Reply With QuoteYeah, he's an American of African descent. Seems like a no-brainer.
I suspect the case will hinge on whether the school can show that he intended to offend or something like that, which I doubt they'll be able to.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7567291&page=1
This NJ med school is SOOOO gonna lose this case....or just try to quietly settle with the guy to get him to go away. They really have no leg to stand on, if he can actually document his claims.
Yeah, he's an American of African descent. Seems like a no-brainer.
I suspect the case will hinge on whether the school can show that he intended to offend or something like that, which I doubt they'll be able to.
I remember a news article several years ago where an American high school didn't allow a white kid, who was born and raised in South Africa, from being a candidate for the "Distinguished African-American Student" award.
Why don't people just shut the fuck up? There are so many other ways to resolve social issues that don't involve running to your pantywaist authoritarian school administration, one of the lowest forms of arbitration we've got after the court system.After Serodio labeled himself as a white African-American, another student said she was offended by his comments and that, because of his white skin, was not an African-American.
I'm extra sensitive to this after some of the stories I get from my wife about pharmacy school, which is even worse because it's filled with catty women.
I've always thought the designation African-American was a weird one, for this reason. It also means that you distinguish African-Americans from regular non-American Africans.
"And I sure as shit don't roll on Saturday!"
I would vote for this platform.Originally Posted by Tim James
The proper term here is "white African". African-American is an ethnicity based in America. Barack Obama is not technically an African-American, he is an American of African descent.
It's not linguistically correct, but there's not exactly enough African immigrants in America to press the point.
Reported.
Also, I suppose we know what Google Ads think about this issue:
How is he not an African-American? He was born in Hawaii, so he's a naturalized citizen. Is it because his father wasn't an American? Or because he's half-white? [Which gets into issues of how much "blackness" do you need to be African American. Tiger Woods is actually only a quarter black, the rest is Asian - so is he not black enough to be black either?] Or...?
So does this mean African Americans should stop feeling proud of his accomplishments, because technically he's not "one of them?"
This gets so confusing sometimes. :-(
I actually have read articles about tensions between US-born African-Americans and African immigrants, akin to the tensions between US-born white Americans and European immigrants in the 19th & 20th centuries.
African American is just a code word for black. It's not a description of ancestral nationality.
According to the dictionary definition from Webster, "an American of African and especially of black African descent."
So technically the proper term is "African American".
He is an American citizen from Africa.
People are total morons.
I can't believe this guy was born and raised in AFRICA, immigrated to AMERICA, and can't call himself an African-American without offending someone. Yet millions of people with no connection to Africa whatsoever but who have dark pigment in their skin are allowed to refer to themselves as African-American daily. Just because African-American has become a PC way of referring to a particular racial group does not change it's base meaning in the English language.
It's pretty damn ironic that in the one country in the world that prides itself on it's melting-pot cultural heritage we still refer to anyone as Blank-Americans. African, Hispanic, Asian, whatever, it's ridiculous. I don't hear the terms "African-Brit" or "African-European" being used ot describe anyone of African and/or black ancestory across the pond, so why do we still use it here?
The proper term for whites from Africa is "filthy Boer."
--- Lord Baden-Powell
Like when Chris Matthews refers to Desmond Tutu as an african-american?
Yes it does. Language is a living, changing thing. If the majority of people think a word means a certain thing, that's what it means. You're welcome to rant about the re-defining of words like 'gay' and 'queer' from the comfort of your porch, but the kids aren't going to get off your lawn.
Knew a guy in the Philippians that always marked "African-American" when he could. Was born and raised (mostly) in Egypt. Funny enough, he had only been to the US twice. He always got in trouble for it, but he stood by it.
Then this is another first: A Portuguese Boer.
(EDIT: In response to John Many Jars' comment)
This particular section of linguistic crap is something I've always thought was ridiculous. I've watched Haitians get labeled as African Americans and have to correct the speaker. Like it was said, "African American" is often just code because for some reason saying black strikes some as horrible. But then, I don't think Black, White, Hispanic, Asian is a bad breakdown and I don't think the "N word" should be given the reverence that it is.
That just shows the depth of their depravity. Why, at the siege of Mafeking I blah blah blah blah blah
People can also acknowledge that language is awkward, and throw some words together to indicate that they are aware of that but want to convey a certain meaning anyway. We don't know what his tone was, but when the guy specifically said that he was a "white African-American" then it's pretty clear what he meant to everyone except some bitch that would probably get run over by a truck if she set foot outside of campus for an hour.
African American is generally a code word for "black American who descended from slaves." It's not a description of ancestral nationality (for obvious and somewhat uncomfortable reasons), but it does refer to a specific ancestry. Barrack Obama is not really an African American in that sense, though he's definitely a black American, so black Americans can feel however they want about his accomplishments. :)
IMHO it would be a little weird to hear an African-born American citizen call themselves an African American, I would guess they would call themselves a Kenyan American, or Somali American, etc. It's not just ridiculous semantics, the term "African American" has specific meaning for most people. But I agree the craziness over what someone prefers to call themselves is nonsense.
