African americans

[Matt Stone]

Not sure if I should chime in on this or not, but here goes...

Personally, I resent any "hyphenated" American term. Bull dookie. You either are an American, or you are not. The bogus effort to subdivide one group from another within the greater whole of "American-ness" is divisive and contrary to good national identity (which should, in a perfect world, be more important than a "tribal" designation). Ultimately, we should all subscribe to one particular race - The Human Race. That is the only race that should matter...

My wife is of Filipino decent. She was born in the Phillipines, and later was naturalized as an American citizen. While she will say she is Filipino, she means as a matter of heritage not as a national identification. Ask here while overseas what she is, she replies "American." Not Asian-American, not Filipino-American, not Asian-Pacifica Islander. Just plain ol' American.

Hell, if I hyphenated my heritage, it would make me a Czech-Russian-English-Irish-French-Danish-American. Way too much to remember for little ol' me.

Be proud of your cultural heritage. Be proud of where your family lines are drawn from. Don't use either to separate yourself from the greater tribe we all belong to.

And as a minor aside, it is my understanding that the terms "caucasoid," "mongoloid," and "negroid" are actually the anthropological categorizations of racial traits based primarily on musculo-skeletal differences.

Whatever.

Gambarimasu.
:asian:

 

[Hollywood1340]

I'm an American. I also go by James, or Hollywood, either is fine.

 

[TKDman]

I say you should get your own card so you dont have to tell people who you are...

Make a loud wipping sound on your dobok when you fling that card out.

James "Hollywood" Maxwell at your service!

 

[Hollywood1340]

Havn't put the dobak on in two months dude. A gi is soooo much for comfortable

 

[Kenpomachine]

Originally posted by Kenpomachine
Well, if you've llooked under my handle, it says I'm from Spain, so I've never hd to fill that form. I guess I will check both hispanic and caucasic and let them sort it out themselves.

I wanted to write white, I don't actually think I have much caucasian ascent.

 

[Kenpomachine]

Originally posted by Rich Parsons
Kenpo Machine,

As my Friends from Canada will tell you, they are NOT Americans, but CANADIENS! And they are DAMN Proud of it!.

I've had this discussion with a canadian once, and she finally had to admit she was also american. You just have to drop the north in tnorth american.

But the mistake in part of your message is thinking being, as in here, that being one thing is exclusive of the other, which is not. There's a little book by Amin Maalouf, titled Killer identities.
That is all encompassing.

 

[Kenpomachine]

Originally posted by Yiliquan1
Hell, if I hyphenated my heritage, it would make me a Czech-Russian-English-Irish-French-Danish-American. Way too much to remember for little ol' me.

Be proud of your cultural heritage. Be proud of where your family lines are drawn from. Don't use either to separate yourself from the greater tribe we all belong to.

There's also way too interesting things to learn from that cultural heritage

And yes, I agree with you, one has always to be proud of one's roots

 

[Kiz Bell]

I just had a quick question about this. More out of curiosity's sake than anything else.

Yet the last time I checked on census and other legal documents it is listed as Caucasian for the race I would fit best into and not Americans. Now, I do have Native American Indian Heritage, yet I do not have enough nor do I have tribal sponsorship, therefore I cannot legally claim to be a Native American Indian on any government document.

Apart from the census, what other legal documents require you list your race? I'm curious 'cause here in Australia it is illegal, (apart from some documents pertaining to applying for Aboriginal welfare etc), to require a person to divulge their race. Some govternment forms have a box you can tick that asks you if you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, but it's always optional. Nowhere on any legal document am I personally listed as Caucasian or Asian or whatever.

Also, how much American Indian blood do you need to have to call yourself a Native American? And what is tribal sponsorship? Again, I'm just curious. Here you do not need any particular % of Aboriginal blood to claim Aboriginality. Your great great grandmother only could have been Aboriginal, and all your other antecendents Caucasian, but if you "feel" you are Aboriginal then you are.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Originally posted by Kiz Bell
I just had a quick question about this. More out of curiosity's sake than anything else.



Apart from the census, what other legal documents require you list your race? I'm curious 'cause here in Australia it is illegal, (apart from some documents pertaining to applying for Aboriginal welfare etc), to require a person to divulge their race. Some govternment forms have a box you can tick that asks you if you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, but it's always optional. Nowhere on any legal document am I personally listed as Caucasian or Asian or whatever.

Also, how much American Indian blood do you need to have to call yourself a Native American? And what is tribal sponsorship? Again, I'm just curious. Here you do not need any particular % of Aboriginal blood to claim Aboriginality. Your great great grandmother only could have been Aboriginal, and all your other antecendents Caucasian, but if you "feel" you are Aboriginal then you are.

