Quote:
Originally Posted by JediKooter
African-Americans is probably the worst of the bunch in my opinion when trying to apply it to someone skin color. I happen to actually know a couple 'African-Americans' and they are white as white can be. Born and raised in Africa, migrated to the US, are now US citizens and have 3 children. So yes, 'technically', they are African-American.
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Same is true though of using the term "black". There are a wide variety of skin tones in the world. Is someone of African ancestry to be called "black" even if their skin is not black? Is someone who identifies with a European ancestry "white" even if their skin is darker than someone who identifies as "black"? Do we call a Hispanic "black"?
My point is neither way of describing things works 100% of the time because these categories are fluid. But we need ways to describe things. African-American acknowledges that we're referring to someone's ancestry, not simply the color of their skin. I think a lot of people have found it an improvement to shift the focus in that way. The fact that there are still issues with it only shows that trying to describe "race" is an impossible thing.