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<p>Quoted for agreement. It’s important to note that well over half of “white” Americans have ancestors who didn’t arrive on the shores of North America until a lot of earlier-arriving black people’s effort and ingenuity had made North America prosper more than Europe. It was a team effort to make the United States a worthy country to emigrate to, and the ancestors of today’s black people deserve their full share of credit for that.</p>
<p>^^ But why are you crediting their descendants? Very few people who live in the U.S> and fought in teh Civil Rights today are our peers. We should credit those who actually did the work and not their descendants. These are two different categories of people. As for the disgustingly broad generalization: “white professors at Universities are resentful, suspicious and uncomfortable around Black Americans” that is definitely wrong. That statement seems to invalidate your entire state IMO…</p>
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<p>I agree that that statement is definitely wrong, as I know many counterexamples. Anyone making such a statement could not possibly have data to show that such a statement is true in general.</p>
<p>Thank goodness that among intellectuals (including college admissions officers) and others with a knowledge of history and cultural events it is now broadly accepted that in the United States, the term ‘African-American’ refers to the contemporary descendants of the Africans spirited away to the New World (continent of North America) in bondage from approximately 1619 to the end of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade in North America in the mid-19th century. Being born in aywhere in Africa in the late 20th Century and subsequently raised or resettling in the U.S. does not make one an African-American.</p>
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<p>This may be some people’s usage, but the original question that opened this thread was about the federal regulations in the United States for self-identification of ethnicity and race on a college application. For that purpose, </p>
<p>[U.S</a>. Department of Education; Office of the Secretary; Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the U.S. Department of Education [OS]](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html]U.S”>http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html) </p>
<p>[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm) </p>
<p>the federal regulations make “black” and “African-American” exact synonyms, so that the OP can designate that race, as can any black person in the United States, whether the descendant of many generations of American-born descendants of antebellum slaves or a first-generation immigrant from Africa who now has permanent residence in the United States.</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned the OP is African American. He/she was born in the US his/her parents are from Eritrea which is in Africa. The whole Eritrean American could be used but in general African American is the box you would check. Yes there is a difference between AA’s of recent ancestry and AA’s whose ancestors were slave’s, but we are all African Americans. I’m technically a Cameroonian American but I don’t go around calling myself that cuz 1) some people in my town can’t spot it on a map LOL 2) Cameroon is in Africa, I was born here in the US, therefore making me African American. I could expand on this but I have no time:/ gotta get ready for college :)</p>
<p>I disagree with that, we are the same people, they are our mothers, fathers. uncles etc. If you think the could be as strong as they were and not instill some values in their offspring i’m sorry to hear that. Some of us are lost, as are some africans. But we have college graduates as well, maybe you haven’t heard of HBCU’S . Historically Black Colleges and Universites where the education there is just as good as Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth or any of the others. White don’t always mean right. What we need to do is stop trying to distance ourselves more-(Blacks of the Diaspora) and think of more ways to get together. But again we have that same fiery spirit of those who came before us. BUT THEY BELONG TO US ALL, THEY FOUGHT FOR US ALL.</p>
<p>^I lol’d at that post. I don’t think you intended it to be funny, but still. We are pretty similar, as much of the African Diaspora comes from West Africa. But Etritrea isn’t in West Africa–it’s in the East. That’s not where the majority of the Diaspora comes from. Ahem. Now on to freewheeling commentary.</p>
<p>There was an article about a Haitian community in Savannah that bought a statue to commemorate the ~500 Haitians who fought at Savannah, GA, during the American Revolution. All my relatives like to bring this up to discuss how Haiti is the reason we have a United States of America today. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Here it is: [Hundreds</a> Turn Out for Unveiling of New Haitian Memorial Monument - WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports |](<a href=“http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7184862]Hundreds”>http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7184862)</p>
<p>Just my own $.02: I am Haitian. Not Haitian-American, not African-American, but Haitian. And until the INS approves my application for citizenship, that’s what I’ll be. 
America has given me a lot of opportunities, far more than I would have had in my native land. And, like Barack Obama likes to say, only in this nation would my story be possible. However, I owe Haiti for all the lessons it has given me, both in courage and in the power of human endurance, and what I learn in the U.S. will be used to help those in my homeland. For were it not for the grace of God, I could have been one of those that remained.</p>
<p>It’s nice to think of things in terms of unity and all, but let’s take off the rose-colored glasses, shall we?</p>