The Term African American

[Ch2tf]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

At the same time, I wonder about the mental soundness of people who are unrelenting about self-identifying with certain things. If a person of African descent wants to identify as white, is that okay because that's what THEY want?

I would say no, but I also recognize that a person in that situation would not be able to be convinced otherwise, if you get what I mean.

Sure, it's technically okay because this is all socially constructed. But does calling yourself a "Brown American," for example, prove some kind of point or make the person feel vindicated?

I think the only person that can answer that is the one who chooses to use the term.

Then I also wonder if the person REALLY identifies with something or just vocalizes it when such topics come up. Being a "brown American" in this thread is different from considering yourself one everyday, putting that down on paperwork, and correcting people/informing people that you are a "brown American."

It definately is. When I wrote that she can call herself what she wants, I was more leaning to if you self identify as brown then "good for you", to each his own. Using the term "brown american" over "black american" over "african american" is rather moot to me, personally. I happen to be all those thing. I tend to use black american/african american 1. because that is what I've been "made" to use, i.e. filling out forms, job applications etc. But I also do believe it speaks to my heritage. Unfortunately, like many Americans of African descent I cannot specifically state that my roots are ghanain or nigerian, or congolese, so I use African-American.

But I do feel like we (the people in the USA) suffer from "hyphenation syndrome". If someone's family imigrated to the USA from Nigeria and had children, and those children had children, etc." when does someone stop being Nigerian(American), and become African-American (kinda a rhetorical question, but it doesn't have to be).