What does it mean to be black?

[BlackLantern]

I always liked winston from ghostbusters....

 

[chamber-music]

I always liked winston from ghostbusters....

He had about five lines in the first movie though

 

[terry78]

He had about five lines in the first movie though

He saw **** that would turn you white. And also, if someone asks if you're a god, you say YES!

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I always liked winston from ghostbusters....

He moved to oz and engaged in a perpetual struggle to stop butch men raping each other.

 

[Warhammer]

I love how they play up how bad ass he is because he's black.

"He REALLY means it when he says beware my power." Because the white boys didn't mean the oath when they said it. Hilarious.

Haha. You also forgot:

They whipped the Green Lantern. "Now let 'em try me!"

 

[raybia]

isn't she only half black?

What do you think the racial composition of African-American people are?

Clue. Its not identical to the dark skinned people from the continent of Africa.

 

[BlackLantern]

He moved to oz and engaged in a perpetual struggle to stop butch men raping each other.

Tis a noble struggle......

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

What do you think the racial composition of African-American people are?

I always assumed they were Africans who were brought from Africa, and are now American citizens.

 

[Memphis Slim]

There is no "handbook" on how to be "black". You just "ARE". By birth. What you read, eat, how you dance or can't, basketball skills, what music you like or command of the english language has no barring on your blackness.


All of those are sterotypes........

 

[Warhammer]

isn't she only half black?

Actually, I think she is:

50% White (Mom)
25% Black/25% Latino (Dad)

 

[raybia]

I always assumed they were Africans who were brought from Africa, and are now American citizens.

Well yes initially but a little time has passed since then. I'm referring to the racial composition of today's African-American population.


See below:

Who is African American?

Since 1977, the United States officially categorized Black people (revised to Black or African American in 1997) are classified as A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa..[1] Other Federal offices, such as the United States Census Bureau and the adheres to the OMB standards on race in its data collection and tabulations efforts.[49] The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation also categorizes Black or African-American people as "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce derived from the 1977 OMB classification.[50]

Due in part to a centuries-old history within the United States of America, historical experiences pre- and post-slavery, and migrations throughout North America, the vast majority of contemporary African Americans possess varying degrees of admixture with European and Native American ancestry.[51][52]

Some courts have called a person black if the person had any known African ancestry. It became known as the one-drop rule, meaning that a single drop of "black blood" makes a person "black". Some courts have called it the traceable amount rule, and anthropologists used to call it the hypodescent rule, meaning that racially mixed persons were assigned the status of the subordinate group. Prior to the one-drop rule, different states had different laws regarding color; in Virginia, for example, a person was legally black if he or she had at least one-sixteenth black ancestry. The one-drop rule was implemented by states in the southern United States during the early to mid-1880s [citation needed]. For African Americans, the one-drop system of pigmentocracy was a significant factor in ethnic solidarity. African Americans generally shared a common lot in society and, therefore, common cause -- regardless of their multiracial admixture or social and economic stratification.

In the 1980s, parents of mixed-race children began to organize and lobby for the addition of a more inclusive term of racial designation that would reflect the heritage of their children. In recent decades, the multicultural climate of the United States has continued to expand. Although the terms mixed-race, biracial and multiracial are increasingly used, it remains common for those who possess any visible traits of black heritage to identify or be identified solely within black/African American ethnic groups. As well, it is very common in the United States for people of mixed ancestry possessing any recent black heritage to self-identify demographically as African American while acknowledging both their African American and other cultural heritages socially.

For example, 55% of European Americans classify Senator Barack Obama as biracial when they are told that he has a white mother, while 66% of African-Americans consider him Black.[53]Obama considers himself to be black[54] though he is generally considered to be African American.[55]


Also see this study:

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJ...80409.web.pdf?erFrom=5264067189873526725Guest



Most African-Americans today can trace a heritage of African, European, and Native American decent. As a result we come in various hues, sometimes even with the same parents.

 

[Warhammer]

He had about five lines in the first movie though

Weren't the original three like "Damn, we need one more person. Oh, hey you, black dude. Come here." He got thrown in during the last 30 minutes, didn't he?

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Well yes initially but a little time has passed since then. I'm referring to the racial composition of today's African-American population.


See below:

Who is African American?

Since 1977, the United States officially categorized Black people (revised to Black or African American in 1997) are classified as A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa..[1] Other Federal offices, such as the United States Census Bureau and the adheres to the OMB standards on race in its data collection and tabulations efforts.[49] The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation also categorizes Black or African-American people as "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce derived from the 1977 OMB classification.[50]

Due in part to a centuries-old history within the United States of America, historical experiences pre- and post-slavery, and migrations throughout North America, the vast majority of contemporary African Americans possess varying degrees of admixture with European and Native American ancestry.[51][52]

Some courts have called a person black if the person had any known African ancestry. It became known as the one-drop rule, meaning that a single drop of "black blood" makes a person "black". Some courts have called it the traceable amount rule, and anthropologists used to call it the hypodescent rule, meaning that racially mixed persons were assigned the status of the subordinate group. Prior to the one-drop rule, different states had different laws regarding color; in Virginia, for example, a person was legally black if he or she had at least one-sixteenth black ancestry. The one-drop rule was implemented by states in the southern United States during the early to mid-1880s [citation needed]. For African Americans, the one-drop system of pigmentocracy was a significant factor in ethnic solidarity. African Americans generally shared a common lot in society and, therefore, common cause -- regardless of their multiracial admixture or social and economic stratification.

