African-American?

[PurpleButterflyAway]

I want to start this by apologising for my ignorance and if this is offensive in any way. I have no wish to hurt anyone or be racist in any way and I’d really like to be educated on this.

I’m wondering if someone (preferably someone that is BAME, since it’s your view on this that counts) could explain why you’re called African-American and if it’s black people all over the world or just in America that’s called this? Possibly the stupidest question to ever be asked, and I really am sorry for the ignorance and if that’s offensive/hurtful.

DP and I were discussing the protests here in the U.K. and he kept using the term African-American which led on to the discussion that anyone of colour living here in the U.K. isn’t called African-American since we’re the U.K. and not America. But I’ve never heard anyone called African-British/English/Scottish/welsh/Irish etc which got me wondering why the term is African-American, especially if that person is just straight American/British/whatever nationality.

Feel like I’m making a tits up of explaining so I’m really sorry. I was just wondering if there was a reason behind it, or if you find it offensive to be called African-American if you’ve no link to either country and would rather just be recognised for the nationality that you were born?

To try explain, I was born in the U.K., my parents were born in the U.K. but one of my grandparents was born in Germany. I’ve no links to Germany other than my grandparent, I’ve never visited it and I don’t know any family out there etc so I only class myself as British and I’d rather not call someone African-American if it’s just another way of pointing out race/differences and making people feel like they don’t belong somewhere.

Does that make sense at all? Again I really really want to apologise for the ignorance, I’d hate it if someone started questioning the terms I use for myself and I know there’s nothing I can do to prove it but I mean no offence whatsoever.

Thank you to anyone that can answer, I really appreciate it

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_codes UK police use black for coding.

Nothing for mixed race folk, I guess mixed race is fairly broad, I.e Chinese/Indian or Greek/Japanese (I’m not sure I’m using correct terms here actually, if anyone could correct me I’d be grateful).

Yet americans see it as the politically correct term and “black” as the offensive.

"Black" is not offensive in the US, otherwise a whole movement would not be intentionally named Black Lives Matter.

"People of color" is a term that includes black people, but does not mean only black people, similar to how the acronym BAME is used in the UK.

There are 16 self-defined ethnic descriptors that the police must use beyond the initial basic six, as posted above, that any suspects can choose from, with a wider and more subtle range of choices.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_defined_ethnicity

Also the term "people of color" in the US came about to replace 'non-white' and 'minority', to avoid describing people with terms that suggest that "white" is the default or the norm.

Yeah, the forms assume that only black people can be African. Africa is a very diverse continent. I am a White African but I am expected to tick White Other. I informed work that they needed to be more inclusive in their diversity policy.

@daisypond my post was in response as to the discriptors that the police use. Eg what police will use for a radio call out.

The 16 point list is the expanded self-defined list that the individual can choose from.

@silentpool agreed. I wonder what people of Moroccan/Egyptian origin use... off I go down a potential rabbit hole!

Obviously it's only Black Americans who are called this. In the UK they are Black British.

Or theyre African, or Jamaican or whatever they are.

African American is a US term. And isn't even always correct.

Black Americans don’t know where their roots are due to slavery. So they are called African Americans as they are most likely from slaves in Africa. British blacks know where they come from such as Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica etc. They know their roots and their culture. African Americans are all “bunched” together as the same race.

I’ve seen a few YouTube videos where black Americans have come to the uk and met fellow black British. All of the them have said that they get asked by British blacks where are you really from, are you Nigerian, Caribbean, Ghanaian etc? And they don’t know how to answer as they genuinely don’t know where they come from. I think they felt a bit sad that they didn’t know their own roots, they weren’t part of a culture and didn’t have family ‘back home’.

@Custardcreamies101when was that? Do you have a link?