Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward64
I was having a discussion with my 14 year old daughter about something and mentioned "African American". She said its okay nowadays to just say "Black".
This got me wondering if I had it wrong so googled on it. Reddit boards seem to lean towards Black but many bring their global perspective.
Question - is there a strong preference by American Blacks/African Americans on which term to use?
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I suspect it's a case of "read the room." The terms will be interchangeable for some groups; for others, using "African-American" as a blanket term for all black people within the U.S. amounts to 'erasure,' as they consider that term to refer specifically to the descendants of the American slave population.
And not every black person in this country is American, or even wants to be. So there may be times when neither term would be appropriate.