Define African American....

[Twich]

Grinner may have already posted this somewhere. If so, I apologize.

Found this fascinating:

OMAHA, Neb. — Officials disciplined students who papered their nearly all-white high school with posters advocating a white student from South Africa for the school's "Distinguished African American Student Award."

Peggy Rupprecht, spokeswoman for the Westside Community Schools (search) district, said administrators at Westside High School (search) discovered more than a hundred of the posters throughout the school first thing Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day (search).

"The content of the posters, they believed, was inappropriate and insensitive to some members of our school community," Rupprecht said.

Citing privacy policies, Rupprecht said she could not specify what the penalties were or how many students were disciplined. But the mother of the boy pictured on the posters said he was suspended for two days.

The award has been given the last eight years to an outstanding black student as part of the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, she said.

The poster pictured junior Trevor Richards, 16, smiling and making a thumbs-up sign. A message at the top encouraged votes for him for next year's award.

Karen Richards said her son and his friends were not trying to hurt anyone.

"My son is not a racist," she told the Omaha World-Herald. "He has black friends, friends from Bangladesh and Egypt. Color has never been an issue in our home."

"It was a very innocent thing," she said.

Two of her son's friends were disciplined along with him, she said. A fourth student was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday criticizing the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award, she said.

Tylena Martin, a junior, said the poster had been on the door to her homeroom class where she is the only black student. She said she felt hurt by the posters and the backlash that ensued.

According to 2002-2003 state statistics, 56 Of Westside's 1,632 students are black.



If they distinguish it as African American...and the kid IS from Africa....isn't he that???

Not trying to be snarky...or make fun...just...asking.

[NebariNookiee]

I posted this earlier -- guess no one noticed.

So wait a minute -- this kid is originally from South Africa and moved to America... as long as he has his American citizenship that would make him more “African-American” than those we consider to be “African-American” – regardless of his skin color. I mean -- wouldn't being "African-American" mean you were from Africa originally? He is what he is!

Once again Common Sense takes a backseat to Political Correctness

[LiLOrion]

Well then the school should specifically ask for Black African-Americans to be recognized. It doesnt make sense that anyone was punished though, especially if the kid on the poster was actually FROM Africa. What exactly did he do wrong?

You think he'll sue the school for discrimination? That would be a good one. :)

When did people start getting so easily offended?

[AgentSun]

when they realized that they needed something else besides the flood and the plagues to talk about.

[LiLOrion]

The problem is that people define African-American as being of a certain color, not necessarily as where the person came from.

[Frellster]

Well, if the kid truly didn't know - then he shouldn't be punished. In America, African-American has nothing to do with being from Africa. I knew a black person from Africa with American citizenship who referred to himself as an African-African-American.

[Twich]

Well, I think the school is discriminating. Maybe they need to define it better.

The kid IS from Africa. Come on!!! At least have a sense of humor. It sounds like they did.

Sorry NN. :hug: I tried to look around but didn't see it.

[trinamick]

Welcome to the brilliance we call NE. :rolleyes:

[Lord Loser]

Reminds me of the story of a Law School who's population appeared to be 95% Native American. When the results of this poll were tabulated and they discovered that figure, all the professional chest-thumpers swarmed to the campus only to find the usual percentages of whites, blacks, latinos, etc. They were confused and demanded an explanation. The explanation was simple, 95% of the students were born in America, therefore when asked to fill out the form they checked the box marked "native American" as they were native to this country. The moral of the story? Ask the right question if you want the correct answer.

I have no proof of the story, I only heard it on G. Gordon Liddy's radio show many moons ago.

[Twich]

Ya know....hubby and I went to Canada to see a friend a few years ago. He's telling us all about his daughter and what she's learning in school, and he says she's been learning all about the Indians.

She stops him and says "Dad...what are Indians?"

"Oh. Sorry honey. Native Canadians."

I couldn't help it. Hubby and I BOTH burst into laughter because the whole thing struck us as SO ludicrous. Native Canadians. Native Americans.... :lol

It may not come across as how funny it sounded. Maybe you had to be there. But it was one of those things that showed us perfectly how insane the PC system can be.

[stellar]

African-American: An American-born or naturalized citizen whose ancestors evolved on the African continent.

European-American: An American-born or naturalized citizen whose ancestors evolved on the European continent.

Asian-American: An American-born or naturalized citizen whose ancestors evolved on the Asian continent.

Native-American: An American-born or naturalized citizen whose ancestors evolved on the North American or South American continent.

