emotional this morning

[whipman]

For the first time in my adult voting life, I feel hopeful for this nation.  Nothing against ol' Wild Bill Clinton but he was a great guy and did some good things, but this is about a fundamental shift in thinking and acceptance in this country.  To have such an ugly campaign still come out with whom I feel is the right person for this job is

Comments

[t_rex]

But he's half white..... :-)

[whipman]

best of both worlds sweetie.

[tragicwhore]

first dem. to be elected in 32 years that actually won the popular vote.

[whipman]

Was not aware of that... very cool stat.

[_jeremiad]

heya...i followed over from t-rex's journal.

i don't usually post on random strangers' blogs but I just wanted to point out that the term African American has less to do with pc-ness and more to do with accuracy.

Black is a racial term and black people live all over the world. African-American is an ethniicity and refers specifically to black folks living in America.

It it's "pc" to use African-American then it's just as pc to use Irish-American or italian-american.

[whipman]

While Obama is truly an African American, I dislike the need to label us according to our ancestors birthplace. I am an american German Irishman but that would be silly to say every time I describe myself... therefore, I am white or caucasion depending on the accuracy of the answer. I dislike that that every black person in this country is African American... what if they are from Australia? What if they are of Haitian descent and want to declare themselves Haitian Americans? As I said earlier, I am of German/Irish descent but I would never say I was European American... why is there no breakup of nations or tribal distinction? Why does no one ever say "I am Chad-American"? I just think the whole thing is silly.

[_jeremiad]

people who are haitian-American or have tribal affiliations (for example, austrailian aborigines, canadian first nations, and u.s. native Americans) often describe themselves as such. see the 2000 census survey.

i suppose it matters if you think it's important that people be allowed to choose their own identities. you've chosen not to acknowledge your ancestral origins. I don't think people who do should be labeleld "silly."

And if that insult only applies to African-Americans and not to other groups who also identify by their national origins (like Chinese-americans or Cuban-Americans) then it reflects racial bias which is just icky.

[whipman]

as my most lovely friend has stated, African American does not indicate skin color but origin of descendants and present living location. While I was in college, there was a bit of flack over a student suing for the rights to an african american scholarship that she was being denied because she was white. Trouble was she was born in Africa and moved to the U.S. when she was a young teenager. The term African American clearly applied to her but she was being denied it (or attempted to anyway, she won that battle).

I hate labels.

I myself am from a mixed marriage (several generations past) and if I wanted to, I could (in New Orleans) list African American as my race on legal forms. It is a silly distinction that means nothing but the above listing. I consider myself an american, not a Irish/German American. Until recently, not even a proud American (as a matter of fact, this capital A for America is a relatively new thing for me).

As for President Elect Obama... as the head of America, he is simply American. Nothing else.

[nsingman]

I've always thought "African American" was a silly euphemism for "black." What about white South Africans who come to America? However, Obama actually is African American, having a Kenyan father.

I'm not especially hopeful, but I've never really lost hope, either. I consider Obama rotten, and McCain worse, but either of them would be better than Bush. And even Bush, by my reckoning, wasn't among our five worst presidents. In short, we've survived far worse than Obama, so I'm not worried.

[_jeremiad]

Some people use African-american because it's a more specific term than black.

for example, I'm in France right now. There are lots of black people here. Very few are African-American.

[nsingman]

I certainly have no issue with using the term "African-American" for specificity of national (or in the case of Africa, continental) origin. And it is indeed a more specific term than black in that context. My point was that there are African-Americans who are not black, and thus even in the US, it should not be used as a euphemism or synonym for black.

social science 101

[_jeremiad]

actually, the term African-american specifically applies to black people only.

[whipman]

I would like to point out that I am not a social science student or a policy maker for language in our culture. I merely stated that I found the term African American to be less than accurate and as such, useless to me. I really dislike my lesbian friends usage of the term womyn but I do not tell them to stop using it. As for for the post racial thing... I thought that was what we were aiming for. I am proud that I grew up in a house that did not make distinctions based on race or religion and that my children even more so. I remember my daughter talking about reperations in my exwifes kitchen and how much she thought that it was a silly thing to argue about... right in front of her black friend (don't know the friends name). I flinched a little as I was of an older generation but she didn't even think of it as an issue. I was very proud of her and of the next generation at that point