Why is it that many Egyptians that I have met in California do not associate with the term as being African.?

Question

When I look at a map of EGYPT it sits it Africa, I have heard a few respond to me that I am an arab, is this another way to put down the African Continient, I do not consider myself African American, I would rather use the term "Black American" not to dissassociate myself from Africa, but I am a black woman born in America.

ignorance is expensive so all of you cowards pretty much hide in the dark, but what you do in the dark, soon will come to the light!

eminem has spoke of a religion and that is not the question, wrong answer

Answer 1

Regionally Egypt lies in Africa and in the middle east. But middle eastern countries have more things in common.

I am egyptian and i wanna say that I'M PROUD OF BEING AFRICAN!

Answer 2

Egyptians are mostly not from Africa originally, but rather from what is now known as the the Middle East or Near East, and have since those early times become more Arab and Islamic. In the south of Egypt, to be sure, many are related to Nubians and Ethiopians. But in general, as an ethnic group, they might very well see themselves as not African, in that they don't consider themselves Black.

This whole thing about geography and race is crazy, largely because this whole race thing is crazy. Science is clear on the fact that human beings originated in Africa and spread out everywhere from there. So does that make everybody an African? It does if you want to identify people by their continent of origin. If you want to indentify people by some concept of race, then there will be these problems of people of different races being born on the same continent/country. Is a white person born in South Africa an African, a European, a Euro-African? Does African mean Black, European mean White? And so on.

People seem to prefer to be identified by racial/ethnic concepts first and by country of residence second, and continent third. And they prefer to be known as what they say they are, not what others say they are or should be.

So it does not "put down" Africa for Egyptians to stress their racial/ethnic roots - it is not their fault that people equate Africa with Blacks. Of course, I am not naive here and am not saying that Egyptians are not biased and prejudiced. But I think that you can see that they are basically just trying to affirm their own heritage by saying they are not African, even though some of them might also be expressing with that a racial prejudice as well.

Answer 3

I see some interesting answers. It seems to me that politically Egypt sides with the Arab world most of the time but conveniently says it is part of the African world when it's politically expedient. I find it interesting that many Egyptians don't consider themselves African, that seems to come from the notion that the term Africa has very little positive attributes. But, phenotypically it is obvious even to this day that Egypt is strongly influenced by it's African geography.

Answer 4

Egypt is part of Africa but Egyptians pride themselves on their national identity which is more Arab than African.

If you are from Russia, Afghanistan or India you don't say you're Asian usually either. It's a cultural thing that is still being worked out but really it's not that important of a point.

Answer 5

Egyptians have older civilization than the Arabs, but after the great religion of Islam reached Egypt, egyptians started to use the Arabic language, and therefore, they consider themselves Arabs. In Islam, there is no difference between black or white people, they are all the same,as an example there are no mosques for blacks, and other mosques for white people.

Answer 6

we r africans and we love africa but coz arab were alot here so we got use to say that we r arab
but the truth we r not arab we only talk arabic and we r Egyptians & africans :D

and for nsahbti we r not racist coz in the south of egypt egyptians have a dark skin nearly black and still egyptians and they say that they r arab

and if ppl read history right u will find that egyptians in the time of the pharohs r not calling them selves africans but only Egyptians but they care about africa

Answer 7

Got your message. Hello? I don't hate black people. My dad's Black ( Latino ), I'm just saying it's very common for people living in the USA of other African origins to differ themselves from the stereotypical African American image. The don't want to associate themselves with what "THEY" consider a different race than theirs. ( Sorry .. but it's true. Ask around ) THIS is true in AMERICA .. but if you go to the caribbean -Puerto Rico - Dominican Republic - Venezuela - etc., you'll see that this RACE thing isn't as important than it is here. Cuz we caribbeans love our culture and our African roots along with our native roots and our Spanish influence. I know I'm part Black and I don't deny it. But tell someone from those countries that they're Black and they think you're associating them with the African American culture here ... this society has divided us so much that we many feel the need to disassociate ourselves from one another. Even some people of European background do the same thing. The word "*****" is a term of endearment in spanish speaking caribbean countries It means "brother" or "friend". Have a nice day. And could you please change the response that you gave to one of my questions. Thank you.

Answer 8

When most people refer to things "African" they really mean sub-Saharan Africa and the Bantu people and culture.

Egypt was part of the classical world of the Mediterranean littoral. The Egyptians of antiquity did not consider themselves "black" but "red" and made a clear distinction between themselves and the blacks living to the south of them. There is almost no racial connection between Egyptians or any of the peoples of north Africa and the Bantu peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.

Black as used today, does not refer merely to skin color but to culture and community. Specifically, in the United States it refers to the descendants of former slaves. As an Egyptian you're not in that group.

Answer 9

They consider themselves as being Arab,because they consider that the countries falling in the middle east whether located in Asia or Africa are Arab first,share Islam, culture and traditions.
Egypt,Livia,Morocco,Tunis... are all considered Arab countries before being African.
They are Africans by location,but by heart they are Arab.
All Arab are black (sure not very dark)whether living in Africa or Asia, they do not consider this a problem.

Answer 10

well, I think they do not call themselves an African because for a long time, the egyptians were ruled by the ottoman empire, which were the Turks. So many egyptians think their ancestor to be arab, not egyptian.
The "problem" of the people not recognizing their true heritage as theirs is all psychological, they do not want to be isolated or treated differently. They want to recognize as everybody else, not a different one.
I hope my opinion can help you.