Quote:
Originally Posted by DaemonSeid
I believe part of the issue of why some people take offense to the term "African American" is because of the association to some of the negatives associated with Africans that has been mentally forced upon them over the centuries. Thus some of us are only willing to stop at the West Indies, Brazil, North and South America when identifying ourselves. It's still a case by case basis however in some of those examples by which gene and characteristic is the more dominant. Also because many of us are unable (and in some cases unwilling) to trace our point of origin, in part thanks to not just the Atlantic Slave trade but Arab Slave trade was well. However, evidence has shown that a high percentage of Black people, African American, Negroid, Africoid, colored or whatever it is we choose to call ourselves, have phenotypes that originate from Africa.
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Or, it could just be that since most people have no connection to Africa, they don't want to connect themselves verbally to a place they've never been, have no connection to linguistically or culturally, or never intend to go.
I'd rather see the term "African-American" used for someone whose parents or grandparents emigrated here from Africa, and have a linguistic/cultural/ethnic connection to the continent, and not just a bunch of Black Americans.