You Forgot Your Common Sense

This is one I get often, the politically correct name to call people, primarily people of color. Here’s the thing, different people prefer different things! African-American is meant to recognize the African ancestry of all Americans with African heritage, whether they immigrated from Kenya last week or are descended from slaves brought to America in the 1500s.

“Ethnic descriptions used in hyphenation with ”American” are best reserved for immigrants or first-generation Americans.” – Bloomberg. So in layman’s terms if you came to the US from another country you can be considered a blank (fill in ethnicity here) –American or if your parents were from another country and moved here you can be considered a blank-American. Other than those two examples you’re simply an American. 

For me, here is where it all made sense, 9/11/2001, terrorists weren’t trying to kill African- Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans (the list goes on) or Caucasians,(y’all tried that term, didn’t last too long (honestly, cause no one could spell that shit!))   they simply wanted to kill AMERICANS.

A person’s ethnicity; is based on a group (called an ethnic group) that is normally based on similar traits, such as a common language, common heritage, and cultural similarities within the group. Which is not their race; race is similar to ethnicity, but relates more to the appearance of a person, especially the color of their skin. Race is determined biologically, and includes other inherited genetic traits such as hair and eye color and bone and jaw structure. Neither of these have anything to do with the nationality;nationality refers to the place where the person was born and/or holds citizenship. However, often times nationality can be determined by place of residence, ethnicity, or national identity.

Don’t know what to call someone, ask! or use the politically correct term first and again ask if that okay or let them correct you. You really wanna know what to call me, try my damn NAME!