This is a very informative thread. Being non-American, it's very interesting to hear the varying points of view on this topic. I don't have anything to contribute to the conversation as I don't believe that I'm equipped to speak on it. Carry on the dialogue, enlighten me.

I agree with both comments.

I think by using the term AA, it just satisfies a broad, generalized category. There is no distinction for each individual African nation where we could be from.

How many Hispanics do you know go around calling themselves Hispanic American. None. The term Hispanic generally refers to those people of Latin American descent from Central and South American countries and a few Carribean Islands. Hispanic is a government form 'catch-all' term for those people. If you don't believe me, the next time you meet a Puerto Rican, call him a Mexican and see what kind of response you get. Afterall, they are all Hispanic, right? (being sarcastic) I'm sure you will get a quick lecture on the differences between the two cultures and countries.

So yes, we (AA/Blacks) should be about the business of seeking out our ancestry so that we really know where we came from in Africa, and not just settle for the white liberal's self guilt-easing term of using AA.

My husband has a problem with using the term African American.

For me, the fact that we can be called something that ties us to a land long lost from our ancestors.

Really we can be called something else much more derogatory and an epithet.

I do not have a problem with being called Black. However, because reference to it can be lowercased and it only refers to a polymorphism in our genes and has no biological significance.

Being tied to a land actually does have a biological significance, at least I can think of relevancy of how individuals use to live and may be currently living, i.e. nomadic vs. stationary lifestyle. Arid regions vs. tropical. Etc.

Also, I do not think it is caucasian liberal guilt were all the reasons for the African American designation. Many civil rights leaders fought a lot the governmental system to get the AA designation.

Now, I have been seeing over last few years some resentment and I am wondering where in the world these illogical concepts are coming from?

I agree with you, but the land itself so diverse. I think to refer to the whole continent to indicate our heritage is not wrong, or bad, it is just too broad. I think it would be better / nice to know exactly where my ancestors came from. I'd much rather be known as a Nigerian American, Ghanan American, etc. as opposed to an African American. I would like my designation to be more specific so I could really embrace my cultural background.

How true. And we have......

Well, maybe we should be called the hypermelanist people. :p ;)


Right, it does. Again, that has been my whole point of knowing our exact origin in Africa as opposed to just knowing we came from that continent.

If I remember my Genetics 101 correctly, the reason some Blacks have sickle cell anemia (an alteration in the hemoglobin protein), or is a carrier for the trait is because the parasite that causes malaria resides in the blood cell. When the red blood cell 'sickles', this prevents the Plasmodium that causes malaria from being able to survive in the blood. The Plasmodium is prevalent in equatorial Africa, where some of our ancestors came from, but many Africans brought to this country were not from equatorial Africa. So, those Africans not from equatorial Africa may not have the sickle cell trait. You're right that coming from a land, or a region of a land does have biological significance.

I don't know. I personally don't resent it as much as I think it is used as a broad term to classify people of African heritage.

:) The Black vs. African American debate isn't important to me.

The important thing is understanding what being Black/African American entails, which is what this thread is about.

DSTChaos, you have studied these issues for much longer than me, so please feel free to disagree with any of my suggestions, but these are some books I've found to be good that are related to this topic (they're all from a more historical/cultural studies perspective):

The "Racial" Economy of Science. Editor: Sandra Harding. (AKA_Monet & others of you in science & tech fields, if you haven't read this, you might really like it.)
Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Editors: Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic.
Critical White Studies. Editors: Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic. (This one is pretty interesting; it's a collection of articles & essays looking at what "whiteness" means in the context of race theory.)
Racial Formations in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. Authors: Michael Omi and Michael Winant.
White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812. Author: Winthrop D. Jordan. (The "classic" text.)
Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Author: Reginald Horsman.

Thanks Sorors for the titles! I might not read them all but I think it is valuable to have some titles that explore OUR culture.:)

There's really no right or wrong when giving readings lists on topics such as this. ;) These are excellent suggestions!!

Some of the citations that you and I listed speak directly to the cultural identity of blacks. Other citations are more historical and theoretical so people will have to be able to see the general point and apply it to the specific point (blacks' cultural identity).

It's also important to note that some of these articles and books can found on-line, in book reviews published in refereed journals, and/or in readers. This allows people to read up on this subject matter without devoting their career to reading all of these titles. :)

One reader that I suggest is Adalberto Aguirre, Jr. and David V. Baker. 1998. "Sources: Notable Selections in Race and Ethnicity." 2nd Edition. This reader is where excerpts from John Hope Franklin and Milton Gordon can be found.

Part of the problem is the theoreical category confusions that go along with a discussion of this sort and one of nomenclature.

In a sense, what some people identify as "culture" can better be subsumed under the term subculture. There are many black subcultures which one identify with. For example, some people identify black culture with urban, so called "ghetto" subculture. My late grandma, who was born in the 19th cent., didn't identify with urban black subculture much, she was a rural, Southern black woman. When I was small I used to stay with her on Sat. nights sometmes and she would always watch her favorite TV show: Hee Haw.This was closer to the black culture she knew and understood.

I love this thread. I can't think much deeper right now because I'm hungry, but I think African-Americans have a rich culture. I also agree with what some posters said about sub-cultures. I think there are various sub-cultures within our culture as well. Heavy intellectuals please carry on. :)

This is a great discussion. And I knew my daught would be a major contributor.

Just to lighten it up a bit--I am the only African American in an office of ten people. Every two weeks we have a staff meeting where a person is designated to bring food. It is a social services nonprofit and I am the only non-social worker.

My professional cultural shock in working in this environment was the "feelings" thing--staff meetings become emotional, and feelings get hurt very easily.

My race/ethnic cultural shock was the food. I have never eaten so much bland food in my life that eveyone else though was great. And of course here in Minnesota--Norwegian Country--the hot dish is king. Will someone please tell them that macaroni and cheese is NOT an entree! LOL.

^^^^LOL. I think being a black person in the South is a different subculture in and of itself. Black people (African American) have sort of lost what made us great. Why do you think that we have subjected ourselves to lower standards than the generations before us? Also, who do you guys think are the new black leaders?

Another caveat:context means a lot in discussions of culture. In actuality, in terms of the elements that make up "culture," a set a of woldview narratives, a characteristic social praxis, cultural symbols,etc. groups that we seem to have different and opposing cultures (thinking of black-white binary in this society),actually share much of the same "culture" symbols. In fact this is what makes the tensions so great at times:there are different construals of the same metanarratives and cultural symbols (eg, over history of race and development of America, the Bible, economics,etc.) For many African Americans, we only discover how "American" we actually are only when we are in a different culture. This can be disconcerting when we discover this reality in another Afro-culture or abroad. Then you get identified as an American,a black American. This is a complex reality but it makes you really thing about your something you take for granted here in different way.