noun : an American of African and especially of black African descent;
A Black American of African ancestry;
an American whose ancestors were born in Africa
adjective :used to describe African-Americans; pertaining to or characteristic of Americans of African ancestry
Usage Note: The Oxford English Dictionary contains evidence of the use of black with reference to African peoples as early as 1400, and certainly the word has been in wide use in racial and ethnic contexts ever since. However, it was not until the late 1960s that black (or Black) gained its present status as a self-chosen ethnonym with strong connotations of racial pride, replacing the then-current Negro among Blacks and non-Blacks alike with remarkable speed. Equally significant is the degree to which Negro became discredited in the process, reflecting the profound changes taking place in the Black community during the tumultuous years of the civil rights and Black Power movements. The recent success of African American offers an interesting contrast in this regard. Though by no means a modern coinage, African American achieved sudden prominence at the end of the 1980s when several Black leaders, including Jesse Jackson, championed it as an alternative ethnonym for Americans of African descent. The appeal of this term is obvious, alluding as it does not to skin color but to an ethnicity constructed of geography, history, and culture, and it won rapid acceptance in the media alongside similar forms such as Asian American, Hispanic American, and Italian American. But unlike what happened a generation earlier, African American has shown little sign of displacing or discrediting black, which remains both popular and positive. The difference may well lie in the fact that the campaign for African American came at a time of relative social and political stability, when Americans in general and Black Americans in particular were less caught up in issues involving radical change than they were in the 1960s. ·Black is sometimes capitalized in its racial sense, especially in the African-American press, though the lowercase form is still widely used by authors of all races. The capitalization of Black does raise ancillary problems for the treatment of the term white. Orthographic evenhandedness would seem to require the use of uppercase White, but this form might be taken to imply that whites constitute a single ethnic group, an issue that is certainly debatable. Uppercase White is also sometimes associated with the writings of white supremacist groups, a sufficient reason of itself for many to dismiss it. On the other hand, the use of lowercase white in the same context as uppercase Black will obviously raise questions as to how and why the writer has distinguished between the two groups. There is no entirely happy solution to this problem. In all likelihood, uncertainty as to the mode of styling of white has dissuaded many publications from adopting the capitalized form Black.
A Black American of African ancestry;
an American whose ancestors were born in Africa
adjective :used to describe African-Americans; pertaining to or characteristic of Americans of African ancestry
Usage Note: The Oxford English Dictionary contains evidence of the use of black with reference to African peoples as early as 1400, and certainly the word has been in wide use in racial and ethnic contexts ever since. However, it was not until the late 1960s that black (or Black) gained its present status as a self-chosen ethnonym with strong connotations of racial pride, replacing the then-current Negro among Blacks and non-Blacks alike with remarkable speed. Equally significant is the degree to which Negro became discredited in the process, reflecting the profound changes taking place in the Black community during the tumultuous years of the civil rights and Black Power movements. The recent success of African American offers an interesting contrast in this regard. Though by no means a modern coinage, African American achieved sudden prominence at the end of the 1980s when several Black leaders, including Jesse Jackson, championed it as an alternative ethnonym for Americans of African descent. The appeal of this term is obvious, alluding as it does not to skin color but to an ethnicity constructed of geography, history, and culture, and it won rapid acceptance in the media alongside similar forms such as Asian American, Hispanic American, and Italian American. But unlike what happened a generation earlier, African American has shown little sign of displacing or discrediting black, which remains both popular and positive. The difference may well lie in the fact that the campaign for African American came at a time of relative social and political stability, when Americans in general and Black Americans in particular were less caught up in issues involving radical change than they were in the 1960s. ·Black is sometimes capitalized in its racial sense, especially in the African-American press, though the lowercase form is still widely used by authors of all races. The capitalization of Black does raise ancillary problems for the treatment of the term white. Orthographic evenhandedness would seem to require the use of uppercase White, but this form might be taken to imply that whites constitute a single ethnic group, an issue that is certainly debatable. Uppercase White is also sometimes associated with the writings of white supremacist groups, a sufficient reason of itself for many to dismiss it. On the other hand, the use of lowercase white in the same context as uppercase Black will obviously raise questions as to how and why the writer has distinguished between the two groups. There is no entirely happy solution to this problem. In all likelihood, uncertainty as to the mode of styling of white has dissuaded many publications from adopting the capitalized form Black.
by Docta Peppa Gangsta Chimp4Life December 27, 2005
First Man. Soil of earth, breath of God, African American. Men who earned their Freedom, yet their Souls know.
by Déjà vu -ImAlreadyThere August 20, 2011
Another retarded Americanism which only displays the ignorance of the American mindset...
