Africans and Americans, Part II

People who keep going on about Obama not "legally" being an "African-American" are cracking me up. Supposedly, a "legal African American" is someone who is the descendant of Africans brought to the US to be slaves--the definition of which excludes Obama, as if the concept made sense in the first place and meant something.

Here's a quandary for all you hair-splitters on things that don't matter: since my mother is an American descendant of Africans brought to the US to be slaves but my biological father is an African, does that make me "half African-American?"

Please tell me 'yes' so I can mock you.

Comments

[T-Steel]

Hmm... I'll play also. My father is the American descendant of Africans brought to the US to be slaves but my mother is half Haitian (black) and half French (white). So does that make me 40% African-American (accounting for the white French blood that drops 10% off my race score)? Uh oh. Only 10%! I'm throwing my white relatives under the bus!

I'm sorry baldilocks. I couldn't resist that last little bit. :-)

Your point is well made. Why does it mean something? I just don't get it either.

[baldilocks]

What's getting me is that I didn't know that there was a "legal" definition of "African-American"; like a U.S Code version. I can't seem to find it. Folks tell me there is one when they're talking about Obama but they never cite the statute. Why is that?

[Old Mike]

Perhaps you should discuss this with "Native Americans" who have had to deal with percentages in deciding how to split the casino pie.

[Mescalero]

Afro-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, German-Americans, Native-Americans, baloney!! There all Americans, plain, pure and simple -- end of story.

[Donna B.]

It did occur to me once whether present day Africans looked upon some of the antics of the African Americans the same way that present day Scots look upon the antics of Scottish Americans.

In case you're wondering, the Scots look at us laugh. They are, of course, willing to sell us our "authentic tartan" as $250/yd.

[rockhauler]

Baldilocks,
I stumbled over here from HotAir to get 'some schoolin' as it were. Since I am old, male, and as WASPian as one can be, cut me a little slack if I don't get the dialect right.

This post is mainly a test to see if my very old TypeKey account still works.

If I get out of line feel free to tell me to buzz off.

[S. Weasel]

When people talk about race, it seems they are increasingly talking about experience and behavior, not genetics. Which is the only world in which pasty Bill Clinton could in any sense be considered black and Clarence Thomas not so.

It's a dangerous bait-and-switch. Because at some point, it may occur to people that, while it's wrong to condemn someone for the circumstances of birth, it's perfectly okay to dislike behavior. In fact, it's really important for a society to condemn bad behavior.

We haven't been good at that lately.

[Rosemary, the Queen of All Evil]

I linked you but I'm not sure my trackbacks are working. I love this! Can we call you Halfrican American?

[notropis]

I say to my kids, who are ethnically Obama-like, I guess, having one mostly white American parent and one black African parent, and probably few to no ancestors who were Africans brought to America to be slaves (although my ex-, being from Liberia, may have ancestors who were Africans brought to America to be slaves, but whose descendants then returned to Africa, or, even more likely, ancestors who were supposed to come to America to be slaves, but whose ship was turned about by the British Navy, and were re-deposited on African soil, hundreds of miles from their original homes), I say to those kids, "Kids, you are African-American. You have one parent that's African and another one that's American."

My kids (teenagers both), stare blankly at me for a while, then respond, "That's just stupid. Who cares? Where's my cell phone?"

From which conversation, I hold out great hope for the future of race relations in America.

[AJ]

Count me squarely in the "who gives a rat's ass" group.

The irony of lefty terms like "African American" is that, while ostensibly an attempt at racial sensitivity, they only encourage hair-splitting of this nature. How can that do anything but divide people?

What "kind" of American anyone is, is completely irrelevant. I could go on. But won't.

[Phelps]

Okay, I'm confused -- do these people think it is an advantage or a disadvantage to be "African-American?" If it is a disadvantage, when why would someone who isn't a "real African-American" claim it?

(I think that we are at the point that it isn't either, personally.)

[baldilocks]

End your confusion, Phelps.

Why I don't use the term "African American" unless I'm talking about a naturalized citizen from an African country.

[Bozoer Rebbe]

Like most afrocentric institutions, Obama's church likes to claim ancient Egypt as "African". Putting aside the fact that the ancient Egyptians were not the black Africans that are found south of the Sahara, there's a form of Talmudic logic called "k'shitatcha", according to your opinion. According to Rev. Wright Egypt is African. This Saturday night will be the first Passover seder this year, when Jews celebrate their exodus from Egypt, where they had been enslaved for generations.

Since I'm descended from people born in Africa, I guess that makes me an African American.

Of course, since all humans are descended from Africans (cf. Leaky and 'Lucy'), I suppose we can all check that box on the racial set asides.

[DarkStar]

I don't understand the big deal. If people want to be referenced by it, so be it. If not, so be it.

[Ward Gerlach]

Ummmm... this is really gonna send some folks right 'round the bend, but...

Kim du Toit quite correctly calls himself an "African-American".

Mr. du Toit is a naturalized American citizen who was born, and grew to adulthood in South Africa - as did his parents and grandparents.

Mr. du Toit's skin color is white.

He also has an eeeevil sense of humor!

Since this is NOT my blog, I leave it to Juliette to supply the link to Kim's site, if she so chooses.

And yes, I DO enjoy stirring the pot from time to time... Ò¿Ö

[baldilocks]

Ward,

See the link in my comment at 11:16 AM

[Phelps]

Oh, I understand your position, Baldilocks, and it is a perfect match for mine for all intents and purposes. I'm confused as to what the people who insist on euphemisms for race are getting at. I see a similar situation in how "people of color" now seems to be the preferred nomenclature, but "colored people" is a grave insult.