Why do many Afro-Americans say that they are Black People, when they have brown skin colour???

Question

I have three cousins, and their mother was born in Africa and their father is "white". They are neither black or white. So I don´t want no racist comments. I hate these names: Black, White, Red, Yellow... When/ if you are talking about China, do you say the "yellow" people??? It´s just sick!!!

Answer 1

People have been raised to be ignorant. You my friend, seem to be a rare breed. I, too, cannot stand the labels that all the cretins of old have created for we of colour. It is up to everyone to realize that we are all human and can get along despite our external differences. I hate calling a "black" man black because he's not, he is a human. I try to learn people's name and call them by that. If we all thought like you, my friend, we might end racism once and for all. However, the world is full of small-minded, stubborn people who believe that everyone needs a place and will give up his last tooth to keep the labels.

Answer 2

You're right! People should just be called by their names and not by what color skin they have. But there is so much ignorance out here in this world until it is utterly sickening! I consider myself as a black woman not an African American because my particular family meaning mother, father, grandmother (who looked Caucasian) and great grandmother (who was an Indian on the reservation) were not from Africa. I'm the darkest of all the children. My sister is light, my brother is very light but I take after my father who is dark and I'm very beautiful and glad about it! I think once any person is secure about themselves on the surface no matter what you look like it all melts going into your insides you know? It doesn't matter to me if people don't like the way I look (although that's never been said about me to my face). I think if people were happy inside about themselves that also would reflect on the outside. So I'm dark brown but I'm a black woman with Indian Heritage.

Answer 3

Before the term AFRO-American the boxes said white, black,Spanish,other. When you marked other that meant that you are from another country.the Term just sticks with people due to the way race plays a part in everyday life due to stereotyping.I'm a mix breed,my father is full blooded Indian and my mom is black there's no box for me because I'm not full blooded I have to mark BLACK.I have no problem with it because my race doesn't define me as a person,and besides the puerto ricans took brown.

Answer 4

Technically speaking, Black people have no color. White people are the true colored people.

Look up the definitions for black and white.

Black is defined as the absence of all color
White is defined as the presence of all colors

Personally, I'm like you. I hate to use terms like black, white. yellow, etc. We're all one race of people, with minor variations within the species, homo sapiens.

Answer 5

Along with the other fine reasons offered here, I would add that people like to belong to groups, and gravitate toward groups that define who they are, what they look like, what their national identity is, etc.

For example... yes, I'm an American (as are probably many of us here), but my ancestry is Scot-Irish-German. I celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my Irish kin, dance ceilidh and eat haggis on Robert Burn's birthday in January with my Scottish friends, and love Oktoberfest with my German relatives. If I had friends who celebrated Kwanzaa or Purim or Chinese New Year's, I'd party and celebrate right along with them.

I've never understood either why someone's color matters. What does matter is how they behave in society and how they treat their family. People bleed the same color...red, no matter what color their skin happens to be.

Answer 6

You are taking the color words too literally here. As others have pointed out, I'm called white, but I'm not really the color white, as it applies to paint, for example.

Black is a word that most of African descent accept as describing their ethnic group. (I believe it began to be prominent in the early 70's or so, with the "Black Power" movement.)

Since that's a term that Blacks find acceptable, that's what I'll say. Probably part of the reason it wasn't completely supplanted by African-American (Afro-American is no longer used, but was briefly the term), is that it's shorter.

However, it is offensive to refer to Asians as 'Yellow' or Native Americans as 'Red' -- or Middle Easterners as 'Brown' for that matter. (Though the bogus crime DWB when it means "Driving While Brown" is still used, though in my area usually refers to Latinos.)

Maybe it has to do with there being a much more offensive word for Blacks (and it's originally unoffensive cousin, *****, which is now considered offensive -- so that's two names rejected).

Anyway, applied to people, the two acceptable 'color' words do not refer to color in a literal way, but are different (though somewhat related) concepts.

Many words have more than one meaning; 'Black' and 'White' are two of them.

The main principle is to not use words or names that the people they refer to find offensive, as that would be rude.

Thus endeth my lecture on racial linguistics; please take your programs with you, or leave them neatly in your chairs.

Answer 7

The same reason I suppose that i consider myself to be white, it makes no sense, i am not white i am a mottled pinky colour.. But we all conform to lables and historically black and white were easy lables to follow.. DOnt overthink it, we are all what we are and the colour of ones skin doesnt matter.

Answer 8

I don't get it either. But yeah Chinese is yellow, Africans are black, Germans are white and Native Americans(Columbus called them Indians) are red.

Answer 9

They want to distance themselves as far as possible from "white" people. I don't want to be called "white". Shouldn't I be addressed as European-American? We were all a mixture of everything before we even got out of the Stone Age !

Answer 10

I don't think black people decided on that name, but I guess it's better than some of the alternatives I've heard all my life. I don't think white people are white, but that's what we call them. Race, such a touchy subject. Weird.