What does "African American" mean to you?

You are so right about the mental effects of being among a predominant governance of people who look like you. No matter how screwed up that system is, they are messing with their people. Also, I note this, some know about the rich history of Africa and could enlighten a few non Africa native Blacks, but will they? no. Why? it gives them an advantage.. for their gain. Divide and conquer. I know a couple who will kiss up big time to upper middle class CC people, and will worry about going into certain areas with a large percentage of Blacks. I mean they know dh and other AA who are solid citizens right? Never mind the issues that keep many Blacks in the US from attending decent schools, decent neighborhoods.If necessary an African or Island family will make sure and send their child elsewhere to attain a proper education. Thanks to institutionalized racism, in the US some Blacks cannot get out even if they tried... many has. Yet they will turn up their nose at the US Blacks who are not educated etc; Others will reach out, and we are all the better for it. My church has a sister church in West Africa, however on the tape that the pastor showed our church congregation, one of the African kids asked (in a friendly way) about gansta rap, criminal behavior, and such. One of the elders in my church got a bit hot under the collar, she said what did the child just say? lol See many US Black are no way close to being "gangsta" or criminals, and there are millions of such Blacks in the US; but such like minded African and Caribbean will never know. Trust me I have heard many nasty comments about US Blacks, and vise verse heard US Blacks call folks like my family coconuts etc; With Caribbean folks, one was my moms hair stylist I stopped her and said, that's inaccurate, plus my husband is an American. They are viewing the US Blacks the same way that others see us. Guess what out on the streets.. we all look alike, and to some extent we are in the same boat. The kicker is many Blacks who are immigrant left others in their countries who are in similar situations due to poverty, colonialism, racism..I know I am preaching to the choir here, but the division has always gotten under my skin.

This was from Nick/Chris, not sure how to cut and paste just part of a post and tagitcorrectly... You don't get a choice anymore. Our kids came home with a form from the school REQUIRING us to identify their heritage. If we did not disclose it then they school officials would use their best guess and identify our kids for us. So - it's not targetting new immigrants, there is a new law that every person must be identified by race. On the plus side they do allow you to identify multi-racial children (our DD is Mexican/Filipino(Pacific Islander)/Irish(CC). Our sons', well, while born in S.A. have blonde hair and blue eyes, so you know what they are marked as. There is no white/African American box to check ;) There are even 2 boxes for Hispanic, I think they are Hispanic, and Hispanic/non-Mexican or something along those lines.

Hi! love your avatar, the kids are getting big.Oh yea we had to fill out a similar school form. Like mortgage companies will ask an applicant, or take a guess based on our phenotype; fair housing act, tracking purposes etc; Actually, the story in context was meant to relay, Blacks who think they do not have a connection to other Blacks. Despite a feeling of "disconnect", in the US we are all viewed/documented as Blacks despite our place of birth.

[FONT=Verdana]The term African American does not roll easily off my lips, and Im not sure I know what it means in the context of my reality and my social circles. And it is something that I am thinking about a lot as I continue to the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]One of my closest friends is a Jamaican born woman who was raised in Kingston, London and NYC. She calls herself Jamaican first. A black woman second. A naturalized US citizen, much to the disdain of her father. And she rolls her eyes at the term African American, and certainly does not consider it a term that refers to her.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]An old buddy is a NY-born Dominican, who would look like a black man just about anywhere other than the NY streets. But to anyone paying attention, his body language gives him away. He identifies as Dominican. Oddly, he looks a little bewildered if you talk about race. He does not consider himself black/aa. He considers himself Dominican. Period. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]A member of my staff (whom I consider a friend) is a Cuban born black man with very dark skin. His family escaped Cuba early in the Castro years, and ended up in FrancoҒs Spain, where his family was a novelty, and the Spanish government put him in private schools with the children of European princes and right wing dictators. His family then moved to the mid-western US, and he ended up in college in the late 1960s at the peak of the Black Power movement. He is someone who has worn many hats at different times in his life, and seems comfortable in any situation. At work and in social situations, I mostly see him in his ғworldly intellectual mode, but I also sometimes see him in his ԓLatin American mode. He feels a very strong affinity to all things and people Cuban. But he DOES indentify as ԓAfrican American and assures me that he has that persona as well in the appropriate context. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Another friend is Moroccan born and raised, now a naturalized US citizen raising his beautiful family with a US born woman. He says, with a bit of humor and self-conscious irony, ԓbut I AM African American. Homeland Security of course, recognizes that he is an Arab. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]I donԒt have close friends who are US born African American. I mean, I have work colleagues and I go to community meetings and do social justice work with people who are US born AA. But my close social circle, the people who regularly sit at my dinner table, the people who traveled 100 miles in a wild storm to honor and support me at my mothers funeral, no. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]So I donҒt know what African American means. I clearly dont have a clear set of messages from my friends who might or might not fit into the category. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]My daughter might or might not fit into the category. She will be a black girl and eventually a black woman, born in Africa, raised in NYC with a white mom and a Mayan sister (who I strongly suspect has some Garifuna ancestry) and she will spend a large percentage of her childhood with immigrants of many different colors and ancestries. In her childhood, she will have an ғimmigrant identity, like Liana and a large percentage of children in her social circle. As she grows, I donԒt know how she will choose to identify. Ethiopian first? Black first? African? African American? Member of a tri-racial/multi-cultural household, where Spanish is spoken and Cumbia is the dance of choice and pasta is served more frequently than is probably healthy? I imagine that she might have different identities at different times in her life. [/FONT]

My West Indian family identity as Black, and what their place of origin is, even after naturalization. lol the children born here say they are American. If these US born children go back to the Island to visit, they are deemed foreign born anyway, even if they were born on the Island and lived abroad for a chunk of their life, they are deemed foreign by the native Islanders. lol I suspect the same for others. Those who immigrated to the US as teens and young adults..different perspective. AA is a formal term for most, either on forms or for a formal description. Black of whatever country of origin is less formal, to denote the specific culture. For example, a Chinese Jamaican can say I am Jamaican, but to be specific..they say I am Chinese Jamaican, same for those of African descent and those from India, and Scotland, and so on. Trinidadians the same and so forth. Also, do not be fooled, many natives of these islands have a co mingled cultures, but will keep a connections/identification to their ancestors country of origin. Racial identity wise.. its just Black. Such as most White people do not go around saying to their everyday peers: I am Italian -American or Caucasian. Those are stiff terms in everyday life.

