Does it matter?

Re: Does it matter?

I do not really have an opinion as I grew up in a pretty race indifferent society.

what I did see over the last few days of reading about the inauguration is that the AA's (altho that is probably also politically incorrect but it is a lot shorter than African-American ) are making the point that he is NOT an AA he is bi-racial as his father was black and his mother was white (also not PC but accurate, if we can't call AA's black presumably you can't call white people "white" but I have no idea what the PC term for that is - it can't be "european" bc Europe is full of multi racial society's who are not ''white'')

So presumably the correct PC term for the First Family is "grey". (altho grey is still a colour so presumably still not PC)

Re: Does it matter?

I still say black. Kyle went to A & P school with a black guy whose entire family is from Germany. He does not want to be called African American because he doesn't see himself as such. It's kind of lke calling Indians "Native Americans." My friend Doris is a Cherokee Indian and resents the term "Native American." She says that she and her ancestors are Indians, and it's not derogatory and that calling them Native Americans doesn't set right with her.
And yes, I agree about Barack Obama. He is just as much white as he is Kenyan.

Re: Does it matter?

I know African American is the proper term, but I have only met one person of the African persusion (from Mali) who minded the term black. This guy prefered brown to black. I don't think of black as a derogitory term. I don't use it in a derogitory way. If black is wrong, so is white. To me it's just a descriptive term.

Honestly, I just think of myself as an American, not a European American. Most of my relatives left that area over 150 years ago. The rest arrived in Halifax, VA in 1609. I am descended from some of the first European settlers. Which means other than to point to a map and say, "this is where my distant ancesters where from", Europe doesn't mean a whole lot to me. After 400 years, if anything I am about as "native" as a person can get.

Perhaps it would be better to say Obama is the first minority president. I believe General Eric Shinseki is the first Asian American to serve in a Cabniet position. He was also Cheif of Staff of the Army. (TOT Dh knows this guy and likes him.)

Obama has placed a lot of women and minorities in positions of authority. He is not the first to do this, but I would hazzard a guess he has more women and minorities in top positions than past presidents have.

It's not so much that our President is a person of color, but that his ascending to such an exhaulted position represents the culmination of the dream of women and minorities - all minorities.

Re: Does it matter?

I am like Lenora that I use black as a descriptive term. Some black people prefer NOT to be called African American. Here is an interesting article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/na...er=rssuserland

Re: Does it matter?

It all boils down to the individual - what does HE want to be called? Black? African-American? Negro? Mulatto (the old term for someone with one negro parent and one caucasian parent)?

Any term can be made derogatory - it's dependent on the usage. Like George Carlin said, there are no bad words - only bad intentions.

Re: Does it matter?

I posted in the inauguration thread that Kel just asked last week what a black person was. She had no clue that people were different! But between teachers and watching the inauguration she realized there was a difference. And yes she has seen black people before and she still didn't notice there was a different. We don't apply labels here. He is just a person. And I know that has to irk the people who fought so hard for civil rights but IMO racism won't end as long as we apply these labels

Re: Does it matter?

I hate Caucasian and Anglo, but for some reason those terms are just fine.

Re: Does it matter?

I don't like ANY of those labels and have never figured out why on applications or surveys they need that info!

Re: Does it matter?

If ya wanna get real technical, Obama is biracial. I really don't care what our president's race is, as long as he does the job he is elected to do properly.

Re: Does it matter?

No one ever calls you Anglo or Caucasian in a nice way. I hate it when they ask that too, Wendy. Especially on a job application. I hate checking my race. They say it is for statistical data, but I feel like they will say, "majority, you're out." I don't even like putting down my gender. My dh doesn't like to put any of that down even his age.

I hope he does too, Becca. He promised to weed out all the corruption in the VA and all other government agencies. He promised a lot of stuff like to quit giving rebates and all kinds of money to oil, gas and power companies who are stealing us all blind. I feel like the American people have been robbed blind for decades by special interest groups with powerful lobbies. For example, a lot of legislation was passed to help the small family farmer. Since 1970, almost all the family farmers have been driven out of business by corporate farms. This legislation which gave money to help the little guys support their families through the bad year is now syphoning billions of dollars to wealthy corporations who just charge more and more for their products and fleece the little consumer guy blind.

Sorry to rant on farm subsidies to corporations which were intended for family farms. My family farmed for literally centuries upon centuries. Then the corporations like General Foods came along and used their might to make farming next to impossible to make a living at. They pushed millions of small independant operators out of business.

Want to know why the meat is filled with hormones these days? Because big corporations only care about profit. They do not care about the individual milk cows or chickens. Small farmers loved their livestock. They loved every shaft of wheat. They loved the land because they were part of it. It wasn't just about money. It was about loving what you do and having pride in your work.

Our country has strayed so far from the love and the pride which made it special and strong. It's all become about who can get want and how can some corporation scam the government for big money.

If Obama can bring back that love and that pride we had in 1970, and cut out all graft and corruption in government, I don't care if he's purple and has tenticles. I'm going to love and support him. I sure hope he can.

Re: Does it matter?

I think bringing up the race of a person at all is rude. My kids are never allowed to refer to a persons race(and neither do I). I also gave them the right to refuse to do so in school.