He didn't call himself an African American like you normally hear in these snarky cases. He called himself a white African American.
Language is awkward. I know, I know... call your dean.
Slightly tangential:
I have a problem in that when there is one person of color in a group, I don't know if I am allowed to describe him using his pigment.
Me: "Did you see what that dude drove up in?"
Not Me: "Which guy are you talking about?"
Me: "The dude with the blue oxford on"
Not Me: "Who"
Me: "The dude with the khaki pants."
Not Me: "Not sure which guy you mean"
Me: "Ya know, well, um, the black guy."
Not Me: "Oh yeah, I saw that car, it was sweet."
Even if I say "the African American", I don't know from where he descended. Does using such a descriptor make me a racist?
Spoken language for most folks is about laziness. Get out what you are trying to say in the quickest, most efficient way so that the listener understands you. The English language morphs to satisfy that. However, I am left, in these cases, feeling guilty about saying the "black dude".
I think the "code for black" meaning has subsumed the denotative meaning of the individual words, so it is a semantic nitpick to claim a white guy from Africa can call himself African American. I would liken it to saying someone is so skinny he looks like a faggot. Sure, the original definition of the word is a bundle of sticks, but that's not what people are going to hear.
At the same time, it's the sort of thing that only comes up at a college, where issues are argued about with vehemence in inverse proportion to their importance.
"African American" has always been a pet-peeve for me. I use the word, but only sparingly, and I prefer the term "black". If that's what we're referring to, let's just be direct about it. It really bugs me when people use it to refer to African Europeans, etc.
I am a firm proponent of the idea that language changes and that we should accept that. This language, though, just seems so nonsensical when it involves other words whose meaning hasn't changed. Furthermore, part of changing language is that we should expect people to use it in different ways. I think that it was clear what this guy meant by "white African-American" and so people should have let it stand at that.
I do wonder if there isn't more to the story though and I'd like to hear the other side.
Barrack Obama is a native born american citizen since he was born in Hawaii (a US state).
My best friend is a native born american citizen, she was born in Kinshasa Congo to American citizens. (Although she could be considered a citizen of the US and Congo depending on who recognizes what) - she is caucasian but could be considered african american by birth.
Some one born in South Africa to South African parents who emigrates to the US and then passes the citizenship test is a naturalized american citizen. (no matter what their ethnic background, they are technically african americans)
I think it's an example of politically correct types thinking that you can change the sentiment by changing the word; that if we are all forced to use new words which don't have negative connotations it will alter the way people think and lead to a utopia filled with love and candy.
But in reality, the new words just take on the old connotations. There was a discussion a while back about how "spastic" got turned into an insult, so some PC bureaucrat in the UK came up with an acronym to refer to people with disabilities. And then that got turned into an insult. Just like here the PC term is "people with special needs", so now "special" is an insult.
I'm not sure what to make of this guy. Either he's totally oblivious to popular connotations associated with the term "african american", is desperate for an ability so self identify demonstrating his personal journey, or secretly has some sort of beef with some point at which the language of politically correct self identification by ethnicity interacts with the real world.
I can clearly see how a court precedent allowing individuals like himself to identify as african american could completely undermine a lot of the social engineering programs that attempt to address the skewed race to socioeconomic index distribution in the U.S. What happens when a white guy from Capetown gets a job on affirmative action over a white guy from London? What happens when the MLK Jr. scholarship goes to a white guy who came over from Sierra Leone?
As a relatively pale alaska native I get all kinds of shit for identifying as such. Never mind my significant portion of native blood and the fact that I grew up telling (not just listening to) our traditional stories or that none of the uneducated winos that level those kinds of accusations in public could build an bidarka to save their lives, the important thing to them is that my dad's Swedish genes govern most of my pigmentation.
The problem with the politically correct terms we use today is that they blur the difference between racial and cultural identifiers. Having lables that construe all kinds of economic benifits be so murkily defined has caused all sorts of trouble and will no doubt continue to do so in the future.
Even as a direct beneficiary of the current system I feel that our attempts to give benifits based on ethnicity are misguided and that aid in the form of hire preference and scholarships should be granted based on economic factors rather than genetic ones. That kind of system self corrects for racial bias and doesn't create divisions and "us vs. them" mentalities like the present one.
As an aside since this post might be charred beyond belief by the end of the day, I also recognize that a lot of supposedly 'ethnic' programs and scholarships have strong cultural adjendas unrelated to race and I applaud them for their cultural preservation efforts.
No. Only a hypersensitive jerk-off would think you were; it's not different from saying "the blonde guy."
Really? That's a problem on your end then because in my area I've seen many people identify themselves as Native American who don't look native - they either look Caucasian or Asian - and no one gives a shit. In some cases they were prominent members of the local native community.
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