I'm not a fan of the term even though I tend to use it here and there... because it's so easy to type aa. Somebody obviously thought it was a pc term and it got to being widely used. But since africa is an immense continent with many different people it's really not fair. Many people are from africa and not black while many others are black and not from africa. In India there are black people who are supposedly indiginous (sp?) and as far as we know have always been there. If they came to the US they probably wouldn't like the term. Their families have been in India for many many generations. Alternatively we could say that all of us are african since the ancestors of all humans supposedly originated there. Sorry to be so hypothetical. My babies are Americans who happen to be black. One daughter has a birthfamily from Haiti and the other from Jamaica. I am curious as to how they will identify themselves in the future. PS quesita my friend and colleague is dominican and looks totally black to me but I've never heard her call herself black and certainly not aa... her first language is of course spanish and culturally everything about her screams latina. Although I'm sure most people who see her put her in the box of being "aa".

As a very ot thing, we know that there were likely black people in India in 2600 bc in mohenjo daro, as evidenced by this statue. So our Indian black people may not have had an african connection for a very long time, if ever. [url=http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/people/afro-indians/2478.htm]Kamat's Potpourri: The Indian-African Nexus: Dancer from Mohenjodaro Valley[/url]

Its well known that Africa has different types of people, some share specific DNA some do not. However, each can go by their ethnicity or say I am African. That's what I described above for the Caribbean people. My father will describe himself as I am ___ BUT knows he is Black, is "proud" of his race, and will say so. I am not talking of one or two friend that I know, I do know as a first generation Caribbean. because some will try to avoid their Black roots, and take up this culture aspect to identify with, especially in the US to separate them-self from US Blacks who ironically identify as just Black. Makes me ponder that concept of self identity who has the better approach in the long run. lolYet at the core...(skin whiteners is still a huge industry in the Islands ([URL="http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/skin-bleaching-the-dark-side-of-pale/"]Skin bleaching: The dark side of pale BBC World Have Your Say[/URL] [URL="http://www.gponline.com/news/981688/"]Skin lightening agents and their complications | GP online[/URL] ) This tells me aside from their cultural or ethnic pride, these colonial/slavery connected Black and Brown people have some serious issues with who they are. That's a topic that should be addressed beyond the oh I am Trinidadian or Dominican. To say what my kid will identify as, and they are Black is trying to make them different. They are Black and what possible mix. The culture aspect is not original its obtained over time due to co-mingling (language, food, music, ) is one thing, as that is (dependent on the islands) a shared West African (varied tribes), AmeriIndian/NA/FN, Chinese, Lebanese, Indians, Jewish, Spanish, The British influence or Dutch or French Or a mix of a few of the conquerors cultures all wrapped up. There is a shared history for those whose descendants are a part of the middle passage slave trade, and also the indigenous people share a history as part of the exploitation of man power in The Americas. That was the point the Latino interviewer was trying to get across to the Dominican women. US born Blacks with that slavery history do not have a specific African ethnicity to connect to, that's why the DNA search thing is very important for some. Thus the generic African term in AA. Frankly folks want to admit it or not, in the Islands and other slavery connected areas of The Americas, similar stories. The bottom line is for US born Blacks, they have a choice to identify with whatever title, AA, Black, Afro. Are these the same as the [URL="http://www.andaman.org/"]Andaman Association, Lonely Islands - The Andamanese[/URL] The concept up out of Africa would indicate the possibility of these similar phenotypes. Over time of course there was some adaptation to their area. I think the Andaman was isolated for so long there was not much change. Fascinating thing is the original Africans are the most varied people even on their continent.. all types of body shapes, facial features, skin shades, hair types. Did some ancient groups migrate out, and survived elsewhere? Just fascinating..

I forgot to add transatlantic below, added in bold letter:

Nick, this article here says that the first people in India were black and have pure african type dna. My Dad grew up in Southern India and he says the black people are tribal and everyone seems to think that these people "were always there". [url=http://originalblacksofamericabeforecolumbus.blogspot.com/]A HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN-OLMECS: BLACK CIVILIZATIONS OF AMERICA FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES[/url]

No deviation in the dna? that's an interesting observation, thanks, will read through. I have read about the resistant towards the Olmec as migrating ancient form Africa to the States.

I just took a very cool course on transracial families. It touched on this subject. Alot of black people are very insulted by this term much like my mother is insulted if you call her French Canadian because she is Anglo Canadian even though she lived in the french area of Quebec. Things to consider and compare: Nationality: Country of orgin - I am American Race: I am white Ethnic: I have ties to Canada, England, and Scotland Culture: I am of the urban culture - ie: "the hood" ~~~this is to be celebrated!

Watching the series Journey of Man, a Genetic Odyssey. This portion is in Southern India. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m2-RwYXkWg&feature=related]YouTube - Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey (Part 5 of 13)[/url]

Wow that is fascinating stuff!! (to me anyway!) I'm excited to watch the whole series. :-)

The documentary was not bad to watch via youtube.. the editing was pretty smooth.