I am confused why do we have to refer to African people in this country as African American when they don't refer to us as Caucasians or European?
by 
Lady Justice
ANSWERS: 13
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What circumstance do you "have to refer to African People in this country as African American"? I don't.
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On official documents, you do actually have to mark down "Caucasian" for your race. The reason it's "PC" to refer to blacks as African American is, because, for a long time there has been a massively negative connotation to "black" when referencing a race. It's the same reason we don't call Italians "guidos" or Irish "mics". But honestly, at least for my demographic and generation, "black" doesn't have a negative connotation anymore. I use it freely amongst my age group, and so does everyone else.
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...its politically correct to do so. Being white, and putting the rest of teh world(our ancetors) into a living hell based on gender and race, we kinda have to be careful in how we adress the rest of the world....>_<
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White people are called _____ Americans less frequently because it is harder to tell ethnic background by looking at a white person. Plus the US was founded by white people, not Africans.
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I've never liked titles. I've always looked at myself as just an American. I was born here. I wasn't born in another Country and just came over here and got my citizenship. Everyone wants to do the whole "Politically Correct" thing. So no ones feelings will get hurt. Just call me an American and I'm fine with that.
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yea, that's how i see it and i just refer to them as black. some of them actually prefer it and most just don't care
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At least it's better than "American citizen of African descent." God help us. What's up with the catagory, by the way? Don't care anymore, do ya?
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Actually being a nationalized immigrant if someone referred to me as an English-American I'd probably jab them in the larynx. Never have and never will use the term african american. I think the terms Italian-American, Asian-American, etc are equally worthless.
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Well, where I'm from if you're black, you're black. And if you're white, you're white. The reason for this is because it is actually less offensive to refer to someone as black instead of African-American in Canada. If only because 90% of the "African-American's" in Canada are actually Jamaican-Canadians. Quite a difference there.
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Because new owners of America can do whatever they want.
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meh, if they say they're black then ok, if they want to be african american, sudanese, ethiopian, that's cool too usually i just say i'm brown. my heritage makes no different when it comes to me as person.
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It's the least we can do after two and a half centuries of calling them the N word...
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The simplest explanation I could give you is this: White people aren't given titles based on their ethnic backgrounds largely because Western European ancestries are not generally accepted as legitimately "Ethnic". Due largely to the backlash against America's racist past, so much innate racism is levied against Western-European Americans that their heritages are not even widely acknowledged. I myself am predominately English and French, but to most people, I'm just "White", and that's a big part of the reason why.
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