanye, barack, etc etc etc etc are so much bigger than the us. Wtbs Don't hate cuz you ain't

davidylan:

I admit there is an minority of african americans that i relate with, mostly upwardly mobile colleagues in corporate America who dont thumb their noses at Africans. The rest are not worth the time. I would rather embrace Africans than go around with drug-addled lazy bones simply because we have the same skin color.

See your dumb perspective clouds your vision.

brownusagirl:

See your dumb perspective clouds your vision.

The shaming tactic in full use. Not working sis.
See, a point of view is not "dumb" simply because it does not agree with yours. I thought mature people knew that but i must be mistaken.

Have you asked yourself why blacks make up an inordinate number (relative to population size) of those on the welfare and prison rolls? Have you wondered why the only time you see blacks in corporate America is after 7pm when the cleaning crew come in?
These are facts not dumb perspectives.

brownusagirl:

Kmsl! Hun please! Tyler perry makes quite a bit to say only those in atl know him! Kmsl! Thanks for proving me right! Oh and ps hip hop is a black american thing and many of the pics of people emulated are black americans. Beyonce, jay z, kanye, barack, etc etc etc etc are so much bigger than the us. Wtbs Don't hate cuz you ain't

and how many tyler Perry movies do you find in German theatres? Lets be honest, remove the US market... how popular do you think Kanye would be in china, Korea or Finland? Get serious!
Its amazing that the only things you can seriously point to are music styles that promote violence, mediocrity and gender abuse.