African American vs Black vs African American

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by AKA_Monet:
As far as the point of personal preferences, I agree with my soror AKA912D--

AIGHT, SOROR...I HOPE YOUR FINGERS WERE TIRED OF ALL THAT TYPING AND YOU SIMPLY NEEDED A BREAK...

BUT, I still WUB YOU!

[The Original Ape]

Originally posted by mccoyred:
Your (and others') reasons are precisely why I believe we should identify ourselves as Black and not African-American:

1) many Black people in this country are not American;
2) most Black people in this country are multi-racial or multi-ethnic;
3) we should identify with others in the Diaspora around the world who share our African ancestry and hence our struggles.

Also as a previous poster indicated, there are a number of groups around the world who 'look Black' (ie Hindu Indians, Arabs,etc) but do not identify with our struggles. These people are not included in my definition!

So you see, the same reasons why you insist we should call ourselves African-American are precisely why I feel we should not.

BTW, the name 'Africa' is a European appellation that we can reject for a number of reasons. I'm doing some additional research to back up some thoughts I have on that subject so I'll get back to that subject later.

Dear Sista,

Are you at all familiar with the phrase Pan-African? The slave trade placed us in every corner of the earth; but it took us FROM AFRICA. Since it was the place of origin for all dark people, we should therefore acknowledge it in our way of identifying ourselves.

As I said earlier, I respect each person's way of defining themselves.

I'm still waiting on your proof.

[The Original Ape]

Originally posted by AKAtude:
Yes, when you ask them, but no one has ever had to ask me if I have African roots! I'm already pre-classified as having African ancestory because of the color of my skin.
There are various nationalities within European society to choose from (Italian, German, French, Welch, Scottish, etc.) I'm not trying to be rude or funny, but I can't tell which nationality white people fall into unless I ask or they tell me. They check the box that says "WHITE" just like we check the box that says "BLACK".

In attempts to be "Politically Correct", most places of employment and govt agencies now label the boxes "African-American"; and thank God they do so. Most of us don't know why we should call ourselves such. Being members of Greek-Lettered organizations(and thus leaders of our people), we especially should demonstrate pride in the origin of our people, and how we classify ourselves.

I started a thread addressing this issue some time ago on the Alpha line. I acknowledged the fact that most "black" people here are really bi-racial or multi-racial. My father was 1/4 Seminole, and my mother is African-American. I am proud of BOTH heritages. I refuse, unlike so many other people in this country, to deny my African ancestry and just simply claim to be Seminole; doing so would leave me half-defined. I am proud of both, but will acknowledge the one most people see when they see me;and that is the African-American part of me. Like Peter Tosh said: No matter where you come from; just as long as you're a black man, YOU'RE AN AFRICAN!!!

[AKA2D '91]

In the END, does it really matter?
We ALL are of some descent. I am sure that most of us are not 100% Black, African American, Colored, Negro, or whatever!
Why make a BIG deal over it? As long as you know who you are and are comfortable with YOU! Dayum what someone else thinks or calls us! Just call me by my name...

BTW, I check the OTHER box.

[The Original Ape]

Originally posted by AKA_Monet:
Sorry sorors, sisterfriends and fellow "board" participants, this message is a long one, so just skip it if you don't care.

Some of you have asked if there is research in the terminology. Well, here it is...

The book entitled "Melinin, the chemisty of this compound" . You will find it in a Afrocentric bookstore. The book is paperback and is yellow.

A must read is WEB DuBois, "Souls of Black Folk". Research the philosophical arguments between him and Booker T. Washington... Also Carter G. Woodson's "The Mis-Education of the Negro". Research the history of Marcus Garvey and the Back to Africa movement in the 1920's.

Get any book from author John Henrik Clarke. He is called the father of an African Centered perspective. Ivan Van Sertima, another author who as researched the Afrikan heritage of the ancient queens in Afrika. He has written several books. The book entitled "The Isis Papers" by Dr. (my Alzheimer's is kickin' in... totally slips my mind).

The book entitled, "Black Women in White America"

Dr. Martin Luther King's "Why we can't wait".

Kwame Ture of the Black Panthers has written several books on this subject.

Nkrumah, 1st president of an Afrikan nation that won their freedom from europee-on colonization, he has written a book. I think he was from Nigeria, but I could be wrong. And I apologize if I have offended any Ghanians if he's truly from there... However he is from the "sub-continent" of Afrika...

Many of you HAVE to do your research, asap. Ask yourselves how you got to be called---anything. Really, you could be called slave... Really, we are all lucky for folks to call us anything... What does the word "Afrika" mean? What language is word "Afrika" in? Once you will find those definitions, you will determine how you feel your need to identify yourselves... We can barely answer the question "Who am I"!!!

