African-American

I annoy a lot of people because I am often very frank about things that I don't like. I don't like a lot of things, many of them trivial to most people--maybe I am too picky or obsessive. But my dislikes are rational--I can prove their merit. I don't just dislike something for the sake of disliking it (except for subjective things like aversions to certain tastes--I hate spicy food--or artistic styles, which I try to clearly label as baseless personal preference.) An example:

I don't like the term "African-American." Much in the same way I don't like the term "Asian-American," or "European-American," and so on. These are terms that are generally regarded as "politically correct," which in itself is a principle that I think is downright ridiculous. I choose "African-American" specifically because it is a term that is used heavily in the United States, by politicians, teachers, students, and just about everyone--in fact, you can major in African-American Studies to get a Bachelor of the Arts. But I don't like the word one bit. Not because I don't like "African-Americans," but because when you really analyze the word (or phrase or whatever it is,) it doesn't make any sense. Firstly, the vast majority of "African-Americans" are not African. Sure, their ancestry may be African (or in many cases partially African or "mulatto" to use an archaic and unfriendly term,) but I have a heavy German ancestry and nobody calls me "German-American" or the more general "European-American." They assume that I have European ancestry, because I'm white. They see a man who is obviously of Asian descent, but do not need to call him "Asian-American" because it is stupidly blatant. Why is this obvious fact not assumed for black people--that they have some black African ancestry (which may not even be the majority of their phenotype?) "African-American" is unnecessarily and falsely used.

The second reason I take issue with "African-American" as it is used by society is that it is a label. Certainly in studying black history in America it would be necessary to consider aspects of developing black American culture to have African roots or nuances (even some modern cultural aspects have African influence.) But now, for those whose families have been in the United States for generations, sometimes for untraceable lengths of time--the label isn't really that correct. They are American. They are black, but completely American regardless. "American" itself denotes the presence of blended culture--there is no "original" American culture that blended with an "original" African culture to create a third, clearly defined culture. "American" is one term to define many cultures--like how "trees" is the umbrella term to a huge number of species and cross-breeds. Aside from those who have recently moved to the U.S. from Africa, (who would probably be called "African" rather than "African-American" anyway,) black people in this country are simply American.

One final reason I don't like "African-American" is that it is seven syllables long, and it takes longer to say than "black." For the record, I don't even like the use of the terms "white" and "black" because they categorize. From the age that I first discovered the term "black," I wondered why on Earth anyone would say that because "black" people aren't black, they're more brown; brown is also a softer word that doesn't sound as abrupt and oppressive. Also, where is the line between "black" and "white?" I say it's too much of a continuum for it to be fair to make it a solid categorization. No, I don't like labels at all, but for the sake of description we have to use them. In a true egalitarian society, which may be possible but will take centuries to achieve, the terms "black" and white" wouldn't need to be used much. People are people.

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