From here:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25550


> a former student at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
> Jersey says he is the victim of discrimination after he was suspended



> the US. Some class members were offended that Serodio would describe
> himself as African American. According to Serodio, this incident led
> to harassment which included assault and damage to his car. The final
> straw was when the school suspended him.
> 

If anybody should be considered African-American, it would be him. I 
hate the term, because it makes no sense in it's current usage. It used 
to be you could call people black, or white ...Now it's politcally 
"incorrect" so, we come up with BS terms like this ... Africa is a huge 
continent, some people are black, some white, some other skintones.
-- 
~Mike

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Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com> wrote:
> If anybody should be considered African-American, it would be him. I 
> hate the term, because it makes no sense in it's current usage. It used 
> to be you could call people black, or white ...Now it's politcally 
> "incorrect" so, we come up with BS terms like this ... Africa is a huge 
> continent, some people are black, some white, some other skintones.

  The term has always bothered me as well. Especially since it's used
for *all* black people, even those who have never even been in the
American continent. How does that make any sense?

  Even more jarring is that it's also used for dark-skinned people who
are neither African nor American. (Many people in the Pacific islands or
south Asia, for example, could very well pass for Africans, even though
they aren't.)

  I agree with the student in the original story: If he was born in Africa
and is currently living in America, isn't he by definition an African-
American? Why would skin pigmentation have any effect on this?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Mike Raiford wrote:
> If anybody should be considered African-American, it would be him. 

In one of my college student rags, there was an article about apartheid, in 
which it talked about the whites fighting with the african-americans.

No! They're just africans. Black africans fighting white africans, none of 
them in America.

I suspect some over-enthusiastic search-and-replace going on.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> In one of my college student rags, there was an article about apartheid, in 
> which it talked about the whites fighting with the african-americans.

> No! They're just africans. Black africans fighting white africans, none of 
> them in America.

  I remember years ago even reading some article where Nelson Mandela was
specifically called "African-American".

  Has Mandela even *been* in the American continent at all?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp escreveu:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> In one of my college student rags, there was an article about apartheid, in 
>> which it talked about the whites fighting with the african-americans.
> 
>> No! They're just africans. Black africans fighting white africans, none of 
>> them in America.
> 
>   I remember years ago even reading some article where Nelson Mandela was
> specifically called "African-American".
> 
>   Has Mandela even *been* in the American continent at all?

Now that's quite insane indeed.  And quite inconsiderate: there are 
south-american-africans too. :P

I like short names best like white, black, gay, geek or midget. 
Straight and to the point.

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Straight and to the point.

  No pun intended, I suppose? ;)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp escreveu:
> nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> Straight and to the point.
> 
>   No pun intended, I suppose? ;)
> 

hahaha, not really... :P

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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Warp wrote:
> Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com> wrote:
>> If anybody should be considered African-American, it would be him. I 
>> hate the term, because it makes no sense in it's current usage. It used 
>> to be you could call people black, or white ...Now it's politcally 
>> "incorrect" so, we come up with BS terms like this ... Africa is a huge 
>> continent, some people are black, some white, some other skintones.
> 
>   The term has always bothered me as well. Especially since it's used
> for *all* black people, even those who have never even been in the
> American continent. How does that make any sense?
> 
>   Even more jarring is that it's also used for dark-skinned people who
> are neither African nor American. (Many people in the Pacific islands or
> south Asia, for example, could very well pass for Africans, even though
> they aren't.)
> 
>   I agree with the student in the original story: If he was born in Africa
> and is currently living in America, isn't he by definition an African-
> American? Why would skin pigmentation have any effect on this?

I don't support our racial categorizations, but I suspect that the 
fellow's ancestors all trace back to Europe, in which case he is 
classified as Caucasian and not African.  The fact that his family did 
time in Africa is regarded as immaterial.

I personally think that anyone who wants should be able to claim himself 
or herself as the progenitor for an entirely new race.

Regards,
John

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Warp wrote:
>   The term has always bothered me as well. Especially since it's used
> for *all* black people, even those who have never even been in the
> American continent. How does that make any sense?

	Eh? Not over here. I occasionally hear someone claiming someone else is
an African American, when he's purely African. I correct, and no one
thinks my correction to be strange.

>   Even more jarring is that it's also used for dark-skinned people who
> are neither African nor American. (Many people in the Pacific islands or
> south Asia, for example, could very well pass for Africans, even though
> they aren't.)

	I personally have never heard someone from South Asia be called
African, unless it is purely by mistake. Nor have the complained to me
about it. Officially, people from South Asia are classified as Asians in
this country, regardless of skin color.

>   I agree with the student in the original story: If he was born in Africa
> and is currently living in America, isn't he by definition an African-
> American? Why would skin pigmentation have any effect on this?

	The usual classification is regarding race - not ethnicity. He's not
racially African. I'll agree that the word can be confusing, but I can
understand that if the white people are considered Caucasian (which I
believe is the official designation in the US) - named after the
Caucasus, I can understand black people wanted to be categorized as
African (I wouldn't add the American to the end, but it's a minor
difference). Don't know the history, but perhaps they wanted not to be
called Negro, and it wasn't about not being called black. Dunno, really.

	I can see both points of view. However, both "sides" seem to be
inconsistent. If using African for race is bad, drop Asian, Caucasian,
etc. After all, there are people who lived for generations in the
Caucasus but wouldn't be considered Caucasian, and similar confusion
would ensue.

-- 
Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming
only things that are good for you.


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                                   anl

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Wasn't it Teddy Roosevelt who complained about the hyphenated Americans?
He said each hyphen was like carrying a little dagger around, and that 
we're all just Americans (well, those of us in the US, I mean).

-- 
Chambers

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