Lord Peter Mandelson, Uk Ambassador
News1 min ago
African American.
39 Answers
How long will it be before black Americans stop using the rediculous term 'African Americans'? You're either African or American. If you were born in the US, you cannot be both.
How stupid would it be if people in Britain referred to themselves as Scandinavian Britons, French Britons or German Britons because that is where most of us could trace our ancestry back to.
How stupid would it be if people in Britain referred to themselves as Scandinavian Britons, French Britons or German Britons because that is where most of us could trace our ancestry back to.
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IMHO it is a term that is indeed superfluous.
Why is there a need to point out the absolute obvious? Are we all blind and / or need it drawn to our attention that a person's skin colour is a particular hue? I fail to see what difference that makes anyway.
Unless we are indeed all blind we can see that they are black and if we have any understanding of history we all know at some point everyone who is black has a heritage from Africa. Why do we need that continually pointed out to us?
Digressing slightly, I haven't read anywhere that say, Jimmy Carter, felt the need to be introduced as the 39th WHITE president of the USA. We could all see he was white so there was no need to point it out. Ergo why must we have it rammed down our throats that Obama wants to be the first AFRICAN AMERICAN president of the USA? Is it not enough just to want to be President?
I have no problem with being proud of your heritage, I am very proud of mine BUT I do not feel the need to constantly refer to myself as an ethnicity and neither IMO should anyone else.
Why is there a need to point out the absolute obvious? Are we all blind and / or need it drawn to our attention that a person's skin colour is a particular hue? I fail to see what difference that makes anyway.
Unless we are indeed all blind we can see that they are black and if we have any understanding of history we all know at some point everyone who is black has a heritage from Africa. Why do we need that continually pointed out to us?
Digressing slightly, I haven't read anywhere that say, Jimmy Carter, felt the need to be introduced as the 39th WHITE president of the USA. We could all see he was white so there was no need to point it out. Ergo why must we have it rammed down our throats that Obama wants to be the first AFRICAN AMERICAN president of the USA? Is it not enough just to want to be President?
I have no problem with being proud of your heritage, I am very proud of mine BUT I do not feel the need to constantly refer to myself as an ethnicity and neither IMO should anyone else.
It would be nice if it wasn't thought remarkable enough to comment that Obama was potentially the first black US president.
In the same way that it would be nice if it weren't necessary to point out that Maggie Thatcher was the first woman Prime Minister.
In both cases there is/was a prejudice that meant that there was a glass ceiling stopping such possibilities.
Both show that it is possible to break through such glass ceilings to the top job.
That's why it's important, that's why it's stressed.
The fact that Obama is where he is shows that the US has come a long way from when blacks had to sit at the back of busses and weren't allowed to eat in the same restaurants as white people. ( and that was less than 50 years ago)
In the same way that it would be nice if it weren't necessary to point out that Maggie Thatcher was the first woman Prime Minister.
In both cases there is/was a prejudice that meant that there was a glass ceiling stopping such possibilities.
Both show that it is possible to break through such glass ceilings to the top job.
That's why it's important, that's why it's stressed.
The fact that Obama is where he is shows that the US has come a long way from when blacks had to sit at the back of busses and weren't allowed to eat in the same restaurants as white people. ( and that was less than 50 years ago)
