African-american "Geeks"

[Tyler]

Apparently, teachers here aren't meant to refer to the "Blackboard" or "Whiteboard" in schools now - it's just "the board". I think that's taking it a little far....

Yeah we got told off in secondary school for saying Blackboard, it's a Chalk board, White board was ok though, you can't be racist at white people.

Wouldn't that line be racistic of itself

Really, you can take things too far. Next you can't even use black as a color anymore.

It reminds me of that time when somebody thought about forbidding the name of a dutch brand of cookies because it had the word 'negroid' in it. That just gives things the wrong kind of attention. That the negroid race has a black skin is simply a fact. Racism only happens when you treat that group differently for a reason that is completely irrelevant: the color of one's skin is a very poor measure for how well one can actually perform a job.

Respect is key.

You'll be really sad the day you read up on Affirmative Action.

[madeofstaples]

I don't really get it myself. 'Africa' isn't even a country. ('Zimbabwean-American' would make more sense, for example.)

America is not a country

oh please....yeah the earth is simply 10 billion years old because no evidence supports it, good reasoning!

On the contrary, scientific theories are based on evidence, that's the whole point.

[Alboin]

I don't really get it myself. 'Africa' isn't even a country. ('Zimbabwean-American' would make more sense, for example.)

America is not a country

A·mer·i·ca (ə-měr'ĭ-kə)
1. The United States.
[...]

A·mer·i·can /əˈmɛrɪkən/ –adjective
1. of or pertaining to the United States of America or its inhabitants: an American citizen.
[...]

[madeofstaples]

I don't really get it myself. 'Africa' isn't even a country. ('Zimbabwean-American' would make more sense, for example.)

America is not a country

A·mer·i·ca (ə-měr'ĭ-kə)
1. The United States.
[...]

A·mer·i·can /əˈmɛrɪkən/ –adjective
1. of or pertaining to the United States of America or its inhabitants: an American citizen.
[...]

America usually means either:

• The Americas, the lands and regions of the Western hemisphere
• The United States of America, a country in the Americas

You'll notice that the first entry talks about the entire region of the Americas, and the second entry disambiguates to the Untied States, while not including "America" in the link and farther using the preposition "of" to show that it is only part of the Americas. Same deal with the entry for American.

[Tyler]

You'll notice that the first entry talks about the entire region of the Americas, and the second entry disambiguates to the Untied States, while not including "America" in the link and farther using the preposition "of" to show that it is only part of the Americas. Same deal with the entry for American.

No... if it was showing that it is only part of the North American Continent, it would also list all the other countires. I've never been to a place or met a person who didn't think of the United States when using the term Ameria, even many non-English Speaking countries.

EDIT: Until now. Also, A) i can't believe you actually argued the point when you probably know that everyone uses the term but don't like it. B) I can't believe you used Wikipedia as "proof" and C) I can't believe you didn't bother to look up what the term disambiguation meant.

[madeofstaples]

No... if it was showing that it is only part of the North American Continent, it would also list all the other countires.

Not necessarily, see the last part about disambiguation, which you perhaps should've looked up.

I've never been to a place or met a person who didn't think of the United States when using the term Ameria, even many non-English Speaking countries.

I won't argue that that's not what people mean, but he was splitting hairs over people using Africa because it's not a country. Plus, I have seen people argue that United States citizens should not get the title "American."

EDIT: Until now. Also, A) i can't believe you actually argued the point when you probably know that everyone uses the term but don't like it.

I don't mind it, I've probably used it myself.

B) I can't believe you used Wikipedia as "proof"

You've never seen that before either?

and C) I can't believe you didn't bother to look up what the term disambiguation meant.

I didn't have to, why do you think it's used incorrectly? when so many people use "America" to mean citizens of the United States even though America technically entails much more, isn't a disambiguation in order?

[Wave]

If you call the tail of a sheep a leg, how many legs does a sheep have? Of course four. Just because you call it a leg doesn't make it a leg.

