Comment by jack_riminton
1 year ago
Reminds me of when black people in the UK get called African American by Americans. No they're neither African nor American
It's an incredibly self-centered view of the world
1 year ago
Reminds me of when black people in the UK get called African American by Americans. No they're neither African nor American
It's an incredibly self-centered view of the world
My black African ex once chewed out an American who not only called her African American but "corrected her" after she referred to herself as black, in a very clear British received pronunciation accent that has no hint of American to it, by insisting it was "African American".
And not while in the US either - but in the UK.
This reminds me of a YouTube video from a black female from the US, where she argued that Montenegro sounds too racist. Yet, that name existed way before the US was conceived.
Wow. I've been corrected on my English (as an Englishman, living in England, speaking English) by an American before. But to be corrected of your race is something else
Did they complain you didn't speak with the correct English accent too?
I always find it hilarious when Americans talk about English accents and seem to think there are one - or maybe two if they've seen any period movies or Mary Poppins -, given there are several clearly distinct English accents in use in my London borough alone (ignoring accents with immigrant origin, which would add many more)
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Do b/Black people in the UK care about capitalization?
I'm not black, so I can't speak for black people in the UK.
But in terms of English language rather than their preference, I think you use a compound term, such as Black British, it's probably more correct to capitalize, at least if you intend it to be a compound rather than intend black as "just" an adjective that happens to be used to qualify British rather than referring to a specific group. "Black" by itself would not generally be capitalized unless at the start of a sentence any more than "white" would. And this seems to be generally reflected in how I see the term used in the UK.
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I think it’s just that’s the word you’ve been taught to use. It’s divorced from the meaning of its constituent parts, you aren’t saying “an American of African descent” you’re saying “black” but in what was supposed to be some kind of politically correct way.
I cannot imagine even the most daft American using it in the UK and intending that the person is actually American.
Well it's pretty daft to call anyone American if they're not American
It's pretty daft to call anyone African if they're not African.
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Yeah it's something that happens a lot. Yesterday I've seen a video calling a white animal "caucasian".
Was it an animal from the Caucasus mountains, though? Like the large bear-fighting dogs.
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Yeah and so the phrase "African American" is a typical example of the ignorance of Americans thinking they're the only ones in the world.
I promise it's not because we think of people outside the US as American. When I was a kid in the 2000s, we were told never to say "black" and to say "African-American" instead. There was no PC term in the US to refer to black people who are not American. This has started to change lately, but it's still iffy.
Besides that, many Americans (including myself) are self-centered in other ways. Yes I like our imperial units better than the metric system, no I don't care that they're called "customary units" outside the US, etc.
Fahrenheit gets a bad rap.
100F is about as hot as you'll ever get. 0F is about as cold as you'll ever get. It's a perceptual system.
The day after I left Oslo after Christmas, it hit -20F. 0F is peanuts. I've also experienced above 100F several times. In the US, incidentally. It may be a perceptual system, but it's not very perceptive, and very culturally and geographically limited.
(incidentally I also have far more use for freezing point and boiling point of water, but I don't think it makes a big difference for celsius that those happen to be 0 and 100 either)
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Fahrenheit tells you how warm a human feels.
Celcius tells you how warm water feels.
Kelvin tells you how warm the atoms feel.
I go outside the country and all the thermostats are in 0.5˚C increments because it's too coarse, heh.
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Also adding that "Caucasian" was somehow the politically-correct version of "white" here, then it reversed.
That’s kind of funny. Chinese and Taiwanese transplants call natural born Americans, whether black, white or latin, “foreigners” when speaking in Chinese dialects even while they live in America.
Oh, your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend is a “foreigner”, ma?
No, damnit, you’re the foreigner!
I enjoy that “ma” has ambiguous meaning above. Does it mean mandarin question mark word or does possibly mean mother?
It's both a particle and a question mark word. [Ta]是外國人嗎?
This is how the question would be asked in the mainland or in the regional diaspora of Chinese speakers where foreigners are few. Where foreigner often is a substitute for the most prevalent non-regional foreigner (i.e. it's not typically used for Malaysian or Thai nationals in China) So for those who come over state-side they don't modify the phrase, they keep using foreigner [外國人] for any non-Asian, even when those "foreigners" are natural born.
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Well, they're as "African" as "African Americans" are... OTOH, Elon Musk is a literal African American (as would be an Arab immigrant to the US from Egypt or Morocco), but can't be called that. So let's admit that such group labels are pretty messed up in general.
>as would be an Arab immigrant to the US from Egypt
If you want to get *very* technical then it's possible to not be African if you're from Egypt: "Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and the Sinai Peninsula in the southwest corner of Asia."
Continents aren't technical, though. There are different definitions. Like, look into whether Georgia is considered part of Europe or Asia.
What is the preferred term in the UK - African British?
Well if they're black and you were describing their race you'd just say they're black.
If they're black and British and you're describing their nationality you'd say they were British.
Depends. Usually black if you don't know any more. Black British if you know they are British, but a lot of black people here are born in Africa or the Caribbean, and not all will be pleased to be described as British (some will take active offense, given Britains colonial past) and will prefer you to use their country or African/Caribbean depending on context.
My ex would probably grudgingly accept black British, but would describe herself as black, Nigerian, or African, despite also having British citizenship.
If you're considering how to describe someone who is present, then presumably you have a good reason and can explain the reason and ask what they prefer. If you're describing someone by appearance, 'black' is the safest most places in the UK unless you already know what they prefer.
"Nobody" uses "African British".
That's wild you can still say black there. That's been a no go in the US for a while.
If you started calling British black people "African", it wouldn't be long before you got a punch.
Black British, because their skin is colored, and are British.
Black American, same way.
"African-" implies you were born in Africa, "-American" imples you then immigrated to America.
Elon Musk is an African-American.
13% of the US population are Black Americans.
Are extremely dark-skinned people (for example from South India) who move to england called "Black"? I've never heard that and would be surprised but i'm curious.
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The term African-American does not imply that one was born in Africa. It refers to Americans of African ethnicity (which includes Carribean-Americans of African descent). Chris Rock, Lebron James, and Michael Jordan are all African-Americans born in the US.
Elon Musk is not considered African-American according to the popular usage of the term as he is of European descent despite being born in South Africa.
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Where is the racism? I only see a question about proper categorization.
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Elon Musk is a real African American
Elon Musk is not considered African-American according to the popular usage of the term as he is of European descent despite being born in South Africa. Lebron James is a real African-American.