Quote:
Originally Posted by ✌➬
A gay.
Cotton Picker.
Wetback
Fudge-packer.
Nigger.
Spics.
|
African-American.
two reasons, a) unless you are talking about an actual African such as a Nigerian or a Cape Verdean, then perhaps you are using the wrong term. black folks in America are not from Africa. It is a politically correct term that is politically incorrect. further
b) if you pay attention closely there is a distinct vocal pause, and accentuated moment of hesitation, that comes to people and is obvious on their faces before they use such a term "african american". Now I am not saying that their first thought was "nigger" but, that they had a first thought which they believed inappropriate enough to dig into their memory vaults and pull out some PC nonsense tells me that they have put to much emphasis on blackness to begin with. in their mind, they have categorized black people as being "other" and they have to come to terms with this literally, rather then simply thinking of black folk as like themselves, unhyphenated Americans. Even worse, if you stigmatize blackness in your mind by using PC euphamisms to speak to black people, then you might find yourself internalizing this stigmatization, and find yourself avoiding black people, first in yr mind, and then in your life, as you have ascribed them to the uncomfortable category of "other"
this is how racism becomes institutionalized to begin with. In the history of the Americas, blacks were not "others" from the start. in fact, in the 16th and 17th century, indian girls in spanish occupied Americas would marry slaves because the black men held a higher social status, though enslaved, then did indian men in spanish colonial society. however, as cultural racism evolved, it institutionalized itself, and blackness became the negative. this starts small, in the minds of everyday people, who begin to think negatively about blackness until eventually they are fully racist.
political correctness further creates and perpetuates the conceptualization and experience of "otherness" and classifying people as "others"
it also can happen with, say Arabs or Jews. You can attack Islam or Judaism and cultural elements of these people, until eventually you just hate the people in general and not the culture at all. at the very least, in stigmatizing the people with the concepts of "political correctness" and avoiding "political uncorrectness" people begin to develop racist habits of avoidance. that is my two scents. just watch people for yourself. watch the way for example, in a class room setting, the teacher when talking about black history or issues, uses the term "black" freely without stigmatization if no black people are in the room, however, when black folks are around, the teacher loses their composure, and use several terms interchangeably, and noticeably drop the "african-american" bomb. it even stammers out of their mouths like a word they never use, like if your conservative grandmother cussed you out, it just sound awkward and silly. Further, do they use several interchangeable terms for whiteness, such as "caucasion" and "white-american" and "European descent" in the same paragraph? no, and yet, you might hear someone say "black" "african-american" and "black-american" in the same fucking sentance! overcompensating a bit much I might say....