You people from the USA, you don't own the whole continent. Get over it.

[madeofstaples]

If you call the tail of a sheep a leg, how many legs does a sheep have? Of course four. Just because you call it a leg doesn't make it a leg.

You people from the USA, you don't own the whole continent. Get over it.

Haha, thank you, I'm from the United States (Michigan, as my location will tell <--), but I made my comments almost certain that more people were privy to this argument...

as I wake completely up I realize it might not have been clear, and I made the assumption that those who read my post would do the appropriate critical thinking, so here's a breakdown: I'm not really passionate about the term "America," but was rather making a point regarding Albion's original statement regarding the term "African-American" not making sense to him because Africa is not a country.

There are two main points to take from this: the word "America," even though it doesn't necessarily indicate a citizen of the united states (I don't care if you don't agree--go with it for this part of the point), is used that way in just the same way "African-American" is used for people with darker skin who aren't even (recent, see Bryant-Inc's comment) descendants of Africa, but to indicate someone with darker skin.

The second part was that the type of reigion doesn't matter as long as it's a familiar geographical region -- I believe there was a study that showed that a significant amount of Americans (both senses, so interpret how you will) cannot name more than, I think it was 3 African countries. Indeed, when people try to categorize things, they will do it based on basic/obvious differences (I'd cite a textbook but I think most will just agree...). Color of the skin is obvious, physiological differences (if any) between random African countries is not something of which we naturally keep track. In other words, when you say "African-American", nobody's going to be like "what!?! I don't get it! so they are American and they came from Afirca--but which country in Africa?!?!?!" because it doesn't matter, because we don't make any associations that would imply it is important to know the exact country in order to know a certain fact about the person in question (unless, perhaps, Africa is part of your field of study -- which is obviously a different story).

I guess I also made another assumption, and this one perhaps stupidly with a geekier crowd, and that is that you would be familiar with the arguments about whether or not the term America should indicate citizens of the united states or not -- and in that respect, my comment was supposed to be somewhat anecdotal, but I guess that was all for naught.

Now this might be another topic, but I find myself particularly interested in the reply about "using wikipedia as proof" instead of some company-sponsored, published information? I never got the idea that using a source edited by one or several associated people (clear bias) is somehow better than a source edited by many (bias evened out) and those edits overlooked by those who have shown integrity with regard to keeping accurate information with as little bias as possible, not to mention the citations, and the ability to roll back edits.

[Brynet-Inc]

You people from the USA, you don't own the whole continent. Get over it.

Speaking as a Canadian, I couldn't agree with you more... although, I wouldn't "want" to refer to myself as an "American"..

I already have enough nightmares as it is.

[Wave]

(Of course african-american makes sense even if they aren't countries.)

[inflater]

I already have enough nightmares as it is.

A worst nightmare for a typical American would be if he would wake up somewhere more than 5000 km far away, seeing a billboard "Welcome to Slovakia"? I think his first words would be "Where the **** am I?!"

[Brynet-Inc]

A worst nightmare for a typical American would be if he would wake up somewhere more than 5000 km far away, seeing a billboard "Welcome to Slovakia"? I think his first words would be "Where the **** am I?!"

The signs are in English? ...

[inflater]

The signs are in English?

I think they must be... for foreigners and such. "If I were bad, I'll correct myself" (is it said good? )

//EDIT: Don't forget to tell our imaginary American friend, that when he would see a billboard named "Vitajte na Slovensku", he's right: he's totally lost.

[bloodhound23]

"If I was incorrect" I think it should be said

[Tyler]

Not necessarily, see the last part about disambiguation, which you perhaps should've looked up.

Oh, so you admit Americans is a term used to refer to Unied States Citizens? Glad to hear it, because you never claimed to simply think it shouldn't be used;be silly of you to continue that line of arguing or pretend you always meant this.