|
Alex Fitzsimmons
Resu Deretsiger
Join date: 28 Dec 2004
Posts: 1,605
|
07-21-2006 14:15
From: Briana Dawson You sound like a closet racist.
Why do you care what they want to be called? Why does it seem to aggravate you?
I know several black/i] people who are not of African descent, who live in the states and they don't call themselves African American.
Briana Dawson Actually, I find it aggravating, too, simply because I dislike the butchering and rebutchering and desperate still rebutchering of the language in a PC attempt to somehow please everyone, as if that were remotely possible. I rarely bother to refer to a person's "race" at all because, biologically speaking, it's nonexistant (variations in skin color and minor body features resulting from adaptations to local environments no more make a new kind of creature than variations in hair color, eye color and the like -- we are all simply homo sapiens sapiens). Unfortunately, we've made it real in the sense that we've divided culturally based on the traits that we've defined as "racial," so sometimes I do find it necessary just to be understood. In those cases, I prefer to keep it simple and to the point. Black. White. Hispanic, simply because "brown" is too nonspecific given how many origins fit that description. I'll admit I do use "Native American," I guess because "red" doesn't really roll off the tongue (and isn't really accurate). But what I'm trying to say is that I don't see anything wrong with keeping it as simple as possible when you must distinguish.
_____________________
"Whatever the astronomers finally decide, I think Xena should be considered the enemy planet." - io Kukalcan
|
|
vivi Odets
Flibbertigibbet
Join date: 4 Sep 2005
Posts: 698
|
07-21-2006 14:44
From: Briana Dawson Well, I am completely against reparations of any sort.
Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan gave the japanese descendants of the internment camps something like $20,000 each.
Briana Dawson It was not descendants of Japanese internees who were given reparation payments: it was surviving internees (60,000 out of a total of 120,000 internees). These were American citizens who had their lives torn apart, their possessions taken, and their loyalties questioned during the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I have a number of friends whose elderly parents received these payments -- it didn't make anyone wealthy: it allowed people to help their children attend college or make their retirement a little more comfortable. |
|
Phedre Aquitaine
I am the zombie queen
Join date: 26 Jan 2006
Posts: 1,157
|
07-21-2006 14:53
Vivi, yes. The amount of property confiscated by the US government from Japanese-American citizens - well. It was an obscenity.
_____________________
From: Billybob Goodliffe everyone loves phedre (excluding chickens), its in the TOS 
|
|
Vares Solvang
It's all Relative
Join date: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 2,235
|
07-21-2006 15:16
From: Phedre Aquitaine Vivi, yes. The amount of property confiscated by the US government from Japanese-American citizens - well. It was an obscenity. That is the perfect word for it. |
|
Mickey McLuhan
She of the SwissArmy Tail
Join date: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 1,032
|
07-21-2006 19:28
From: Prommus Conover The other thing that truly irks me is the whole "African-American" moniker. STFU. You're Black. Actually, they're just American. From: Prommus Conover No pretty words are going to change that. Get this, a White kid born of Britsh parents, living in Cairo, who then moves to the US, is "African-American". Same goes for the White guy from South Africa. Ummmm... no. They would be either British or Egyptian and South African, respectively. |
|
Michael Seraph
Second Life Resident
Join date: 9 Nov 2004
Posts: 849
|
07-21-2006 22:02
From: Prommus Conover This undue sense of entitlement has got to stop. Just because someone owned your great-grandfather and made him pick cotton does not mean that you are, by default, due any of this "reparations" BS. It's the same guilt trip the Jews lay on everyone about Israel being theirs because some imaginary guy said so in a book 3,000 years ago. The other thing that truly irks me is the whole "African-American" moniker. STFU. You're Black. No pretty words are going to change that. Get this, a White kid born of Britsh parents, living in Cairo, who then moves to the US, is "African-American". Same goes for the White guy from South Africa. If you think that having an ancestor that was crammed on a boat and shipped off to the southern US 150 years ago makes you an African citizen, then move there. As for the people that got over this crap after the 14th amendment was signed, we'll be over here if you're wanting to change your mind.  I agree, this undue sense of entitlement has got to stop! The sense of entitlement that lets you tell others what they should call themselves and how they should feel about their ancestry has got to stop. The arrogance of telling somebody what they can and what they can't call themselves is unsettling. The sense of entitlement that lets you feel offended because some Jews believe God granted them the land of Canaan a few millennia ago has got to stop! There are Americans who have dual citizenship with other countries from all over the globe. Why does it bother you so much that there might be a few more with African countries? Quit getting worked up about shit that doesn't affect you at all and start paying attention to your own life. |