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Brad Brickley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8301
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:37pm | IP Logged | 1
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Obama is luckier than a lot of African Americans in that he knows for sure that he has Kenyan blood, where as a lot of people that don't have that knowledge of their ancestry.
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Jeff Gillmer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 August 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1920
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | 2
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I didn't realize that Libby Dole received that much out-of-state money. I sit corrected. I was going by my own anecotatal evidence from the commercials I've aired over the last 3 months. The majority of Doles spots had the "I'm Elizabeth Dole and I approved this message" tag, while the majority (it seems) of Hagan's spots had "This message paid for by the get rid of Dole committee" or something similar.
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Marc Baptiste
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3633
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | 3
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I think Lars and Vinny are dead-wrong. White men seeking to tell an African-American man that he is NOT African-American or NOT African-American in today's lingo... good god.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 36483
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 4
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Hilarious!
Time for Change: A Promise Unfulfilled
For those who care: I worked with James Gunn (director of SLITHER, writer of DAWN OF THE DEAD remake) on SCREAM QUEENS. He's every bit as hilarious in person.
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8552
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 5
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Matt Reed wrote:
| I've never thought that was a defining characteristic of being
African-American. Would you really not call someone whose parents
immigrated to the US from Africa in the 80s and raised a family
African-American simply because they didn't live through the Civil
Rights movement or have ancestors dating back to the US slave trade?
What would you call them them?" |
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Wasn't trying to be contentious, Matt. And Geoff brings up a good point. I didn't mean to imply that what I wrote above was a criticism. Yes, of course he is African-American (well just half, more specifically). I wouldn't say "hardly" like Lars did, but his experience and background is different than most other Blacks in this country, so that may lead some to think that he's "not Black enough".
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Marcio Ferreira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2008
Location: Brazil
Posts: 2514
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | 6
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African-American
I believe that we went trough this before, since Obama was born in America, everybody should call him, just american, or if they want to reffer to the fact that his skin is not white, they should call him black.
But, Matt is correct when he says that for being son of an american woman and an african man, he can be called african-american.
Someone explained to me that the term African-American was crafted to describe people who did not came freely to US, but they were slaves, taken from their home lands against their will, so the term African-American, because they feel more african than american in a certain way and that is not President Obama's case (so cool that we can call him that now!!!).
Personally, I believe that one day terms that have the only purpose of stamp human beings into different categories are going to be abolished.
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Mark McKay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2300
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | 7
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I read Vinny's statement as two separate thoughts.
1.) America's definition of African American and the difference it takes on with a situation like Obama's parentage (i.e. his father being African, rather than African American). And,
2.) Barack Obama's African ancestors did not deal with the same experiences as the general African American population's ancestors.
Not that because of this he is somehow different, or that he hasn't had to deal with race relations in this country the same as everyone else.
Edited by Mark McKay on 05 November 2008 at 3:58pm
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 36483
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | 8
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Marcio Ferreira wrote:
| Someone explained to me that the term African-American was crafted to describe people who did not came freely to US, but they were slaves... |
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Then that person was wrong. It's just a racial subset every bit as much as Asian-American or Muslim-American is. I totally agree that, in the end, we all should just be called American because what is America if not a melting pot. "Melting" being the key word. Different races and backgrounds all coming together to form a single, unique entity and certainly not a bunch of different enclaves that just happen to share some land.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 36483
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | 9
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Mark McKay wrote:
| Barack Obama's African ancestors did not deal with the same experiences as the general African American population's ancestors. |
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And we know this...how? Kenya was a hub of slave trade for well over 400 years. To say that maybe/perhaps his ancestors don't date back to American slavery is being incredibly narrow minded. I find it hard to believe that they weren't somehow affected considering the centuries of slave trade originating in Kenya.
http://www.jambokenya.com/jambo/kenya/history5.htm
In any event, are we really going to argue such a semantic? That Obama lacks the "slave cred" of other black Americans?
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Paul Greer
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 18 August 2004
Posts: 14203
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | 10
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I have to shake my head everytime a white person talks about the black community thinking someone isn't "black enough". What the hell does that even mean? The man just won the election and the country has overcome a huge hurdle in regards to race, stop trying to bring up invented stereotypes and stupid questions in regards to someones "blackness". Nothing pisses me off more.
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Mark McKay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
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Posts: 2300
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | 11
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Matt,
No, no, you misunderstand me. Sorry, I wasn't trying to argue a point, I was just commenting on what I thought Vinny was trying to say.
I have no doubt that the experiences of African ancestors were similar, that they were victims of slavery every bit as much as African Americans, and that their history is every bit as impacted as African Americans are. South Africa is modern proof.
I guess I thought people were reading invective into Vinny's comments, and I was trying to say that I read it a different way, without invective intended.
Edit to add Matt's name above.
Edited by Mark McKay on 05 November 2008 at 4:13pm
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Marcio Ferreira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2008
Location: Brazil
Posts: 2514
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| Posted: 05 November 2008 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | 12
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I totally agree that, in the end, we all should just be called American
because what is America if not a melting pot. "Melting" being the key
word. Different races and backgrounds all coming together to form a single,
unique entity and certainly not a bunch of different enclaves that just
happen to share some land.
+++
Could not agree more. Because white people is not called European American, so why call black people African American? And what about South Americans? We are Americans too. I bet the italian Amerigo Vespucci never thought that his name would be so famous.
My family is quite a melting pot too. My father's family is in Brazil for centuries, while my mother is just the second generation of Spain immigrants. My wife was born in Brazil, but her mother was born in Shanghai and her father in a small town in China. Each of her three sisters were born in a different country, Taiwan, Paraguay and Argentina.
Our child will be a nice mix of cultures and genetic background.
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