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-- African Americans? Anyone Else Offended By That Term?
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the oppression thing, i didnt mean necessarily just the slavery thing, but also in america in terms of civil and political rights, which definitly was based on colour.

i think the the thing about Black, is it quite a crude term. you could make a connection with negro, which means Black, in another language, german maybe but im not sure. from negro you get n*gger, and also negro/negroid was one of those terms banded about when ideas of biolgical differences between 'races' were prevalent.

i think this is perhaps a reason why african-american has come about, and if people feel more comfortable with using this then i dont think you can criticise them for that.

however, you do make a very good point about the whole 'african' thing further distinguishing them, and creating further segregation from the rest of america. but americans in general i perceive, to have to constantly assert some kind of cultural, or geographical root..ie, your not just an american your am italian-american, or a jewish-american, etc. by deniyng african-americans the same right, you can be seen to be discriminating against them, by only letting them be called 'Black'

times change, and old words and terms are replaced by new ones, which are have become more acceptable. thats the essence of political correctness imo.

Svens, if this issue is as serious as you claim it to be, with regards to colonialism, etc., then the nature of the problem is far more than skin deep and we're having a conversation that is only skin deep.

i thought the conversation we're having is more than just skin deep to be honest?

quote:

Originally posted by svens_bath the oppression thing, i didnt mean necessarily just the slavery thing, but also in america in terms of civil and political rights, which definitly was based on colour.

Well, yes, although those rights were theoretically the same, we all know that wasn't the case, especially in the southern states until less than 50 years ago. That's why all this labeling the word black as an insultive word seems to me like an unnecessarry overreaction to opression.

quote:

i think the the thing about Black, is it quite a crude term. you could make a connection with negro, which means Black, in another language, german maybe but im not sure. from negro you get n*gger, and also negro/negroid was one of those terms banded about when ideas of biolgical differences between 'races' were prevalent.

Actually it's from french and spanish, ultimately of latin origin (niger), german is schwartz. Anyway, yes, you can make a few connecting leaps to connect the word black with the word nig-ger, but I assure you that I can think up a lot of negative associations regarding african americans. FFS, just look at what hole Africa actually is, and the ideas just start flying around.

Anyway, people are stil distiguished by race, among other things, just it's no longer called white and black, it's called caucasian and african. Same shit but in a different package.

quote:

i think this is perhaps a reason why african-american has come about, and if people feel more comfortable with using this then i dont think you can criticise them for that. however, you do make a very good point about the whole 'african' thing further distinguishing them, and creating further segregation from the rest of america. but americans in general i perceive, to have to constantly assert some kind of cultural, or geographical root..ie, your not just an american your am italian-american, or a jewish-american, etc. by deniyng african-americans the same right, you can be seen to be discriminating against them, by only letting them be called 'Black'

Well, by all means, if someone feels that his african heritage is something that is relevant in describing himself as a person, let that person call himself african american, just like those italian americans, jewish americans, and all the other americans. But when an italian american is asked for his race, he will say white, not italian, because italian is not a race (regardless of how elusive and undefined the term race in reality is).

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times change, and old words and terms are replaced by new ones, which are have become more acceptable. thats the essence of political correctness imo.

But can't you see the pointlesness of it? Years ago the term nig-ger was not an insulting term. Then somehow it became insluting, and black people started calling themselves black (alhtough they of all people still use the term nig-ger the most). Then somehow someone decided that the term black should be insluting too, and thought up the term african american. You see, the thing is that as long as the status described by the term is still in use (in whichever form the term exists), all these changes are superficial. A dick or a penis, it's the same thing. But the term african american is especially stupid because it a) actually removes the possibility of black people who recently came from Africa or those who feel some sort of a bond to their ancestral homeland to distinguish themselves different from those blacks who've been living in the US for 300 years and can't name 5 african countries, and b) there are some white people living in Africa for whom the term is not applicable. Furthermore it confuses racial/genetic traits with cultural ones.

Man American History X was a good movie

quote:

Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 But can't you see the pointlesness of it? Years ago the term nig-ger was not an insulting term. Then somehow it became insluting, and black people started calling themselves black (alhtough they of all people still use the term nig-ger the most). Then somehow someone decided that the term black should be insluting too, and thought up the term african american. You see, the thing is that as long as the status described by the term is still in use (in whichever form the term exists), all these changes are superficial. A dick or a penis, it's the same thing. But the term african american is especially stupid because it a) actually removes the possibility of black people who recently came from Africa or those who feel some sort of a bond to their ancestral homeland to distinguish themselves different from those blacks who've been living in the US for 300 years and can't name 5 african countries, and b) there are some white people living in Africa for whom the term is not applicable. Furthermore it confuses racial/genetic traits with cultural ones.

you make some good points there.

however, ill say again, regardless of how you or i feel about it they have a right to be called african-american if they wish. i dont say its extreme political correctness either, because there is a significant enough amount of people who would choose the term. if its softer as a label than Black, and makes them feel more comfortable, then i dont think you can critice them for that. i think you actually agree with me about this, if im reading you correct.

this is all ive been contending, but yes what your saying does make sense to me.

In retrospect, I should've just replied to the title of the thread with a simple "uhm, no" and been done with it.

yea this topic has gotten a little out there, but some interesting posts..however Im interested in this post by Arbiter..

"The concept of offense itself is nonsense as well."

Ive read some of your posts, and I must applaud you for them. Im just curious as to why you think its nonsense =)

Blacks call Clinton the first black president because in their view he was a P.I.M.P just because he banged that Whore. Thats why

quote:

Originally posted by King_Mack yea this topic has gotten a little out there, but some interesting posts..however Im interested in this post by Arbiter.. "The concept of offense itself is nonsense as well." Ive read some of your posts, and I must applaud you for them. Im just curious as to why you think its nonsense =)

Sorry for the oversimplification.

I only object to the concept of offense when used improperly (as it is 90% of the time or more.) "Offense" in this sense is generally a projection of one's personal emotional reaction to some object onto that object and then incorrectly viewed as a characteristic of that object ("offensive.")

No word/image/idea or anything really can intrinsically be "offensive" it can only "offend" if someone takes offense - it's in the beholder, not what they are beholding that the "offense" comes into existence.

So what I object to is people claiming to be "offended by something." That wording implies that the "something" is what's creating the offense, when it's actually the people themselves.

Sensible:

I take offense to such and such.

Non-sense:

Such and such offends me.

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