<p>The constant use of the term "foreign" makes me uncomfortable. Not all of these students are foreigners.</p>
<p>One of my daughter's classmates is an immigrant from Ghana who became a U.S. citizen, along with the rest of her family, several years ago. When she goes to college next fall, she should be considered an American, not an international student.</p>
<p>And I really don't know any way to describe her background other than African American. </p>
<p>If she had come here from Korea and become a U.S. citizen, she would be considered Asian American, wouldn't she? So how can there be a problem with an immigrant from Ghana, who is now a U.S. citizen, being considered African American?</p>
<p>And yes, this girl will probably end up at an elite school. She's a National Merit Finalist -- why wouldn't she choose a selective college?</p>
<p>Marian, did you read and understand my post, #18? Do you deny the cultural/historical dichotomy separating African-Americans [the decendants of enslaved Americans] and African immigrants to America and their progeny? </p>
<p>As a comparison, think of the term Nisei. Do second-generation Americans of Japanese descent have the same cultural circumstances as recent immigrants from Japan? I don't think so and the many Japanese-descent neighbors and friends I have would also disagree.</p>
<p>I understand the distinction you are making, LakeWashington, but I don't like the idea that my daughter's friend, who is a naturalized American citizen who was born in Africa, should be considered any less "American" than any other American citizen -- or any less welcome at American colleges.</p>
<p>And if we want to distinguish the descendants of enslaved people from the descendants of people of African ethnicity who lived in either Africa or the Caribbean during the time when slavery was practiced in the U.S., we need better terminology than "African American."</p>
<p>If the term "African American" is reserved only for the descendants of people who were enslaved in the U.S., then there is no term that my daughter's friend can use to describe her ethnicity. She was born in Africa. She is, ethnically, a black African. She is an American now. She has to call herself something.</p>
<p>I'm picking up a certain hostility against African-immigrant or Caribbean-immigrant students, and that's what bugs me.</p>
<p>I don't understand your Japanese comparison, I'm afraid. I live in the East, where there are practically no people of Japanese origin. The Asian Americans here are mostly either Chinese or Korean, and they don't seem to make any effort to distinguish recent immigrants from those whose ancestors have lived in the U.S. for several generations. A Chinese kid is a Chinese kid, regardless of whether that kid's grandparents grew up in Beijing or San Francisco.</p>
<p>I have no animosity and I don't think that any animus can fairly be interpreted from my statements.</p>
<p>There's a relevant point in your observation about the Chinese community. That is, a native of China that immigrates to the U.S. is obviously imbued with (for a time, at least) the culture of his home country. On the other hand, Africa is not a country or nation. Thus, the young woman you speak of is a Ghanian-American and the ethos her family brought with them to the U.S. is distinctly from Ghana. Too often in the U.S. we prefer short-hand in our language because it is presumed convenient. We tend to throw entire groups of people together and by doing so we seek to remove or eliminate their distinctiveness. To Wit...'Asian-American,' not stopping to consider the identities and cultural assets of various peoples of Asia. And incidentally, some folks are offended by the term 'black African' because it reminds some of the colonial and racist era when the phrase "Darkest Africa' was widely used. No, not all sub-Saharan Africans are upset by these words, but I you see my point; in America, which was for so long dominated by white Anglo-Saxon perspectives and biases, to the exclusion of nearly all else, at times pundits, opinion-makers etc. still seek to marginalize people by diminishing their distinctiveness. Some colleges marginalize the diversity issue by hearlding statistics describing the number of immigrant enrollees on campus. There is an inherent distinctiveness in the word 'African-American,' which I related in my earlier post.</p>