How do blacks in Europe, Australia, UK, and Canada refer to themselves?

Question

Do you call yourselves along the lines of African-British, Afro-British, Black British, or just Black? What is the common way of identifying your ethnicity/nationality in your country?

Answer 1

I live in Canada and my friends who are blacks do not go around saying they are AFRICAN CANADIAN ...
FIrst and foremost Canadian.
if you ask where their born or family is from you'll get answers like Jamiaca,Barbados,trinidad ,Ghana etc etc .
I have a friend who is from Britain and she does not go around saying she is Afirican British yes she is black but her family immigrated from Grenada to Britiain .She says she is British and then in a conversation she'll tell you where the rest of her family lives or is from .
Americans I guess due to their history with slavery it is important to identify your race first ...not like anyone can not see...but then not every one is from AFRICA who is black

Answer 2

British, English, black British, black, - never heard anybody use "Afro-British", although many black people in the UK have come from Africa (as opposed to coming via the Caribbean, as the majority of black British people have done).
I think the majority of British people see black British people as being British - or English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish; at least, I'd like to think so.
20-odd years ago, a black English soccer player called John Barnes was racially abused on the plane on the way back to England after scoring one of the greatest goals ever for his country, against Brazil. Now very few people in England would dream of acting that way towards their black players - the fans see them as English as the white (and the mixed-race) players. I'm just referring to sport as a cultural barometer by the way.
Black people are unfortunately still under-represented in the professions in the UK. I hope that doesn't remain the case.

Answer 3

Me I Am So White It Hurts, As In Skin Color. I Don't Look Down On Anyone Or Judge. Your Skin Color May Be Black. But Your An American No Hyphen. If You Were Born In Africa And Now A Legal Citizen. You Should/ Could Be Called An African-American. Its Things Like Adding That Hyphen That Keeps Us Apart.

Answer 4

British, Australian and Canadian. If they want to talk about their origins, they say where they came from but if they were born in England, Australia or Canada, that's what they call themselves. It seems to be only Americans that have a need to label everyone based on skin colour. Black people in Britain are often from or descended from people from the West Indies. That's as far back as they go, they don't worry about Africa. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia have various names they use in different parts of the country and many people use those names - Koori, Mari, Nyunga etc but they are first and foremost Australians.

Answer 5

In relation to race and ethnicity in Britain i prefer the statement Black Caribbean British, i might add this is purely because i was born in Britain, the race i belong to is Black and my parentage is Caribbean, my mother grew up in the west indies although she was born in Britain and my father was born and breed in the Caribbean.

In response to earnest T Bass

Answer 6

Trust me that is a HEATED debate! But it would not be a understatement to say that the word 'AFRICAN' is what seem annoy people of AFRICAN descent the most.

It could only have come directly because of our history .

As it is it's only us who seem to have a problem with the one thing that identifies and connects us.

Diasporan (sp) Africans other than those in the USA and CA would rather be called ANYTHING other than AFRICAN which is what most of us are.

I myself am quite happy to call myself 'English', (that is another heated topic but I won't go into that), 'Anglo-Afro-Caribbean', 'Anglo-African-Caribbean', or 'AFRICAN'.

Note I left out 'Afro-Caribbean' and 'British'.

'Afro-Caribbean' and 'Black' is what the media likes to call us in the UK.

I can give you mile long list of forums answering your question but I think you'd get the drift from this little lot.

Answer 7

Afro/Brit ,Afro American ,, geese I don't know has to be double barrelled ...would hope they would just say British,American ,Canadian .whit ever country you come from your nationality ..your one or the other make up mind ....British American Canadian french African etc etc easy ...I dont don't go about saying I'm Irish Scottish British with bit o french dutch German welsh even sorry wales even though I am ... so silly .........I'm a Brit this annoys me sorry I'm not white , black , yellow,red, or blue ...but British deal with it

Answer 8

regarding my ETHNICITY i pretty much just call myself black. If i wanted to show my citizenship (i.e. where i live, where i have grown up) i would say Black British. If i want to describe my nationality, i would say Nigerian.

Answer 9

Blacks I know wish to be called black

Answer 10

if your born in this country UK regardless of colour// your BRITISH and be proud of it and aways be in the British corner