I'm in the field to examine the science of race... And genetically, there is no such thing. We are all gradiations of each other with a polymorphic genetic code. It's like we're all roses and we all have thorns, but we come in different colors and we smell. Some of us are small roses, some of us are big ones. Nevertheless, we are all roses...

To read about the science of "race" or rather the evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens , read in the journal called "Science" under the mitochondial "Eve" from 1987-1990. There have been several scientific articles devoted to this subject and all the biologists cannot find any major differences, such as extra limbs or no hooves, in all humans on the planet... The written science of "Race" is just a bunch of BS made up by some assholic 18th century Sociologists after Darwin proposed his ideas of evolution...

Also, if you choose seek an Afrikan centered perspective, many of your epistemologies (meaning why you think the way you do--there are "forces" that have predicted and already expect your thought processes), then an absolute MUST READ is Dr. Marimba Ani's book entitled "Yurugu". That book... That book will blow your mind... 20 years of her life has been devoted to the science as to why we negroes (and most of us (the "n" word)/negroes/black/Black/afro-americans/African Americans or whatever) are the way we are. She has created definitions to explain why we think certain way and how we got into this BS about race from jump... As my college kids say, it's like "whoa"...

As for what I call myself... I am human. I choose my ethnic heritage to be of Afrikan descent which ties me to a physical land. It's soil that oneday I may walk on and experience the MAAFA that so long ago decimated the existence my anscestors. I choose my ethnicity to be "in American" (spelled amerikkklan) because I deserve it and my anscestors worked this land just like everybody else. I refuse to be defined by others. In fact I want to be indescribable (sp.). Because once I reach that point, I have transcended to my inherited ancestorial "spirit" genes that makes me reach my divinity...

Sista monet,(I wish I could put one of those legends here).
I just read this for the first time, and I like what you've said.

[mccoyred]

My brotha, I was able to review some info last night.

In the book entitled "The Destruction of Black Civilization" by Chancellor Williams he does refer (as many sources do) to an even older name for the Continent that is Bilad as Sudan an Arabic phrase meaning Land of the Blacks. So that disputes your claim that there is no land called Black.

Older names of the Continent are Alkebulan, Hikuptah ("Mansion of the Soul of Ptah"), Aigyptos (Greek for "Burnt Faces"), Ta-Meri, Ta-Seti, etc. With the exception of the Greek name from which we derive the name Egypt, all of the above are what the Blacks on the Continent called themselves.

I am still doing research on the name 'Africa' and will let you know when I find what I am seeking.

Originally posted by The Original Ape:
Man is identified by the land from which his forefathers come from. If this is true, anyone living in the Americas with a drop of black blood in their vains is of African origin. If they themselves were born here, the most accurate way to classify them is "African-American". When you ask someone you went to school with whose name is Napoli, Rizzi,or Barzini what their nationality is, they wont say American white; they'll say I'm Italian(and most times leave off the American). By doing so, they show pride in the origin of their family. Most persons that weren't born in America do so. I admit to the fact that most "black" people were born stateside(here in America), but our families did not originate here; and THERE IS NO LAND CALLED BLACK. Therefore, we should classify ourselves as African-American. I think it's f@#$% up that every other kind of people here demand respect for the origin of their family-and make issue of it-but we don't. We want to run from being of African decent anyway we can-our hairstyles, our vernacular and intonation, and any other way we can. Only our music and clothes now tie us together; and we even subjudge ourselves! We can try to run from it all we want; but to the people that really matter here, we're still a bunch of n gas. So why not take pride in ourselves!!!!

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MCCOYRED

Dynamic
Salient
Temperate

Mu Psi '86
BaltCo Alumnae

[The Original Ape]

Originally posted by mccoyred:
My brotha, I was able to review some info last night.

In the book entitled "The Destruction of Black Civilization" by Chancellor Williams he does refer (as many sources do) to an even older name for the Continent that is Bilad as Sudan an Arabic phrase meaning Land of the Blacks. So that disputes your claim that there is no land called Black.

Older names of the Continent are Alkebulan, Hikuptah ("Mansion of the Soul of Ptah"), Aigyptos (Greek for "Burnt Faces"), Ta-Meri, Ta-Seti, etc. With the exception of the Greek name from which we derive the name Egypt, all of the above are what the Blacks on the Continent called themselves.

I am still doing research on the name 'Africa' and will let you know when I find what I am seeking.