I'm a white person living in Africa. I guess I can call myself a American-African?
I'm a white person living in Africa. I guess I can call myself a American-African?
by Sanoz0r November 17, 2006
1)African American - generic terms for black people in America.
2) People who are being screwed by the government despite getting free money to attend college. Most of the grants that are given to African American are not full rides, so stop thinking they are. Also subject to predatory loans and Redlining.
3) Victims of Institutional Racism
2) People who are being screwed by the government despite getting free money to attend college. Most of the grants that are given to African American are not full rides, so stop thinking they are. Also subject to predatory loans and Redlining.
3) Victims of Institutional Racism
1) Oh look at the African American over there with his pants hanging down!
2) College board : " well congrats Drake, you've gotten our
Martin Luther King Grant."
Drake " Cool how much is it ?"
College Board : " $ 1,000"Drake " What?! It costs $5,000 to go here!"
College Board : " Sorry that the best we could do. you African American people never appreciate anything"
Drake " Damn honkeys, well i guess its time to call Sallie Mae"
2b) Realtor: " yes miss Jones i found you a place. "
Jones : " Okay thanks, where at?"
Realtor : " meet me and i ll show you "
Jones and Realtor go to location :
J : its all run down
R : Well it because your a high risk
J : Why because I'm African American ?
R : " exactly "
J : though isnt that illegal
R : nope its called redlining.
3 ) Fill out job applicaton to a office. Go in for an interview, they tell you to wait a couple of days and they 'll call you. You never get the call so you call back only to hear them say were sorry we were going to hire because of your resume but them when you came in for an interview we decided against it. "Why ?" hold on a second was it like because of something i said ?
Nope its because your African American
2) College board : " well congrats Drake, you've gotten our
Martin Luther King Grant."
Drake " Cool how much is it ?"
College Board : " $ 1,000"Drake " What?! It costs $5,000 to go here!"
College Board : " Sorry that the best we could do. you African American people never appreciate anything"
Drake " Damn honkeys, well i guess its time to call Sallie Mae"
2b) Realtor: " yes miss Jones i found you a place. "
Jones : " Okay thanks, where at?"
Realtor : " meet me and i ll show you "
Jones and Realtor go to location :
J : its all run down
R : Well it because your a high risk
J : Why because I'm African American ?
R : " exactly "
J : though isnt that illegal
R : nope its called redlining.
3 ) Fill out job applicaton to a office. Go in for an interview, they tell you to wait a couple of days and they 'll call you. You never get the call so you call back only to hear them say were sorry we were going to hire because of your resume but them when you came in for an interview we decided against it. "Why ?" hold on a second was it like because of something i said ?
Nope its because your African American
by BlackGrad11 August 1, 2011
An African-American is a “black” person that was born in America with an African descent. As an African-American I don’t really care about being called “black” or “African- American” even though some people do, and probably most of the people with this descent do. Just because we’re a different race doesn’t mean we’re not human, whether you’re “white” or “black” we’re all still American
by Howdidigethere? July 9, 2019
A politically correct term used in the United States for a black person. A black person could be 100% English but still be called African American by an American, even though they're neither African nor American.
by Jimmy Kickarse October 15, 2006
An ethnicity (not a race) that is equivalent to "Asian American" or "Latino/Hispanic American" and is used to designate the population descended from enslaved Africans in the US (and sometimes the Americas in general). It is not synonymous or interchangeable with "black" which is a racial category and may include African Americans (formerly Afro-Americans or American Negroes), Afro-Caribbean people, Afro-Latino people, or any other group that may be racially defined as black. The choice to identify as African American has nothing to do with nationality or race, but with a unique cultural heritage that developed in the US. Therefore, the critique that African Americans are not "African" because they were not born in Africa is irrelevant and as nonsensical as saying that a 10th generation Asian American is not Asian because they weren't born there- the titles are meant to recognize recent origins, current cultural practices, and identities that are distinct from mainstream white American culture (although its forms are often appropriated by mainstream white American culture).
White person who's terrified of difference and of really thinking about history because it means she has to acknowledge that her ancestors were pricks: "You're no more African than I am European."
African American: "That's true but the implications of someone looking at us and guessing that my ancestors were African and that yours were European are pretty freakin different, asshole. Read a history book and maybe you'll figure out why."
African American: "That's true but the implications of someone looking at us and guessing that my ancestors were African and that yours were European are pretty freakin different, asshole. Read a history book and maybe you'll figure out why."
by reading_rainbow February 27, 2012