Kiz,

Job applications have this information. It is supposed to be optional, but if you work for a state or federal agency and or a direct contractor, you fill out the optional section if you want to get you application to be processed. You also fill out this section for school loans and applications to Universities and Colleges.

As for American Native Status for me it was my Great Grand Mother who was 25 % Native American Indian. After the 25% mark is when you should have tribal sponsorship. Yet, if you are born on the reservation or in a Tribe the sponsorship is given automatically. It is when you are off the reservation and have no contact that you then need to request tribal sponsorship. Being a Native American Indian gives one many a benefit, including free tuition to college. Tribal Sponsorship is where the tribe you belong too gives you the paperwork required to fill out all the governmental documents to get the special benefits.

You see it is optional, yet if you do not fill it out, your paperwork can be set aside for others that have filled it out. It is illegal to use race for hiring, yet many company unofficially requires.

My First job after college was with a Defense Contractor for the US Army. After my interviews with the engineers I then had to fill out the paperwork with the personnel department. I did not fill out the Optional portion of Race and Sex and Age. The application was handed back to me, and I was strongly requested to fill it out completely. I looked at it and said this last section was optional. He replied it is by law, but the US Government requires that the Contractor provide data on the number of minorities and in which category the fall. I filled out the Optional section and when I checked the Caucasian box, the guy asked me, " Are you sure?" I then had to wait for 6 weeks for a job offer. When I did get in, I soon realized that 90% of the ones hired within that 6 week process were all minorities. Just an observation I made.

Given my dark hair and dark complexion, I have been mistook for just about every minority group out there. With the exception of Women.

Seriously, it is optional yet many people like to know.

I am an American.

 

[Angus]

Originally posted by Kenpomachine
A question out of curiosity here. When you refer to African Americans, does it only apply to negroes and moroccans and the like, or only to negroes?

All I know is...i really hope you don't use the word negroes.

 

[TKDman]

Originally posted by Hollywood1340
Havn't put the dobak on in two months dude. A gi is soooo much for comfortable

Subliminal *Hint Hint*

 

[Rich Parsons]

A Rose by any other name?

Is that the hint?

 

[Kenpomachine]

Originally posted by Angus
All I know is...i really hope you don't use the word negroes.

I was tired and it was the first word that came to me, but only because I'm spanish and I call my black friends negro/a when kidding. No any other connotation in there.

 

[J-kid]

I think you guys use this term wrong, If you live in a America you are American African, Lets think of how stupid it is to put africa first just like if i where to say i am German/Fijian American dosnt sound right. What you would here is AMerican German. Putting your home country first shows respect and the fact you live in this country.

 

[Angus]

No, because now you're using "American" to modify "German" (for example) rather than "German" to modify "American". Like when you say the silly cat, you aren't talking about the silly that's kind of cat, are you? Putting the foreign country second means that you're an Americanized German, or whatever country you'd like. I see your point, but grammatically to enforce your idea you should have American second.

 

[J-kid]

No not really.

 

[Kirk]

Originally posted by Judo-kid
No not really.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hollywood1340]

To see therea are still people who know everyrhing? So refreshing, please J-K, tell us more?

 

[Angus]

Originally posted by Judo-kid
No not really.

I can see now, through your detailed response, that I have failed.

 

[sweeper]

hmm.. african american I think of as a kind of wordy blunt ethnic description. genneraly I use it when describing the ethnic origin of a person of whom I know nothing more about their ethnic origin. I tihnk it's to much of a pain to say in conversation when you could use "black" in it's place with a whole one sylable. I personaly think it refers to your ethnic heritage rather than genetic heritage, with your skin is white and you were bourn in south africa you were still boun in south africa and that's still the culture you grew up in. But personaly I use a more precise description of someone's ethnicity when I can "south african - american" for example. As a result genneraly the plain old "african american" is (in my case) used to refer to people who have lived in the US long enough to not nessisaraly know where exactly their fammily came from (or when I don't want to string together 20 diffrent country's names). But to give an example of where a more specific identifier is helpfull, my grand father on my mother's side was polish american, now poland boarders russia and germany, to say "europian american" could mean anywhere, yet those naboring nations have such diffrent cultures (well arguably russia's and polland's cultures aren't so diffrent but genneraly I think saying that could also get me into fights) and the term "europian american" does little to identify his ethnicity, so little in fact that you might as well drop the europian off there.

I think it's pritty obvious I don't use such modifiers with any regularity.

If the color of someone's skin stands out and it is the only way or easiest way of identifying them than why not use it? the only problem I can see is the terms black and white tend not to identify people in the middle very well..

Actualy I prefer to avoid reffering to someone's race or ethnicity as much as posible just because it seems to make other people feal uncomforable