african\-american

african\-american
1. (african-american) (1349↑, 298↓)
The current, acceptable, feminist-certified, polically correct way to refer to anyone of african descent. Designed to eliminate any unintended racial tension in this hypersensitive, perpetually offended society we've become where people just can't lighten the fuck up anymore.

That's not a poor black guy dressed up as Santa Claus, that's an economically disadvantaged [african american] exercising the right to achieve monetary compensation by commercially benefiting from the eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival"

2. (African-American) (1001↑, 164↓)
A word mistakingly used everyday. Im a white guy, and I could technically be a african american if I was born in Africa, and thus, immigrate to America. Though black peoples roots are in Africa, they themselves were not born there. So that just makes them American, like everyone else born here.

I have a mostly german/scottish/irish/ french background, my roots are in europe, thus am I european American? Nah, im just American, because I was born here.

3. (African-American) (625↑, 163↓)
Politically correct term for black people.

‘I’m not frickin’ African American. I’m American. I have never been to Africa, and I never want to. I can barely tell you five countries in the stupid place.’ Black people aren’t offended by the word ‘black’. Only white people are. Which makes no sense whatsoever. Truthfully, if you came up to me and called me an ‘African American’ then I’d be offended, but if you called me ‘black’ I probably wouldn’t even notice.

4. (African-American) (407↑, 68↓)
A term commonly used to refer to American blacks, who by now are no more african than any other american.

"Now they're calling us African Americans," said Bill Cosby, "We used to be black."

5. (African-American) (301↑, 61↓)
1. A person, born on the continent of Africa, who becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. 2. The most commonly misused word, (albeit one deemed politically correct by people afraid to use the words "black" or "colored") describing the black population of the United States of America.

While Taneisha thought she was African-American, she was born right here in Lower Alabama.

Author: Bad, Bad, Leroy Jones http://african-american.urbanup.com/283941
6. (African-American) (253↑, 50↓)
A [euphemism] for "black" when referring to people. Used by [politically correct] morons who are afraid to use proper language in fear of offending someone.

Moron: He's African-American right? Me: No, he's BLACK.

7. (African-American) (186↑, 38↓)
A person who was originally from Africa who has been made a citizen of the United States. Note: Just because your great-great-great-grandpa was from Africa doesnt make you an African-American

Salif just moved here from Africa.

8. (african-american) (73↑, 18↓)
1) A politically correct term coined by cowardly white Americans who are afraid of offending blacks and are ashamed of being white. 2) A term that makes no sense, since 'African-American' implies that someone was born in Africa and immigrated to America. Therefore, since most blacks in America were born there, they would more correctly be called 'Blacks with African Ancestry'. Having been born in America, these blacks are simply 'Americans'. 3) A term which implies that all black people come from Africa (and that only black people come from Africa), even though black people come from many other parts of the world. 4) A term which singles out black people living in America from black people living elsewhere. 5) A term that even most black people find ridiculous.

1) White man 1: Look at that cool shirt that black guy is wearing. White man 2: SHHHHH\! He's not black\! He's African-American\! Don't be racist\! White man 1: Huh? How is that racist? 2) Most blacks referred to as 'African-Americans' have never been to, and will never be in Africa. 3) Would a person from Egypt be called African-American? Egypt is in Africa. How about a white person from South Africa? 4) Black people from France, Canada, England, Jamaica, Switzerland, Brazil, or even from Africa are 'black', but a black man from America is an 'African-American'. 5) The only black people I have ever heard referring to other blacks as 'African-Americans' were politicians, and even those are few and far between.

9. (african-american) (80↑, 29↓)
What people say when they dont want to say Black person. A dumb term, referring to a black person. I have no idea why we are called that. I mean...Im not African\! I was born in New York, I have never been to Africa in my life\! Why am I called African-American? They dont have a name like that for white people. But then again no body really knows where white ancestors came from...where do they come from? Did every white person always live in the US???

An African-American is a "person of color". Who's ancestors are probably from Africa. But just because they are called that does NOT make them African\!

10. (African-American) (69↑, 32↓)
A rather inaccurate term, used to describe a black American. On paper, it seems fairly sensible as [British]- [Asian] would be used as an ethnic description of Olympic boxer Amir Khan, as he is British but has parents from Asia (Pakistan). However, I don't need to tell anyone with half a brain there have been black people in the USA for hundreds of years who have about as much connection to Africa as I do to Bill Clinton just because I'm white. Think: could you see 50 Cent playing Senegalese folk music, phoning a witch doctor or conducting a "rain dance" with his (mostly black, I presume) G-Unit rapper mates? Nah\!\! No, so shut the hell up, Mr Politically Correct - you're playing into the racists' hands by using this definition\! (See [go back to Africa].) Another result of the [political correctness], which seems to have made about as useful a contribution to Western society as [AIDS.] D'oh\!\!

