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I did catch it online. I was actually more interested in his maternal line and the fact his family was free as far back as the late 18th century and lived in Virginia to boot which barred free blacks as a matter of law.
The Africa part seemed forced, made for TV if you will. Some random DNA test and presto long lost African family! I was like Blair you better watch what you say to these folks about coming to visit you in the states.
I suggest you read this. It debunks urban myths and urban legends on race and USA history:
I did catch it online. I was actually more interested in his maternal line and the fact his family was free as far back as the late 18th century and lived in Virginia to boot which barred free blacks as a matter of law.
The Africa part seemed forced, made for TV if you will. Some random DNA test and presto long lost African family! I was like Blair you better watch what you say to these folks about coming to visit you in the states.
All of these peoples are descended directly from Africans. These places received many more Africans via the slave trade than did the US. In fact, the culture of Haiti, Jamaica, South America, and the Caribbean is much more African than that of African Americans.
I don't know about that. How do you measure what is African? A lot of African culture has been mixed with and changed by Arabs that had conquered Africa since ancient times and Europeans and Asians and different groups of people that conquered Africa or traded with people on the continent. In addition culture is always changing and evolving. So we have to remember that we'd have to go back before the Arabs ever set foot in Africa with Islam and other religions and cultures and their oppressive slave trade since ancient times to know what African culture was before the Arab conquerers came in.
What is the starting point to what constitutes African-ness or being African and what is the ending point?
In addition the concept of Africa as a unified land mass and united grouping of people had absolutely no meaning.
But how do you say one Afrodiasporic group of people is more African than the other?
Does anyone ever compare the European diaspora and say one is more European than the other?
Better yet does one say that Nigerians are more African than Ghanians etc or vice versa than the others or others?
Does one say that a Sephardic Jew from Turkey or Morocco is more Jewish than a Jew from Iran? All express their Jewry or Jewishness in different contexts and different ways
How does one measure or say that one is more African than another, then again and let alone to say that that person or these persons are even African at all?
In the case of African Americans, they are not homogenous, as they can differ by region, culture, behaviors, class etc and even history.
There are many groups that express African heritage in different ways.
But in addition the label of African in and of itself is flawed as it was applied to diverse groupings of people and unique individuals who had no unity or concept of adhesion or cohesion but had various cultures and tribes and customs and traditions. IJS. something to consider.
Latin American nations are just as racist as the USA is. Although each nation has it's own unique cultures and histories. However there is much more percieved racial tension in the USA, even though race is really just a crutch and barrier taking the guise of class.
Latin Americans tend to stress class and classism more than race and racism. Latin America has a great deal of colorism though. Racism though is a huge problem though, and it often seems to be swept under the rug.
And there is NO one drop rule. The USA is just as mixed race if not more, than all of the Latin American nations combined. USA is also racially diverse while at the same time mixed race.
As for the misnomers and terms of African American (AA) and Black, people need to keep in mind that AA and black do NOT mean the same thing.
AAs are an ETHNIC group comprised of mostly multiracially mixed race peoples. AAs can be of any race. Black is more so a sociopolitical term that corresponds to an ethnic like usage in it's semantics. A person is either a member of an ethnicity/ethnic group or NOT. So therefore, one's ethnicity can not be diluted or broken down into fractions. A person never loses membership from an/their ethnic group or ethnicity. You can belong to more than one ethnicity or ethnic group. A person's race or racial admixtures can be broken down into factions or or degrees. So technically most AAs are NOT racially black people. They are all mostly mixed race. Some AAs are racially black, but they make up a minority of the AA ethnic community. And in some cases AAs are and can be white. In fact about 5% of AAs have been found to have absolutely little or NO African ancestry at all. That's because being AA is about a shared experience, having gone through surviving chattel slavery, and surviving Jim Crow and later on the imposition of racist segrationist one droppism and of course the positive uplifting and unifying Civil Rights movement, and thus a unique AA experience.
As for Latin America, if a person is raised in the black community or black culture and is mixed, then they are in fact black and often by choice identify as black because it's what they are raised in or as.
In addition, Afrodescendant and black do NOT mean the same thing.
Here is a controversial topic. Afro-Latinos. Many equate it to Black Latinos. Others see it as Latino Afrodescendientes of all looks. For me, as Latino is an ethnic term, Afro-Latino is such as well. A Latino who has strong African ties in his culture/heritage. Not all Latino Afrodescendientes are Afro-Latino. Many have been completely absorbed by the mainstream. But here is a consideration, many Latinos that are not Afrodescendientes, especially in places like Cuba, adopted African practices, like Santeria, or joining societies like Abakuá and Ékpè. We could argue that many are Afro-Latinos as well. Their culture and identity is definitely Latino with heavy African overtones.
telling people that are describing you - thta they are wrong and offending you-- puts you on the higher ground. i dont think this is going to go away any time soon.
other minorities are doing the same in this country.
the correct pronunciation of my name-- game-- is another offshoot of the same game. cultural sensitivity is at the forefront of american politics.
Last edited by Huckleberry3911948; 01-10-2014 at 09:14 PM..
Black is a foreign and imposed term on the people and land mass of what is now Africa!
Africa as a concept, like Black does not begin until Roman times. *Before that all peoples on that continent did NOT identify or were not identified as Africans. But the earliest people did live on the continent that we now call Africa. *Proto-Africans if anything. *It is easier not to confuse pre-civilization people from that continent that migrated from modern Africans that evolved from them
African refers to any person from Africa. African indifgenous refers to any population originaly native to Africa. Black refers to any peoples that were imposed a racial sterotype by Europeans and did not apply to all indigenous Africans. Berbers may be a back migration from other parts, but are the ancestries of other people such as Ethiopians (along with indigenous ancestry) Khoisan are not classified as Black, but as Colored. Africa itself is a foreign term imposed such that those born before Roman intrusion were not truly African, etc, etc, etc. I know plenty of Indo-Africans that consider themselves African and not Asian.
I'm just asking... Where did blacks in the Carribean and South America come from? I'm unaware if the Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs, Inca, etc.. were black or not, but always got the impression that they were not... If that's the case then it begs the question where the blacks in these areas came from?
Again, to me it doesn't really matter because it seems its more the black population that gets in a tizzy over what they'd like to be termed as every decade or two.... I personally don't care, but pick something and stick with it is my philosophy there rather than getting upset about it every 20 years.
I'm "white".... Oooookay, just like someone said that nobody's skin is really "black", the term "white" also holds that same distinction. I don't care if you distinguish me from Irish, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian or what have you. Its a category that they want us to check on their little forms so they can do studies and make sure everyone is being treated relatively equally. I'm not going to freak out demanding to be called "peach" or "Irish-American" or what have you. And yes, I'm just as proud of my Irish heritage as any other group.....
Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs, and Incas and other Native American groups are NOT black at all. They are simply Native Americans.
Everytime someone brings up this Teddy Roosevelt "We're all one big happy family" bullcrap, I continue to remind you all that Roosevelt presided over a country where Jim Crow was the norm - even in the military he served as General and then Commander-In-Chief.
Did he include "Negroes" in all of those beautiful platitudes? Why did he not care that all Americans weren't equal under the law and not considered fully American?
Actually, Teddy Roosevelt did--at least as much as any other president did or would for another 65 years. His record on racial matters was better than Lincoln's and would be the best of any president until arguably LBJ.
Notice I said "I know", why do people feel like pointing out the obvious when it has already been stated?
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