Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by rayiner on Wednesday November 02, 2022 @10:50PM
(#33446361)
Different waves of immigration also makes a huge difference. I’m part of the wave of people from the subcontinent who came here from 1970-1995, largely before H1B was created. Most Indians I knew growing up were doctors or business owners who moved to southern states. Like most Asians until 2000, they voted Republican. Indians who came to Silicon Valley or NYC after 2000, by contrast, are a very different group who assimilated into a different domestic culture and had a different experience.
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by nanidin on Thursday November 03, 2022 @01:57AM
(#33447541)
When I was in 11th grade, an Egyptian-American had a future scholarship rescinded because she was not African American.
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by leereeves on Thursday November 03, 2022 @07:42AM
(#33449586)
That sounds silly, until you realize that "African-American" is just code for black, from a time when saying "black" was considered mildly racist.
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by tanseydavid on Thursday November 03, 2022 @01:19PM
(#33454276)
Seriously...What?!??!
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by leereeves on Thursday November 03, 2022 @01:33PM
(#33454496)
It doesn't make much sense anymore, but so it is:
> Most of us became familiar with the ethnonym African American in the 1980s, when Jesse Jackson began popularizing it as an alternative to black.
https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/4216-the-origin-of-a...
> African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa.
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by bolt7469 on Thursday November 03, 2022 @02:36PM
(#33455396)
Interesting example: Elon Musk is technically an "African American," except the word is actually used to mean Black American
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by jjtheblunt on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:17PM
(#33455975)
similarly, I think Charlize Theron has joked about the same for her, how confused the terminology is.
Re:American society is so focused on race that it is blind t...
by 93po on Thursday November 03, 2022 @02:07PM
(#33454981)
It's still mildly uncomfortable depending on how it's used. As a white guy I usually say "they're a black person" or "a person who's black" when referring to a non-specific person. Adding "person" I feel is helpful in the same way it's better to reference "a Jewish person" versus "a Jew"
* Black descendents of slaves vs African immigrants [1]
* Chinese Americans vs Hmong Americans (a higher poverty rate than Black Americans! [2])
* A Korean who grew up in Koreatown LA vs one who grew up in Utah
* A Boston Brahmin vs an impoverished White Virginian whose family members were targeted by eugenic boards
That said, Affirmative Action can reasonably make those from marginalized groups feel more welcome. In elementary school for example, I felt very out place among the largely affluent members of my accelerated math class. By contrast, I related much more to the mischievous truants who would later go on to be low-level criminals.
[1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/us/top-colleges-take-more...
[2] - https://tcf.org/content/commentary/misleading-data-policies-...