paulmcuk
Posts: 80
Joined: 4/16/2011
Status: offline
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Ok, this has been discussed before but not for a year so I don't apologise for bringing it up anew.
For those who aren't aware, the ethnicity categories when signing up to CM are:
Caucasian
Asian
Hispanic
Indian
Middle Eastern
Native American
African American
Mixed
Other
The anomoly of the African American category is that black people who aren't Americans must either choose to say that they are, or opt for the rather vague "Other" category.
Now, as you can see from the picture on the left, this isn't a problem that affects me directly, but I still find it odd. I've always felt it so but it was reinforced yetserday when I looked at a new UK user's profile. There was no picture but she had selected "Other". I liked the profile and saved it to my favourites for future reference. When I came back, she had changed the ethnicity marker to "African American". Clearly neither was felt ideal.
Earlier discussions I read didn't really seem to resolve the key issue so I decided to set up a poll to gauge views. The poll is tongue-in-cheek but I think if I were a black British (or Canadian or whatever) person I'd be royally irked. I did chat to one black British member who gave a resigned shrug and said she finally opted for "Other", but wasn't very satisfied by the choices.
It seems that in ensuring that it adopts the correct inclusive term for black Americans, CM has by default EXcluded non-American black people, who must hunt around for the least worst alternative. Maybe it's a legacy of when CM was basically US only. Or perhaps it's simply thoughtlessness - it's amazing how many Americans come over to the UK and refer to black British people as African Americans without even realising what they're saying. (Suddenly I wonder if they go to Africa and refer to black people there as African Americans too.)
So I'd be very interested to hear from non-American black members about how they feel about the categories? Angry? Mildly peeved? Couldn't give a stuff?
While we're on the subject, can anyone explain when it became bad to be "Black"? When I was growing up it was all "Black and proud" and "Black is beautiful". Then it's like some committee decided "Black" was a bad word.
While people have a right to adopt whatever label they prefer, "African American" always struck me as an unsatisfactory one. Like it's suggesting that they're not real Americans. I know you get Irish American, Italian American etc but those labels seem to be used only when necessary (As in "So what are your family origins?") and not as generically or universally as African American. Most white Americans seem happy to be just Americans, and describe themselves as white only when a physical description is called for.
PS: I think signing up to CM is the only time I've ever described myself as "Caucasian". It's ironic that the "correct" term for white people is one which is almost never used in informal discourse while the one for black Americans is one that is almost obligatory.
PPS: I remember seeing a documentary a few years ago in which an African American academic noted the ever changing labels (Negro > Coloured > Black > African American) and suggested that the search for the "right" term hadn't ended. She predicted that "Nubian" would be next in line.
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Should CM have a "Black" ethnicity category? - 
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