Why are we called african american?, Why Are we caled black? were brown

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Permalink Reply by PolarVibez on January 16, 2010 at 9:20pm

i think I get where you are coming from for the most part. If I'm an African American and the Indigenous people are Native " Americans" then why do Europeon Americans so often get the distinction of being simply "American". How are they more American than me and my ancestors who've been here just as long as them or more American than the people who were here before all of us. Essentially we are all from somewhere else. So to be fair we should all be simply american or have the respective continental prefix before "American". The short answer to "why" could be of course racism. It's a way to trivilise our American experience. But...

I think the main reason African American sticks is due to the liberation and civil rights struggles of yesteryear. For most of us, unless your name is Alex Haley, year zero of your past basically begins on this soil. Our names were stripped of us. We were only left with fragments of our previous existence, certain ways of preparing food, stories, rhythyms, pieces of our past spirtuality, strains of which find their way into a culture that was forced upon us. Thus creating a hybrid culture. African/American. What the fuck is purely american anyway? Pretty much everything we have here is borrowed from somewhere else. We are essentially a nation of bastards.

Many of us just settled on African American because it's way of not forgetting. Perhaps it's more necessary for us as 'brown" people to stress the distinction because it just solidifies our link with where our ancestors came from. Our people didn't choose to come here. I have no problem being African American. Essentially I am because my father is Nigerian but even if he wasn't I would feel exactly the same. My last name is not even my own. It's a corrruption of some English family's surname. So yeah, put that african in front of my shit. it's the LEAST you can do. This in no way cheapens the rich experience of my my people who've been on this land for centuries . But it's important to me personally and maybe a whole lot of other "Black" or "Brown" people to make that connection, even if it is in name only.

And we do have some complexions out there that are as dark as the letters you're reading. Believe that.

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Permalink Reply by Madamoiselle De Sade on January 16, 2010 at 9:35pm

I resent being called "African American" when no one blood related to me was born in Africa. Why can't I just be an American, my folks have certainly been here much longer than the folks of whites who get to be "Americans". Racism.

America is a melting pot, most cowboys were Mexican, black or Native- so many lies are out there about the very basics of what is American.

I am the people and the places that birthed me and other people like me and all of that happened in this country.

I hate being forced to (ironically) identify with another people rather than my own. through a misnomer.

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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on January 17, 2010 at 12:48am

i call myself a black american and i dislike hyphenated identities...the two words aren't two exclusive definitions united simply by a hyphen because being BOTH black (or asian) american means something in and of itself.

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Permalink Reply by sceneless on January 17, 2010 at 2:15am

LesYpersound said:

i call myself a black american and i dislike hyphenated identities...the two words aren't two exclusive definitions united simply by a hyphen because being BOTH black (or asian) american means something in and of itself.

Same here. I call myself black american. I'm not from africa or the carribean, and neither are my parents or my grandparents. I'm of african dissent, but am not culturally of any african nation. I know very little about the land itself and even less about what part my ancestors were from. I hope to visit someday and experience the many cultures, but right now all I or my parents know is America.

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Permalink Reply by PolarVibez on January 17, 2010 at 4:29am

Being an African American dosen't make me less "American". Being simply "American" will not erase my african past. Much respect to my parents, grandparents, great, great greats and etc, but the people that came before them are not chicken shit either. They endured some fucked up shit and survived it just to bring our first ancestors who were born here into existence, which in turn brought our Black "American" asses into existence. I choose to remember and remind others as well. Since the fact that I can't call them by their names or remember where they came from. Being African, visually and consciously is all that links me with them. It is all that allows me to honor them. So I'm African all day. American by default.

White folks love to big up their heritage whether it be Irish, Scottish, English, German, Italian etc. No one tells them: "but you weren't born in Ireland...". Why should it be different for me?

Let's just change the name of the website while we're at it.. It should be called just "Punk" then. Oh wait a minute most of us don't really identify as punks either. Who the hell are we, what is our identity? I forgot, We're all Americans. That pretty much sums up every little nuance of our being. (lol)

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Permalink Reply by Madamoiselle De Sade on January 17, 2010 at 4:40am

American kinda does describe every nuance of my being. If I went to England- it would be obvious I am American, if I went to Japan they might think I'm African because media depiction of America is all yellow haired people with blue eyes and by refusing to identify as American ourselves we allow this misrepresentation to continue in our own heads.

The only thing I hate about being American is my accent which clues people in on where I'm form without me saying so much as nary a location. Could be worse, could be Bostonian.