"Sorry, you can't say black, how about African-American?" - True statement made by a cop to a teenage friend of mine reporting a crime in the USA.

11. (African-American) (43↑, 10↓)
9 times out of 10, the "politically correct" way of referring to a Black person, even one who has never set foot outside of the US, and was born here. A completely misleading term for a couple of reasons: 1) the phrase implies you were born in Africa and then moved to the US. While that's the case for some, such as model Alek Wek, someone such as Chris Rock or myself, born in the US, is BLACK. 2) despite the stereotype, there ARE white people originally from Africa who move to the US, i.e. actress Charlize Theron. Although the phrase was coined primarily for Blacks, techically, Theron IS an African-American, or at least, more African-American than I am, in the literal sense of the word. The word is a roundabout way of calling someone Black because "Black" is considered offensive, even though the late [James Brown] said to "Say it loud...I'm Black and I'm proud." Even when someone says the term, you can tell they're trying their best to tiptoe around being offensive.

1. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama could be considered African-American, as his father is from Kenya. Jesse Jackson, on the other hand, is Black. 2. "Did you know that, in 2002, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry became the first African-Americans to win Best Actor and Actress Oscars in the same year?" ---"No, but I know they became the first BLACKS to win that award. Charlize Theron is the first African-American to win a Best Actress Oscar."

12. (African-American) (50↑, 20↓)
Latest [politically correct] term for a [black], [Negro], [colored] American with even a minuscule proportion of African descent

Jesse Jackson is losing his position as chief African-American spokesman to the flamboyant Al Sharpton

13. (african-american) (28↑, 4↓)
The "politically correct" term for someone with dark skin. Never mind that not all black people are African, and that not all Africans are black.

This black boy is "African-American"... never mind that he's from Jamaica.

14. (african-american) (53↑, 33↓)
The current politically correct term to describe black people.The term for black people has evolved from "nigger" to "negro" to "colored" to "black" to "african-american",and as offensive as some of these terms are today,they were once widely used and accepted.

Thomas is an English guy,Marcy is an Irish chick,Manuel is a mexican dude,and Tyrone is an african-american dude.

15. (African-american) (21↑, 9↓)
The politically correct way how to describe a black person. I don't really mind but why should I be called an African American when I wasn't born in Africa, never been to Africa, and am not a legal citizen of any countries in Africa? Because if thats true, then white people should be called European Americans and asian people should be called Asian Americans.

On an Internet Forum: Me: Im black. P.C. Person: You mean African-American. Me: No, I may be of African decent but I dont have any connections with Africa otherwise, cause in that case i should call you a European American. P.C. Person: You mean white person right? Me: No you dumb asshole\! *loads gun*

16. (African-American) (9↑, 0↓)
Actual definition is: any black person who is a descendant of black American slaves and lives in America. It is often incorrectly used to refer to black people who came to this country of their own free will from Africa as well as any other country is the world. The second definition is any person who moves to America from Africa.

That man is a descendant of slaves, so if you want to be politically correct use African-American when referring to him.

17. (african-american) (25↑, 18↓)
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.

Docta Peppa Gangsta Chimp4Life is not African American.

Author: Docta Peppa Gangsta Chimp4Life http://african-american.urbanup.com/964504
18. (African-American) (17↑, 15↓)
According to the United States government, African-Americans (Black Americans) are: "Residents or citizens of the United States, who have biological origins in any black ethnic group on the continent of Africa" What African-American does not mean: 1) It does not mean that blacks born in the U.S. are African. It means that these Americans are of African descent. A specific country of origin cannot be named because enslaved Africans were stripped of their culture. 2) It does not apply to people who come from Africa, unless they are biologically African (i.e. Black) 3) Legally it does apply to blacks from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.....as long as they reside within the borders of the United States.

Notable African-Americans include Bill Cosby, El Haji Malik El Shabbaz, Martin Luther King, and Medgar Evers Person \#1 - Is a white person from Nigeria, who lives in the U.S., an African-American? Me- Legally no they are not. That person would be considered a White Nigerian-American.

19. (African-American) (7↑, 6↓)
African-American is an (ETHNICITY), just as valid as Italian-American, German-American, Japanese-American Kenyan-American, Nigerian-American, Egyptian-America etc. The Black Americans that are *descendants* of African slaves that were FORCED to come to America, NOT to be confused with Africans that (VOLUNTARILY) *immigrated* to America AFTER slavery ended.

Not all Blacks in America are African-American. President Barack Obama is NOT an African-American, he knows that his father is from Kenya and that his mom is American thus he is *Kenyan-American* his wife is African-American. Also American Blacks are called BLACK for 'general purposes' however, "African-American" for FORMAL purposes ie, job applications, legal documentation etc.