I know the Indians came from Asia 10,000+ years ago, but that was long enough for them to evolve separately from the Asians.

This is, of course, all PCness. I call black people "black", white people "white", asian people "asian/oriental", indians "indians".

A white South-African is of European ancestory and is therefore an European-American. Let's just say those kids got disciplined for being smart asses.

[Twich]

Well I'll tell ya, I would have done it. :lol

[SweetpeaAeryn]

Wow. I can't believe that stuff like this happens!

I was born in America and I'm only 3rd generation born in America, on one side of my family. I just found out last year and had no idea how close my relatives went back in Germany. That is, that I thought that my family had been in America for much longer, more generations.

In one of my classes just the other day we talked about how we have so many "hyphenated" Americans. We categorize everything so much in this country... I think it gets out of hand, and myself, I think it only perpetuates ridicule, prejudice, and accentuates differences. (Just my opinion.)

ETA: I do realize that the categorizations also are used to show pride in heritage, and I don't want to demean that in any way. I just think that all too often, people use them for negative purposes.

[vhsiv]

I saw this article posted on Metafilter, and almost joined there to staunch the flow of ignorance there. Sadly, they've currently got a moratorium on new members. It's just as well...

For the record: Until this kid, this South African white kid, gets his naturalization papers, he is just that, a white South African. In SA, they call themselves 'white', and the black people are 'coloreds' regardless of hue or intensity.

As for 'African-American', the noun is made up of two adjectives, which in turn represent three continents: Africa, North America and South America respectively. Most people seem to understand the width and breadth of Africa - south of the Mediterranean, west of the Indian Ocean, east of the Atlantic, north of the South Pole. On Metafilter, they were making such distinctions as 'Jamaicans', 'Haitians' and 'Dominicans', which is fine, if you want to get down into national pride and ethnic subcultures, but all of those geographic designations are still part of the land mass know as 'The Americas' (its major continents, peninsulas and adjacent sattelites).

Generally speaking, you're African-American if your ancestors were the recipients of a one-way boat trip from Africa to the Americas, and they were subsequently the 'beneficiaries' of miscegenation, forced or not. Sometimes the inter-breeding occurred amid the blacks and the native-americans, more often than not, white, European property owners were handing out 'favors'.

Thus, 'African-Americans' were born. And not a one has ever come from South Africa or Nebraska without satisfying one of the aforementioned conditions.

[LiLOrion]

Originally posted by vhsiv
Generally speaking, you're African-American if your ancestors were the recipients of a one-way boat trip from Africa to the Americas.


So the only black people that can be called African-Americans are those who ancestors came here as slaves? What happens if they had ancestors in Africa that came here on their own?

I think the definition is the problem, or more specifically that different people have a different take on what that means. Thats not how I took it when I heard it for the first time. Partly because everyone is a "insert where your people are from here-American".

I'm an "Irish-American" and "Lithuanian-American" and I take that to mean that I had ancestors that came from those two countries...for whatever reason that might have been, not for a very specific reason like you listed above.



Granted the kid was probably being a smart-ass though..but I would have done it too, just to prove a point.

[BlackThorn]

I'm human.

[LiLOrion]

I'm lost. :D

[BlackThorn]

Oh! I've got the best one!

I'm a Scaper!

[LiLOrion]

I'm a LOST Scaper. :P

[BlackThorn]

Are you a lost astronaut shot through a wormhole in some distant part of the universe?

[herdthinner]

When Charlize Theron hosted Saturday Night Live, Tracy Morgan got up onstage with her after he pointed out that, since she's from South Africa, that makes her an African-American. So they both stood onstage and espoused solidarity for "their people," etc. All played for laughs, of course. Personally I find all the hyphenations annoying, but I wouldn't tell people to stop it.

[LiLOrion]

Originally posted by BlackThorn
Are you a lost astronaut shot through a wormhole in some distant part of the universe?

Sure...if you take out "a...astronaut shot through a wormhole in some distant part of the universe" :D

[BlackThorn]

:rollin:

[LiLOrion]

Originally posted by herdthinner
Personally I find all the hyphenations annoying

Me too.

I dont use the hyphenations personally. My ancestors are predominantly from two countries, but in reality there are like 6 countries in my background altogether so I just say I'm a "mutt".

[grinner]

Originally posted by Twich
Grinner may have already posted this somewhere. If so, I apologize.

grinner has not posted this... cause grinner just got home from work. nothing like driving for 7 hours in whiteout conditions inorder to work 5 hours to make you feel real good. or something.

Heard this on the radio though. funny