"BLACK or AFRICAN AMERICAN" mainly a question...

REAL STORY!!!
there are black rednecks OMG back in VA at this building supply company I worked at I rode with this old guy named "Poke" one day in the truck the radio was on but it was turned down really low and Skynards sweet home alabama comes on and he quickly reaches for the volume knob and im like awww **** he's gonna shut this down. Swear to GOD he turns it up and starts singing ****ing flipped my **** out.

LOL! I try to tell people that...When I tell them my dad wears a dirty azz truckers hate..he only Drinks Budweiser, he looks like Dale from King of the Hill...only black with no glasses...but my dad sounds like boomhower

:laugh: That's awesome!!!

Yea...I love his redneck azz....

He born and raised in Charleston S.C...and does not have higher than a Jr Highschool education...but served 23 years in the Army....

Loves fishing, drinking budweiser, and cursing in his boomhower voice.

You asked for thoughts from "older" people and I qualify on that account. It is an interesting and important question. Way back when -- I'm thinking back to way before you were even born, the terms were either "people of color" or "Negros." But at that time, Caucasians were typically called "white." Now, I'm actually no more "white" than you are "black." I was always told my complexion was olive, which always upset me because it made me think of a sickly green shade. Yuch! And you, your hair is more black than your complexion. Actually, my hair was the same color as yours before it turned gray.

It was sometime in the 1960s as I recall that it was thought that if Caucasians were white, then Negros would insist on being called black. That was also the beginning of the phrase "black pride." A decade or so later, about the time the TV mini-series "Roots" came out, someone decided that black pride needed to incorporate a pride in the African continent. With that, came the African-American label. Why? We don't refer to Irish-Americans, German-Americans, Polish-Americans. But, the term stuck and left many with the same question you have. What term should we use? Besides, it seems silly to refer to anyone by a continent. There are many countries on that continent and it certainly makes a difference which part of Africa ones ancestors lived in just as there is a difference in racial traits between people from the USA and people from Mexico even though both are technically from the North American continent.

As for me, I try not to use any term except American, or American Citizen. Our census forms ask for race -- I write "American Citizen." Race or the continent of one's ancestors going back dozens of generations shouldn't matter, period! Sadly, it does. Maybe some day we can all just be people.

Of course, this is only my thoughts on the topic. I'm certain that others think differently and that's okay, too. Especially for those of different races. There is no way I can ever share the experiences of people in another race so I can't possibly wrap my thoughts around how other think and feel. Please forgive this shortcoming in me.

*throws feet up on desk* who brought the popcorn?

We are all from the continents known as the "America's" and the original descent of people who have a darker skin color is from the continent of Africa.

I'm mixed black and white.

The other day another mixed man asked me if I was yellow.
Now I am not easily offended so it didn't offend me but I noticed I didn't like the term.
Even though I am mixed I predominantly go with calling myself black when filling out paperwork and such.
I don't say African-American when asked, but it doesn't bother me or seem politically incorrect to me if other people do.

I don't like colored. My grandma who I love so dearly and is the sweetest most accepting person in the world, is also white. We were in the store one day and she said to ask "The colored young gentleman" working there for help. I found myself explaining to her that I didn't think it appropriate in these days to use that term. My only reason behind it is this term along with the N-word was used in a derogatory fashion and when it's used it can be taken wrong.

I learned in my African-American studies class that the term mullatto was also derogatory, I used to use this term because I thought it sounded cool haha. My mom always told me when I was younger I would say "I'm not black, I'm brown!"

Times change, and with times terms will change as well. I have friends that use the N-word, my dad's family all use it, I don't like it, and I don't prefer to use it myself, but it doesn't bother me either because I know their use behind it is not to slander. And I would hope that anyone who does use it as a racist term will someday learn that no matter the pigment in our skin we all bleed blood, breathe air and live life. The same with the black community that still blame the white community or any other race...it's one thing to acknowledge history and your heritage but it's another to live in the past and continue to separate yourself.

Like some few have said, I prefer to be called by name, I am Mariah, I am human as are you.
Now who wants to be this human's friend

You asked for thoughts from "older" people and I qualify on that account. It is an interesting and important question. Way back when -- I'm thinking back to way before you were even born, the terms were either "people of color" or "Negros." But at that time, Caucasians were typically called "white." Now, I'm actually no more "white" than you are "black." I was always told my complexion was olive, which always upset me because it made me think of a sickly green shade. Yuch! And you, your hair is more black than your complexion. Actually, my hair was the same color as yours before it turned gray.

It was sometime in the 1960s as I recall that it was thought that if Caucasians were white, then Negros would insist on being called black. That was also the beginning of the phrase "black pride." A decade or so later, about the time the TV mini-series "Roots" came out, someone decided that black pride needed to incorporate a pride in the African continent. With that, came the African-American label. Why? We don't refer to Irish-Americans, German-Americans, Polish-Americans. But, the term stuck and left many with the same question you have. What term should we use? Besides, it seems silly to refer to anyone by a continent. There are many countries on that continent and it certainly makes a difference which part of Africa ones ancestors lived in just as there is a difference in racial traits between people from the USA and people from Mexico even though both are technically from the North American continent.

As for me, I try not to use any term except American, or American Citizen. Our census forms ask for race -- I write "American Citizen." Race or the continent of one's ancestors going back dozens of generations shouldn't matter, period! Sadly, it does. Maybe some day we can all just be people.

Of course, this is only my thoughts on the topic. I'm certain that others think differently and that's okay, too. Especially for those of different races. There is no way I can ever share the experiences of people in another race so I can't possibly wrap my thoughts around how other think and feel. Please forgive this shortcoming in me.

Not only are you "old" - you are wise!