Can we stop using the term "African American"?

Libs all think it is offensive to call someone black. Apparently Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock didn't get the memo.

When you call somebody African American, you are making two foolish assumptions:

1) That the person is of African descent. Many people with dark skin are from Haiti, or other non-African areas near the equator.

2) That the person is American. The person could be a tourist from another country, could be a guest worker, or there could be some other condition where they are not an American citizen.

The term "black" isn't offensive, it just describes the color of one's skin. It's no different than calling a Caucasian person "white" (which clearly isn't offensive). Lastly, I don't understand why there's so much liberal bashing going on here. Not all liberals think it's "politically incorrect" to call somebody with dark skin "black". I consider myself liberal, and I'm perfectly fine with the use of the term "black" to describe people's skin color.

????

It means American of at least some African descent, just as Mexican American means American of Mexican descent. There's nothing racist about it. Most American Blacks accept it, many prefer it to the inaccurate "Black" (which simply isn't true).

People DO use the expression European American.

No one is AFRAID to say "Black" -- many people use that word, too. The point has been to use terms that aren't offensive. But then, when some people object to every possible term, they make that goal impossible to achieve.

Please stop ADDING to the problem by making up ridiculous arguments against one of the polite terms.

The rules are all muddled, as usual. So guess we'll just use what's trendy. African-American is the current description of choice, which we all use for fear of offending. In fact, even Y!A is somewhat PC, as they X'd out the word n-e-g-r-o-i-d when I used it as a description of appearance.

But now that Barack's in, I see a certain change in the air. When I pass an African-American, er, black, er, person of color, whatever, on the street here in the San Fernando Valley, we usually exchange pleasant smiles. The tension between races seems to have dissipated. So will PC be next to go? I hope so -- it's affected & phony.

African American is used because all Americans (except Native Americans) come from another country. Everyone, except blacks, knows where thier ancestors came from. Black lost their heritage during slavery. Don't force Blacks to take the default "American" when others know from what country of origin they come from. It's not a big deal when you know your family history. When you don't know it sucks! Africa, which is the continent not the country, is the closest most Blacks can get to their ancestry but we are no longer African hence the best description of heritage is African-American.

PC is a communicable disease and should be treated as such!

It should require mandatory reporting, like the examples quoted here:

http://michellemalkin.com/2005/11/14/dumb-msm-euph...

The height (so far) of silliness is reached when someone refers to black Africans as "African-American Africans" - can this possibly be topped?

Obviously, don't use offensive words, like the (bad) N-word. But, there is really nothing wrong with using the words black, or n e g r o or coloured - and one of the currently preferred terms amongst the people in question is "person of colour".

On the flip-side of the coin, no earthly good is served by cRappers (and their fans) calling themselves and each other by the (bad) N-word. It only perpetuates the life of what *should* be a long-unused offensive word.

I agree. I grew up in the 1970s when the accepted and prefered term was "black". It was around the 1980s that it changed to "African-American". Which is silly.

It used to be colored, then *****, then black, now African american.

No other race has had so many name changes in such a short amount of time.

i don't see the reason in calling someone a african american .. why not just american .. if i look i can see you are a different skin color that white and should it really make a difference .. i am black and it boils my azz to see that everybody is hyping on nobama being the first black or first african american for this and that .. he is just another politician to me especially since he is neither black or white but a biracial , which he would still be the first everything

well i'm sure it's not the MOST racist thing that can be said to a black person. but i would have to say yes, we can stop, but i doubt people will, for a few reasons. first, african american is 'less offensive', so i've heard. also, it makes you sound smarter when you say it. and, you're not really black. you're sort of brownish colored. so if we're going to figure out a good name for your race, we might as well get the color right. so to avoid confusion everybody will still probably just call you african american

some irish americans are called just that - am yeah it is a bit dark-agey considering that everyone there except the native americans is an immigrant. but some people ARE afraid to say black, white people dont wanna be seen as racist (some anyway) and may try to be too pc

I am so with you on this. A true African American is someone who came from Africa first and then came to America. I refuse to call them anything other then black, but I prefer to just call them a person first and forget about what color they are.