Why is it that African Americans are called Blacks? And Caucasians White?

take it a step further where the hell is Caucasia? The way I see it you are American or English or African etc. Not African-American, etc. If you are an American you're an American. You never hear Caucasians saying German-American, etc. I say let's all go universal and use American

Hmm... I use these words because they are short and everyone understands them. You are of course right that no one has white or black skin and these words imply a contrast that is not there, I mean speaking about the colors black is the opposite of white, but when we speak about people, I think no one is the opposite of anyone, just some people have darker skin and some have brighter skin.

I don't use the term "Caucasian" because I am European and we don't use that word like Americans do - I mean for me a Caucasian is someone from Caucasus, a region in Asia. When I started to hear that white Americans call themselves Caucasians I started to wonder why there are so many people from that region until I realized they use this word with a different meaning!

I am sure you won't believe this but I am 43 years old, I live in NY where there is so much diversity and I have never referred to anyone by the color of their skin. I am trying to figure out when that would be necessary to refer to someone as "black" and "white"...."That white guy said....." Wouldn't someone just say, "That guy said....." unless you needed to describe someone for some reason. I agree with the first answer, refer to them as people. However, you have me thinking, in what manner, what situation or what scope are you talking about where someone would be "called"...black or white...African American or Caucasian. Beige and Brown???? That just sounds weird to me.

Well, even within races, people define each other- "the short guy", "the fat girl", "the kid with zits"....... It will always be something. And most people, on the average day, doesn't think much about shades of any color- they just go about their business. So the white elephant is mostly invisible- sometimes you really need to look to see it.

Would you want to be called CAUCASIAN or white. White sounds better. How 'bout *******???? No? Yeah, I like black too. Don't care for African....since I'm from the Bahamas and African Bahamian seems like a moot point, but we do have European Bahamians...mostly French and English.

Actually Curious Caucasion, I know A LOT of white Americans who say Irish American, Italian American, German, Dutch, French, etc, etc. To each his own.

The terms, "black" and "white", were coined for the sake of brevity. It would be extremely arduous (and ridiculous) to refer to every individual by the exact shade of his/her skintone. For example, "Jennifer Lopez is a caramel-gold and Tom Cruise is an egg-shell ivory."

Profiling

Wow! are you serious? Yes black people do have different tones but the domiant is black. Some black people's skin is very close to black so why break it down for everyperson. Lite coffee, mocha, dark mocha ect, honey, light honey ect. For white peope the same. Don't tell me you don't know!!

Its a African-American Canadian.

I agree with you, though for whatever reason, many Americans still need to put up these kinds of walls amongst ourselves. I think we all realize that none of us are truly either white or black.

And I am 'black' and definitely turn red when I blush, ignoramus.