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Permalink Reply by PolarVibez on January 17, 2010 at 5:08am

This is a sad reality but we as black people aren't the ones who are responsible for this. The media is Anglocentric. An american with roots in India or a latino american would go through the exact same thing. A Japanese American would probably blend right in at first glance but would be "outed" sooner or later. That's my whole point. We look like our ancestors. They are still a part of us. So why should we completely ignore that by hiding behind a homogenous term?

Mlle d. Sade said:

if I went to Japan they might think I'm African because media depiction of America is all yellow haired people with blue eyes and by refusing to identify as American ourselves we allow this misrepresentation to continue in our own heads.

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Permalink Reply by Madamoiselle De Sade on January 17, 2010 at 5:21am

Because we have as much a right to that "homogeneous" (American can mean many different things and it should mean many different things- this is the problem by not claiming our rights to be "American" we've allowed "them" to put us in a separate category and allowed "American" to equal "white") term as anyone else. Perhaps even more. I think we all know who our ancestors were (which is even up for debate, our ancestry did not stop in Africa) but expecting every black person to identify with Africa (whether or not anyone in their family is actually from Africa) is as offensive as expecting every person of Japanese descent in America to run around in a kimono or dress like a Samurai and talk about/practice Shinto even though no one in their immediate family did or is from the island of Japan.

It's a brand new world.

Looking like something is almost meaningless, it's almost like judging a book by it's cover. It shouldn't be about "looking" like one thing or the other but about being something. Someone may "look" like their name is Kumiko Ibe from Tokyo but they are really Amanda Hernandez from Toledo, Ohio.

Where do we draw the line with this ancestor talk?


PolarVibez said:

This is a sad reality but we as black people aren't the ones who are resopnsible for this. The media is Anglocentric. An american with roots in India or a latino american would go through the exact same thing. A Japanese American would probably blend right in at first glance but would be "outed" sooner or later. That's my whole point. We look like our ancestors. They are still a part of us. So why should we completely ignore that by hiding behind a homogenous term?

Mlle d. Sade said:

if I went to Japan they might think I'm African because media depiction of America is all yellow haired people with blue eyes and by refusing to identify as American ourselves we allow this misrepresentation to continue in our own heads.

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Permalink Reply by PolarVibez on January 17, 2010 at 5:57am

Looking like something is meaningless, you have a point there. And I don't expect every Black person to identify with Africa. It's a choice. Whether we identify or not dosen't change the reality though. I've earned the right to be here. So if I went abroad I would tell some one in a heartbeat "I'm American" or I'm from America". I just don't balk at being called African or African American as well like some people do because that is also part of who I am. And it's not like it's a dirty lie. I'm sure there are other ethnicities entagled in my geneology but my Africaness is the one that I can claim with certainty.

Mlle d. Sade said:

Because we have as much a right to that "homogeneous" (American can mean many different things and it should mean many different things- this is the problem by not claiming our rights to be "American" we've allowed "them" to put us in a separate category and allowed "American" to equal "white") term as anyone else. Perhaps even more. I think we all know who our ancestors were (which is even up for debate, our ancestry did not stop in Africa) but expecting every black person to identify with Africa (whether or not anyone in their family is actually from Africa) is as offensive as expecting every person of Japanese descent in America to run around in a kimono or dress like a Samurai and talk about/practice Shinto even though no one in their immediate family did or is from the island of Japan.

It's a brand new world.

Looking like something is almost meaningless, it's almost like judging a book by it's cover. It shouldn't be about "looking" like one thing or the other but about being something. Someone may "look" like their name is Kumiko Ibe from Tokyo but they are really Amanda Hernandez from Toledo, Ohio.

Where do we draw the line with this ancestor talk?


PolarVibez said:

This is a sad reality but we as black people aren't the ones who are resopnsible for this. The media is Anglocentric. An american with roots in India or a latino american would go through the exact same thing. A Japanese American would probably blend right in at first glance but would be "outed" sooner or later. That's my whole point. We look like our ancestors. They are still a part of us. So why should we completely ignore that by hiding behind a homogenous term?

Mlle d. Sade said:

if I went to Japan they might think I'm African because media depiction of America is all yellow haired people with blue eyes and by refusing to identify as American ourselves we allow this misrepresentation to continue in our own heads.

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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on January 17, 2010 at 12:03pm

you just said "we as BLACK people".
unless you've got direct roots to Africa and most importantly a specific African culture you're BLACK.
and black isn't an insult. black is obvious. black is political.
and being a black american puts you in line with a great culture of survival and love for life despite being told we shouldn't feel at home in this place where we're born and raised and the fact that we're subject to systematic violence. i'm not ashamed to be a part of the black diaspora--i'm not going to skip past the idea of my black american roots to feign some connection with a continent i've never been to and a culture i've really got no idea about and don't want to patronizingly pick up tidbits on as a way to grasp at a fake identity... and africa is place where my being an american will set me apart socio-economically from the people who live there--what unites me with black folk in africa is my being aware that i am > black < and a human being.

