Why are black people, called African American? Options

[Kontroll]

I never really liked the term African American, first of all because its just an easy way out instead of calling a person black. Because saying some one is black is closely related to racism, some how.

Technically all people who come from Africa aren't black. If you're Egyptian and you live in America, what are you?

Another problem is that if you're born in the US and you're black, then you're not at all African American. That term only denotes that you previously resided in Africa and moved to the US.

Please discuss to further my knowledge and understanding. Thank you. Oh, and if there is already a topic about this, then close this one. Thank you.

[Comptine]

the reason why many people think the term black is racist is because using the color of a person's race can become racist. for blacks and whites, it's already part of everyday vocabulary. even the two races themselves accept the terms. however, using a color to refer someone's race can become racist in other areas. it's racist to call an asian person yellow or native americans red. the problem is that color as a identify is a risky title that varies from race to race.

african-american is just a term to describe a group of people whose ANCESTORS were from the sub-saharan part of africa.

i'm asian-american but i was born here. just like african-american, the term asian-american describes where my family was from. not necessarily that i was born in asia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_american

african-american and other hypenated americans sprung up when people wanted to describe themselves more than just americans. the first term is usually about their ancestry, not necessarily their previous country/region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_Americans

it changes from person to person. some african-americans don't like being called black or being labeled back. the term 'black' brings us back to waybackwhen - when all someone saw was someone's skin color.

nevertheless, the terms black and white has ingrained into our vocabulary. the best we can do is be careful to whom we use the terms to. some african-americans don't care about the term 'black' and other's do.