20. (african-american) (10↑, 11↓)
While the term 'African American' may seem nothing more than a PC term for 'blacks,' it does carry a signficant amount of social implications. It is inappropriate and quite uneducated to assume that an entire group of people should be degraded to the description of a color, namely black. The term is referring to an entire race of people who have historically undergone discrimination, oppression, segregation and slavery in THIS country for over 3 centuries. Thus, the label 'African American' subsequently emerged as a response to the overwhelming amount of racism still prevalent in modern society. It attempts to erradicate previous racist notions that non-whites are somehow (even biologically) inferior to whites. It also attempts to provide them with a certain heritage as well as a respect for a socially disadvantaged group who still face de facto discrimination. (side note- I am not black or African American, I am actually a member of a privileged race, for those of you who think only a 'black' person should give a damn about the subordination of others, and the violation of our Constitution's equal protection clauses- see 14th amendment. Feel free to look up any terms you may be confused about- in fact, they designed wikipedia for ignorant individuals such as yourself)

Educated people, or perhaps only Harvard grads, do not refer to others in terms of the amount of melanin in their skin. They have moved beyond, or evolved so to speak, PAST the concept of race. Connotating 'African-American' with one's actual descent is not only irrational, but clearly misses the point. Caucasians are presumed to be of European decent, wheras the majority cannot afford a passport to travel outside of the U.S. border.

21. (african-american) (4↑, 10↓)
A word obviously disliked by most of the people on urban dictionary for being 'politically correct'. While that may be true, it is no less 'proper english' than the use of the word black for people who are usually varying shades of brown and tan. If the word is so detestable maybe we shouldn't use hypenated-american terms at all. Should we refer to chinese americans as yellows now? Or JFK as the first redhead catholic president? The truth is that african-american is suited to some situations and black is suited to other situations. Just like caucasian americans are routinely refered to both as white and by terms like 'english-american'. Just because africans were brought on ships hundreds of years ago doesn't make that heritage any less important to a black person as european heritage to a white person.

"Look at me. I'm black. Look at my black skin" - Colin Powell African is a useful term for implying geographical heritage. There are people in South East Asia who for all purposes look like what we know as 'black people'. When refering to the geographical origin of the american black population african-american is a useful term.

22. (african-american) (28↑, 39↓)
African-american people who deserve to be treated just like any other person. People how have minds too and that should be judged by their personality instead of the color of their skin at first glance. People who are great if you get to know them(that was for the racist, regardless of your color). I'm SO proud of being afrian-american.

African-Americans are just like every other good person in the world. Just like that white soccer mom that can do no harm(in some cases).

23. (african-american) (14↑, 26↓)
A very derogatory and almost obsolete way to refer to a nigger. This term was most often used in the south during the days of slavery, before the NAACP told us that "nigger" was a friendlier way to refer to these people.

Hey look at all of those african.... oh um i mean niggers on the side of the street trying to steal that guy's car. (african-american)

24. (African-American) (53↑, 66↓)
A term meant to describe Americans of African origin. The term 'Black' and its predecessor 'Negro' have fallen out of favor due to a plethora of reasons, most particularly the terms 'Black' and 'Negro' do not define a specific place since Asians could be defined as Black, see [Vijay Singh], moreover the term Negro which fell out of favor decades ago because it failed to properly represent a place African Americans could relate to. The term 'African American' has fallen into the acceptable realm of a proper definition because it defines a place, it defines a region where Africans are one. Which begs the question, why would Americans of African ethnicity WANT to assocciate themselves with a place other than America? Simply put, slavery, [Jim Crow] and continued disenfranchizement of African Americans has led them to create a moniker as a defence mechanism, a way to associate with others of their kind in collective objection to American 'White' culture as a whole. The numerous entries on this thread detailing the ineffectual and unneccessary use of the term [African American] clearly shows the lack of understanding whites have about people of African ethnicity. Perhaps people should get to know an African American, get to know them before passing judgements and making childish and inane comments about how people choose to refer to themselves.

I am a proud African American. Irrespective of the fact that I have no relatives in Africa, the people in that region of the world are closer to me than any American of euro-trash ancestry ever will be.

25. (African-American) (18↑, 32↓)
The polite term for those of African descent who are legal citizens of the U.S.

/Do you really need one?/

26. (African-American) (38↑, 67↓)
1. A polite way around saying the word "[nigger]". 2.A term to describe people of even the most remote [African] descent.

I'm black, and I want to be called African-American, whether I am totally ignorant of both current and past African culture or not.

Related: black, nigger, negro, african, nigga, white, racist, black person, coon, african american, gangsta, ghetto, american, race, racism, spook, colored, asian, hispanic, afro-american, black people, mexican, nig, niggers, rap, wigger, culture, darkie, jigaboo, jungle bunny, monkey, niglet, politically correct, porch monkey, spade, africa, caucasian, dick, ebonics, obama
Last updated: 2012.02.29

Urban English dictionary. 2013.

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