African American is a phrase commonly used to identify black Americans, and society has tried to prove to us in many ways that this is the correct terminology to categorize black people. I, however, believe the phrase African American should be eliminated from everyone’s vocabulary in its uses to identify the black American people. There is nothing immoral about calling blacks black, just as there is nothing wrong with calling whites white.
For my visual argument, I came across this picture by searching the phrase “black history month” on Google. It did not really surprise me to find an image of this sort because it is not uncommon for the black American community to try to identify themselves with the continent of Africa. Black History Month started in 1926 in the United States as a tribute to African Americans (how ironic, that Black History Month is a tribute to African Americans). So therefore, the image is backwards, because they have images of famous black Americans (or as they call African AMERICANS) in a background of Africa. Shouldn’t this be a background of America? Not only is Black History Month, an American celebration (Canadian as well), but it is also an acknowledgment to the struggles and triumphs black Americans, not Africans, experienced and the good they have done for the United States.
For my visual argument, I came across this picture by searching the phrase “black history month” on Google. It did not really surprise me to find an image of this sort because it is not uncommon for the black American community to try to identify themselves with the continent of Africa. Black History Month started in 1926 in the United States as a tribute to African Americans (how ironic, that Black History Month is a tribute to African Americans). So therefore, the image is backwards, because they have images of famous black Americans (or as they call African AMERICANS) in a background of Africa. Shouldn’t this be a background of America? Not only is Black History Month, an American celebration (Canadian as well), but it is also an acknowledgment to the struggles and triumphs black Americans, not Africans, experienced and the good they have done for the United States.
Peculiarly, there is actually only one African in this picture, and that happens to be Nelson Mandela. Even though, Frederick Douglas was a slave, not only was he born in America, but his father was also white.
It just interests me that this image would try to associate an American celebration, with American people, minus one, to Africa. This image just does not display a very feasible description of Black History Month.
When I found the video "The Term 'African-American' Sucks" on Youtube, I was really excited because at first I could only find blacks commenting on the phrase African American, and I finally I came across a white guy who shared the same opinion as I do. I apologize for the slight use of vulgarity heard in this video, but I feel he was just relating to today’s young adults. However, I feel his video was rather bland and lacked creativity, as did most of the videos I came across on this topic.
It seemed as though this video was just a person’s effortless and simplistic attempt to express his feelings; on the other hand, with time and creativity, his video could actually be effective, especially to those who may strongly disagree or those who really have no opinion on the topic at all. The speaker really stated some solid facts on the opposition to the phrase African-American in his video, and the fact that he is white, could display to others that some blacks are not the only ones that are opposed to this phrase, and that it really is invalid.
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