I stand corrected. Thank you for the enlightenment.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally posted by The Original Ape:
...We want to run from being of African decent anyway we can-our hairstyles, our vernacular and intonation, and any other way we can. Only our music and clothes now tie us together; and we even subjudge ourselves! We can try to run from it all we want; but to the people that really matter here, we're still a bunch of n gas. So why not take pride in ourselves!!!!

You are correct in US taking no pride in our genetic heritage... Ironically, it takes pride in us just by the black vernacular we often use around each other... Come to find out when "summa" us use triple negatives---"I ain't never heard nuthin' like dat..."---it follows the West Afrikan concept of no association to an object or idea whatsoever... Some nations (tribes) believe spiritually, that if they are associated with something seen as taboo or negative, the ennuciate, emphatically that they have nothing to do with that situation in their language. The idea only got transferred over as the slaves learned english. It's very, very uncanny... Then let's not talk about the derivations of english---like, yeah, right is derived from the Neanderthal... Okay...

[ShamikaT]

Originally posted by mizzkes
I personally prefer to be called African American. That way, I pay homage to my African ancestry as well as to those ancestors who were brought to America to build this country. I don't like to use the term "black" because it sounds kind of archaic, like "negro". Then, I have a problem with simply using "American" because American is not a race, it is a nationality. Being the melting pot, excuse me, salad bowl that it is, I feel that it is necessary for "Americans" to recognize their original ancestry by placing that name, in this case, "African" in front of "American". Lastly, in writing, I often use "Africans in America".

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I'm not conceited, just convinced.

You are wrong here sista. What about whites from Africa? What would you call Kerry's wife?

Just settle with being called black. It ain't nothin wrong with that.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by AKA_Monet
You are correct in US taking no pride in our genetic heritage... Ironically, it takes pride in us just by the black vernacular we often use around each other... Come to find out when "summa" us use triple negatives---"I ain't never heard nuthin' like dat..."---it follows the West Afrikan concept of no association to an object or idea whatsoever... Some nations (tribes) believe spiritually, that if they are associated with something seen as taboo or negative, the ennuciate, emphatically that they have nothing to do with that situation in their language. The idea only got transferred over as the slaves learned english. It's very, very uncanny... Then let's not talk about the derivations of english---like, yeah, right is derived from the Neanderthal... Okay...

Damn... some ignorant blowhard needs to do a little historical or linguistic research - unless of course that would call in to question the happy little world you concieved for yourself

English is derieved from the Indo-European language group, with the founding root languages being Latin (and subsequent romance languages), Germanic roots (from the invasion of the British Isles), and the Celtic group... as for being derived for Neanderthal is that the shit they "teach" you in the NOI or the New Black Panthers? Hmmm... perhaps a more believable lie could be made - it would only take a little more research...

[laidbackfella]

Originally posted by RACooper
Damn... some ignorant blowhard needs to do a little historical or linguistic research - unless of course that would call in to question the happy little world you concieved for yourself

English is derieved from the Indo-European language group, with the founding root languages being Latin (and subsequent romance languages), Germanic roots (from the invasion of the British Isles), and the Celtic group... as for being derived for Neanderthal is that the shit they "teach" you in the NOI or the New Black Panthers? Hmmm... perhaps a more believable lie could be made - it would only take a little more research...

Uhm, are you looking for e-debates to participate in with the African American community of GC?

Are you CRYSTAL clear of the point that AKA_Monet was trying to make from five years ago?

Are Black/African American issues on your "radar" for the time being?

[Steeltrap]

I just don't understand why an old post from five years ago was dredged up.

[laidbackfella]

Originally posted by Steeltrap
I just don't understand why an old post from five years ago was dredged up.

ShamikaT, the Queen of Messageboard R&B (Randomness and Bullisht) Posts, dredged it up to set mizzkes straight.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by laidbackfella
Uhm, are you looking for e-debates to participate in with the African American community of GC?

Are you CRYSTAL clear of the point that AKA_Monet was trying to make from five years ago?

Are Black/African American issues on your "radar" for the time being?

As for why I commented now; well the thread showed up as a "new" posting... so I read the last couple of comments.

Now, as for your question about whether or not "Black/African American" issues are on my "radar" for the time being.. no not really - issues of stupity or ignorance always are, as are issues of racism or biggotry. You can draw your own conclusions from that statement.

EDITED>> I mistakely attributed the comments to Original Ape, when in fact they post was from AKA_Monet. Sorry for my mistake.

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by laidbackfella
ShamikaT, the Queen of Messageboard R&B (Randomness and Bullisht) Posts, dredged it up to set mizzkes straight.

LOL. A trollquisha's attention whoring leads to more attention whoring (and histrionics). I get it. Thanks for explaining.