What am I in America?

Question

I receintly moved here from South Africa where I was born. On my job application I checked the "African American" box. However when I went for the interview I was told that I was "Caucasion", even though I was from Africa. Can someone help clear this up for me?

Answer 1

You're a Caucasion African American!
You should tell them they need a new category.

Answer 2

Cleart what up?
Do you not know who or where you are?
You are in the United States of Ameria and here we don't give a darn what country you come from, unless it is latin america or some arab state and then no one wants you here at all, just the color of your skin matters.
Oh yes, and what sex you are or were before and we do care a lot if it is heterosexual or not, homos pollute and corruupt this nation and caused the towers to fall in New York.
It seems that women of any color fit into the one category of minority with sub categorys for skin color, maybe a double hymen-nationality, even though they outnumber males.
We have Native Americans all lumped together as redmen, even though they may come from seperate nations within this nation with soverignty guaranteed.
A few years back when upon many Native Amrian reservations it weas found out that the whites had been stealing their money from thir resources the Governemtn stepped in and started special programs for Native americans and my oh my it was soon discovered that millions had a great grand daddy or grand
mommy who was one part Native American so they could get their kids into colleges without paying and other free goodies.
If you think you are confused imagine what a child born of parents of mixed races feel. It is even possible to be classified as Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander or an Asian and have no features of any of their racial complexities or sterotypes with skin as white and pure as driven snow because somewhere one of the parents was one of those races+white you can never be, heaven forbid,a whiteman.
Its not that we are racist we just don't want anyone to who has a heritage and cultural background not "Made in USA" to begin to think they are better than us.
At least we are subtle about it and it is such a small square, what harm can it do?
That is unless you have moved into an area heavy with skin heads or see a lot of pickups runing around with guns in the back window;and then you better be damn sure to check the caucasion box, buy a pickup, preferably one with ribbons and a big herken american flag upon it, and never never question why do we even need the little box's to begin with.

Answer 3

Caucasion and African American means ethnicity as in white and black. There are many caucasians in South Africa and their nationality is African buy their ethnicity is caucasian.

Answer 4

Obviously this question was just asked to illustrate the double standards of racial identity. African-American, although sounding like a term to describe someone from a certain nation, is really a racial term. Otherwise, you should be considered 'African' even though you are white. They really are talking about skin color, but pretending that they're not.

Answer 5

That's the exact problem with using these hyphenated terms for people! I am white - I am not a caucasian-american. You obviously are white too, but you are from Africa - but because of today's ACLU - we have to be careful not to offend somebody...they tend to think anyone that is black is african-american - and case in point - YOU prove them wrong - because you are an african born white person. So how about just being - american? and white?

Answer 6

this has sparked so much debate.
typically African American refers to blacks but really, most blacks in the US are not African because we were not born in Africa. i dont know why African Americans are the only ones that have our ethnicity included in our title. you never hear of Italian American, Irish American, Hungarian American despite the fact that these people have never been to those countries.
you are African American rightfully. you were born in Africa and you immigrated to the US which makes you American. You are also Caucasian because this is your race.

Answer 7

Your a Visitor to the USA an Immigrant and have run into the USA hyphen of Racism one the very reason Americans are divided
The hyphenated American wishes to be separate from the USA in a group of their own and not become Americans
Really just Traders to America who do not want to be Americans
your one of the few who the hyphen applys, but don't use it become a American when your able not a hyphenated American

Answer 8

Technically, you are African American. But these are referring to skin color. So if your kin is white, then you are referred to as Caucasian. Just like a black person is referred to as African american, even though they aren't from Africa. It has nothing to do with what country you are from. It has to do with race.

Answer 9

Someone actually got penalized for saying "African American" "when they weren't", when they were from South Africa. I think it is nuts, but there it is.

Answer 10

Your African.