Why Do We Accept Being Called "blacks"? Rather Than Africans Etcs

Does anyone know why they refer to Afrocarribeans as "blacks"? The more I think about it the more I resent it. How does anyone explain to a 4 year old, for example, who is learning about colors, why he may be refered to as "black", when he says his skin colour is brown, yet we seem to accept the term "blacks" and even use it!

I would like to suggest we stop this colour reference and only accept the terms that refer to where we originate from!

Wonder what others think?, 

i've often thought about questions like that. Black americans don't' like to be called african americans, but africans in america don't like to be called african american either, rather,  they'll like to be called africans or sometimes black, whether they are born here or in africa. i think race wise, people know they are black, but nationality wise, they are confused. as for me, if anyone ask me what i am. i just give them the full story, [my parents are nigerians, born and raised there, and i was born here in america to nigerian parents], then its there job to conclude what i am.

sometimes i get confused myself because if people ask me what i am, i say i'm nigerian. then they'll ask, when did i come to this country, then i'll say i was born here. then they'll be like, well you're american then, but i'm not. or sometimes if i say i'm from america(because i was born here) they'll be like well your not because your parent's are not from here so your african. but who cares. if anyone ask, i just say i'm from africa(even though i was born here). and that's that.

@ omogenaija

yes dear, you make sense. I was saying the same above and that's the truth

there are things you just can't wake up one day and change, this is one of them!

Your views are cool, I must say though because that's the way things are does not make it right. Being a pioneer and a change agent has it's advantage, also, we do not have to be "black and proud", rather be "me and proud", 

Amongst themselves, Caucacians do not refer to themselves as whites over here in England,  They are either British, Scottish etc, and that's what I'm saying - black is not really our identity because there is nothing black about us, well apart from our hair.

Flashing this topic around over here with friends, it seems the term was a label given to "us" when the Foreigners came to our lands,  For them to exercise caution, they had to qualify the "things" they were going to steal as blacks to signify the burdensome nature of Africans, 

Another point is that it appears that the connotation "black" comes with a baggage no matter how we want to dress it. It's like red means danger or stop, white means peace or unblemished, black means,  when suddenly the light goes in Niger, or at night there is an element of uncertainty or fear, so hope you dig that if only we had the will, we should really be putting a stop to this, so that generations to come will see themselves without colour or at least have colour that trully describes them e.g. brown and when I think of brown there are no attached misconceptions, it's just the rich colour of my skin

All the same

I see your point dear and in the big scheme of things there are certainly bigger fishes to fry! chao

@ chiegemba darl

lets meet @ the thread in question, then we can take it from there

between i'm fine ooh, just dey like say a no dey

Has any of you checked the meaning of BLACK in any dictionary?

I saw this: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/black

Another one,

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/results.asp?searchword=black

it still has negative conotations

@br222

not sure what part of england ur from, but, yes they do call themselves white. Ask a white person to describe another white person, they would say they are white.

have you never heard of the term black british? If you were born in england/wales etc, your british. What do you fill in when you have to put ur ethnicity in a form? theres white british, white other, black british, african, caribean,

I don't understand why people make a fuss about being called black. I'm black and proud. Its an easier way to term someones ethnicity. If i saw a causcassion person on the street, I'm not going to try and guess whether their english/scotish/french etc, I'm going to describe them as white. If i saw a afrocaribbean person on the street, I'm not going to try guess if theyre jamaican/african/african-american, I'm going to call them black.

Also, theres some pople who are as black as night! and some people who are brown. Should we call the lighter skinned brown, and the darker skined, dark brown or maybe even black? why change all this now? what problem is it causing?

I ilike to wear black clothes, does that mean people should fear me?

Hmm, i would like people to see themselves without a colour too. But this i think will never happen. I like coming to this website. It reminds me of nigeria. Thats like, when i see another black person, i instantly draw towards them, i feel we have a lot of things in common. don't get me wrong i have white friends, but where all human. We like things which reminds us familiarity, and that makes us feel safe.
No matter how much you want people to no think about colour of your skin, we are all different, and i like the fact people have different cultures and skin colours.

Whether your brown/ white/ yellow/ pink, who cares. because i don't care that I'm callled black. Chinese are called Yellow. South Asians are called brown, Caucasians are called White.

blue-sky , and cuteass i love  u 
we think alike