In the 1980s, parents of mixed-race children began to organize and lobby for the addition of a more inclusive term of racial designation that would reflect the heritage of their children. In recent decades, the multicultural climate of the United States has continued to expand. Although the terms mixed-race, biracial and multiracial are increasingly used, it remains common for those who possess any visible traits of black heritage to identify or be identified solely within black/African American ethnic groups. As well, it is very common in the United States for people of mixed ancestry possessing any recent black heritage to self-identify demographically as African American while acknowledging both their African American and other cultural heritages socially.

For example, 55% of European Americans classify Senator Barack Obama as biracial when they are told that he has a white mother, while 66% of African-Americans consider him Black.[53]Obama considers himself to be black[54] though he is generally considered to be African American.[55]


Also see this study:

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJ...80409.web.pdf?erFrom=5264067189873526725Guest



Most African-Americans today can trace a heritage of African, European, and Native American decent. As a result we come in various hues, sometimes even with the same parents.

I see.
Are a vast majority of people cross bred (not specifically african) in some way or another down the line with diffrent ethic groups, and possibly don't even know about it?

 

[Steve Rogers]

Hey are the decendents of white-Dutch South Africans in America African American? And what about black Americans decended from Austrailia's Aboriginie tribes? What are they considered?


Point is...can't we all just be American and leave it at that?

 

[Memphis Slim]

Never been to Africa. I'm American...who happens to be BLACK and proud. I get a little tired of the hypens.

 

[raybia]

I see.
Are a vast majority of people cross bred (not specifically african) in some way or another down the line with diffrent ethic groups, and possibly don't even know about it?

Yes, definitely. I have heard of stories where through DNA testing, various racial groups within a black person was discovered but this is not confine to only blacks.

There have been even whites who have discovered they had Native America and african DNA.

 

[raybia]

Never been to Africa. I'm American...who happens to be BLACK and proud. I get a little tired of the hypens.

I haven't either but I certainly have no problem identifying myself as African-American nor do I see ethnic groups such as Italian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Irish-Americans, and Asian-Americans having a problem with
the hypens.

I do hope to visit an African country one day though.

 

[Steve Rogers]

I haven't either but I certainly have no problem identifying myself as African-American nor do I see ethnic groups such as Italian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Irish-Americans, and Asian-Americans having a problem with
the hypens.

I do hope to visit an African country one day though.

But I think the difference is, that society hasn't deemed it PC, and proper to call me an Irish-American. I think that may be what Slim is getting at. He doesn't call himself African American, instead it is white people who call him that. I assume he doesn't like being called something that he doesn't consider himself to be. While I am proud of my Irish heritage, I, like Slim, am an American first and foremost. Don't call me Irish-American. American-Irish might work though...

 

[BlackLantern]

Weren't the original three like "Damn, we need one more person. Oh, hey you, black dude. Come here." He got thrown in during the last 30 minutes, didn't he?

winston shows up about halfway thru the film

 

[Warhammer]

Ohhh, gotcha.

Btw, "African-American" always did bother me a bit, because it, technically isn't correct. The term references nationality, not ethnicity, hence why white people aren't called "Irish-Americans," etc. Though, apparently, there is a country called Caucasia, sitting on the globe somewhere.

 

[BlackLantern]

I personally have no desire to go to Africa, we've traced our family as far back as 1863 as slaves in Virginia.....

 

[Erzengel]

Ohhh, gotcha.

Btw, "African-American" always did bother me a bit, because it, technically isn't correct. The term references nationality, not ethnicity, hence why white people aren't called "Irish-Americans," etc. Though, apparently, there is a country called Caucasia, sitting on the globe somewhere.

That's why I say black.

It's presumptious of me to think all blacks are from America, or even that they aren't from Belize, Carribean, etc.

 

[Steve Rogers]

Ohhh, gotcha.

Btw, "African-American" always did bother me a bit, because it, technically isn't correct. The term references nationality, not ethnicity, hence why white people aren't called "Irish-Americans," etc. Though, apparently, there is a country called Caucasia, sitting on the globe somewhere.

I knew there were the Caucasian mountains around one of those old Soviet satalite states...but I didn't know that Caucasia was a country. So calling me Caucasian is wrong then.

I also hate it when I get called Anglo. I ain't Anglo Saxon. My ancestry can be traced back to the original Celtic tribes in Ireland.

 

[kainedamo]

Really, how many black people would be offended by being refered to as a black person/black people, etc?

 

[Erzengel]

Just like any other race, ethnicity, sex, religious, etc. The ones who are offended easily and with chips on their shoulders.