PolarVibez said:

This is a sad reality but we as black people aren't the ones who are responsible for this. The media is Anglocentric. An american with roots in India or a latino american would go through the exact same thing. A Japanese American would probably blend right in at first glance but would be "outed" sooner or later. That's my whole point. We look like our ancestors. They are still a part of us. So why should we completely ignore that by hiding behind a homogenous term?
Mlle d. Sade said:

if I went to Japan they might think I'm African because media depiction of America is all yellow haired people with blue eyes and by refusing to identify as American ourselves we allow this misrepresentation to continue in our own heads.

I guess my point is that identifying with Africa and ignoring our Black Diasporic roots is a way of shrugging off and ignoring the struggle and strength of the black people who were dragged across the atlantic or the black people who survived european racial violence and survived to give birth to us.

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Permalink Reply by CocoaPuss Zine on January 17, 2010 at 12:18pm

i don't think identifying with africa means shrugging off the black diaspora. it just means being accepting of both cultures, the african, and the american. it's ok to be both without ignoring one or the other. but you are right, when you are in africa, you definitely are looked at as american and not african, but people are welcoming and accepting of you anyway, moreso than with white travelers, and that definitely has something to do with skin color.

people call us african american because they are trying to be culturally aware. they are not making you less than, by adding a hyphenation, they are respecting the fact that your ancestors are from someplace else, which is true for most people living in this country. you (and by you i mean anyone) can say that you have native american blood but you know what? you're on afro punk. you're african american dammit.

i'm not sure why people are so against being from africa or having african roots.

LesYpersound said:

you just said "we as BLACK people".
unless you've got direct roots to Africa and most importantly a specific African culture you're BLACK. and black isn't an insult. black is obvious. black is political. and being a black american puts you in line with a great culture of survival and love for life despite being told we shouldn't feel at home in this place where we're born and raised and the fact that we're subject to systematic violence. i'm not ashamed to be a part of the black diaspora--i'm not going to skip past the idea of my black american roots to feign some connection with a continent i've never been to and a culture i've really got no idea about and don't want to patronizingly pick up tidbits on as a way to grasp at a fake identity... and africa is place where my being an american will set me apart socio-economically from the people who live there--what unites me with black folk in africa is my being aware that i am > black < and a human being.

PolarVibez said:

This is a sad reality but we as black people aren't the ones who are responsible for this. The media is Anglocentric. An american with roots in India or a latino american would go through the exact same thing. A Japanese American would probably blend right in at first glance but would be "outed" sooner or later. That's my whole point. We look like our ancestors. They are still a part of us. So why should we completely ignore that by hiding behind a homogenous term?
Mlle d. Sade said:

if I went to Japan they might think I'm African because media depiction of America is all yellow haired people with blue eyes and by refusing to identify as American ourselves we allow this misrepresentation to continue in our own heads.

I guess my point is that identifying with Africa and ignoring our Black Diasporic roots is a way of shrugging off and ignoring the struggle and strength of the black people who were dragged across the atlantic or the black people who survived european racial violence and survived to give birth to us.

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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on January 17, 2010 at 12:47pm

but most black ppl in america are not "african". you're black racially and black american culturally... get me?

real african people range from whites (northern africans) to blacks and even hundreds' year old injections of asian and jewish folks.
so by saying you're african you're just identifying with a continent and not with a race of people or a political struggle contrasted by white imperialism. culturally of course we have roots in africa but the black culture that came up in the americas is >> black culture from america and unless you're immigrants or have that immigrant cultural history via direct african roots our black american connection with africa is filtered through hundreds of years of black experience in the americas and not direct african experience--and even immigrants who come here and have kids, their experience is then shaped by being a black person of that specific ethnicity in the Americas.

most importantly though is this longing for "AFRICA!!!" tokenizes the continent... with statements like "people are welcoming and accepting of you" ...uhm, but the word in some places for black westerners who come to sub-saharan africa is the same for white people (it's not negative but it ain't "brother/sister" either, heh). and this idea that africans are XYZ is what i mean by tokenizing a continent and the people who live there. i'm really interested in africa, but i want to acknowledge the different peoples and experiences that exist there now and in the past and i do not want to co-opt those cultures i know i have no idea about.

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