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I have been reading that "Black American" is taking precedence as the newest, best preferred term over "African American." Is either acceptable in most articles right now? Iljhgtn ( talk) 18:56, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
Hello @ Rsk6400,
You reverted my edit which placed the Black American Heritage Flag in the lead infobox, saying that the flag is not universally accepted. Would you have any sources to back up your claim?
I can't find anything saying the flag is universally accepted as well, though I did get flooded with a lot of results on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/black-american-heritage-flag
There have also been at least two instances, that made the news, where the flag was incorporated into fashion: https://girlsunited.essence.com/article/saweetie-met-gala-filipino-black-culture/ and https://www.milwaukeemag.com/this-milwaukee-native-won-the-united-states-of-america-ms-pageant/ Evaporation123 ( talk) 03:10, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Sgt. Samuel Smith, African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for February 1, 2025. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2025-02-01. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! — Amakuru ( talk) 12:11, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or Black Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the third largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people, having West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry. This ambrotype depicts African American Union soldier Sgt. Samuel Smith, of the 119th United States Colored Troops, with his family in c. 1863–65. Ambrotype credit: unattributed photographer
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The term African American, popularized by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, although it was in regular use as far back for the ethnic group in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, in post-emancipation holidays and conferences,
We could improve the WP:WEIGHT of the references to "african american" use prior to 1980. There are practically zero references in books prior to 1980
We have some good citations here including the 1800s newspaper, but in all there might be half a dozen references recorded prior to Jessee Jackson inventing the term.
African american was not in regular use
. Negro was in regular use, and "african american" was an extremely rare exception until 1980.
Tonymetz 💬 21:24, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
17:05, 17 May 2024 (UTC) 188.10.18.131 ( talk)
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edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. [1] [2] While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African American, the majority of first-generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. [3] Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western Europe.
188.10.18.131 ( talk) 17:05, 17 May 2024 (UTC)<ref> https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/decennial-census-measurement-of-race-and-ethnicity-across-the-decades-1790-2020.html <ref> 188.10.18.131 ( talk) 17:05, 17 May 2024 (UTC)
References
@ Natemup: Please stop edit warring ! If you see that another editor disagrees, you should not simply restore your edit, but start a discussion here, see WP:BRD. Not everything that is true or sourced is also relevant, see WP:ONUS. Now, please explain why you think that Obama's parents and Kamala Harris are important enough to be mentioned in a lead section that doesn't mention giants like Douglass, King, Tubman, Jacobs, DuBois, .... I'd also like to know some good sources for your idea that only descendants of slavery are "conventional" African Americans. It sounds a bit like the idea that a person is defined by their great-great-great-grandparents. Rsk6400 ( talk) 19:11, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
"generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States"—both of which are very high quality, if a bit dated—are cherry picked. Anecdotally, usage of the term tends to be dominated by the US Census definition, which is much more expansive. Firefangledfeathers ( talk / contribs) 01:58, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
... presented Obama as if he were a descendant of slavery (a conventional "African American")In my opinion, that's the idea that only descendants of slavery are "conventional" African Americans. Since I don't believe in that idea (but would like to be convinced by good sources), I don't think the parents are important enough to be mentioned in the lead. Rsk6400 ( talk) 15:14, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
Some of this needs to be corrected. I understand the shift of different people coming to the Americas but I can't just identify with a people because it suits you or fits your situation. American blacks are specifically the descendants of slaves brought to America. Immigrants don't constitute American blacks. The distinction needs to be made. Userace1117 ( talk) 07:30, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
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Can you change this sentence: "African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa."
To this:
"African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans who descend from the formerly enslaved Africans of the United States."
The issue with the prior statement is that it is not specific enough and it is causing erasure. Caribbean, Latin American and Continental African immigrants all fall under the initial statement and they are not members of our ethnic group. You can not immigrate into an ethnic group. I can not provide a source because our ethnic group is not formerly defined. There are only articles that debate who belong to our ethnic group, or there are articles (and official statistics) who lump us in with Caribbean, Latin American and African peoples. We Black Americans know who we are and who our people are. Anyone who descends from the freed enslaved of 1865 are Afro / Black Americans. This change is imperative for us to begin defining who we are because many come to Wikipedia as the first line of research and we need this page to be as accurate as possible.
If you need me to prove that I am Black American I would be more than happy to if it means our ethnic group can gain more specificity. Asahae ( talk) 18:15, 9 July 2024 (UTC)
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18:20, 9 July 2024 (UTC)This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
African Americans article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27Auto-archiving period: 60 days |
This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
This
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Previous discussions concerning the infobox in the top right corner of the article can be found at Talk:African Americans/summary. |
I have been reading that "Black American" is taking precedence as the newest, best preferred term over "African American." Is either acceptable in most articles right now? Iljhgtn ( talk) 18:56, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
Hello @ Rsk6400,
You reverted my edit which placed the Black American Heritage Flag in the lead infobox, saying that the flag is not universally accepted. Would you have any sources to back up your claim?
I can't find anything saying the flag is universally accepted as well, though I did get flooded with a lot of results on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/black-american-heritage-flag
There have also been at least two instances, that made the news, where the flag was incorporated into fashion: https://girlsunited.essence.com/article/saweetie-met-gala-filipino-black-culture/ and https://www.milwaukeemag.com/this-milwaukee-native-won-the-united-states-of-america-ms-pageant/ Evaporation123 ( talk) 03:10, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Sgt. Samuel Smith, African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for February 1, 2025. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2025-02-01. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! — Amakuru ( talk) 12:11, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or Black Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the third largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people, having West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry. This ambrotype depicts African American Union soldier Sgt. Samuel Smith, of the 119th United States Colored Troops, with his family in c. 1863–65. Ambrotype credit: unattributed photographer
Recently featured:
|
The term African American, popularized by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, although it was in regular use as far back for the ethnic group in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, in post-emancipation holidays and conferences,
We could improve the WP:WEIGHT of the references to "african american" use prior to 1980. There are practically zero references in books prior to 1980
We have some good citations here including the 1800s newspaper, but in all there might be half a dozen references recorded prior to Jessee Jackson inventing the term.
African american was not in regular use
. Negro was in regular use, and "african american" was an extremely rare exception until 1980.
Tonymetz 💬 21:24, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
17:05, 17 May 2024 (UTC) 188.10.18.131 ( talk)
This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. [1] [2] While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African American, the majority of first-generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. [3] Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western Europe.
188.10.18.131 ( talk) 17:05, 17 May 2024 (UTC)<ref> https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/decennial-census-measurement-of-race-and-ethnicity-across-the-decades-1790-2020.html <ref> 188.10.18.131 ( talk) 17:05, 17 May 2024 (UTC)
References
@ Natemup: Please stop edit warring ! If you see that another editor disagrees, you should not simply restore your edit, but start a discussion here, see WP:BRD. Not everything that is true or sourced is also relevant, see WP:ONUS. Now, please explain why you think that Obama's parents and Kamala Harris are important enough to be mentioned in a lead section that doesn't mention giants like Douglass, King, Tubman, Jacobs, DuBois, .... I'd also like to know some good sources for your idea that only descendants of slavery are "conventional" African Americans. It sounds a bit like the idea that a person is defined by their great-great-great-grandparents. Rsk6400 ( talk) 19:11, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
"generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States"—both of which are very high quality, if a bit dated—are cherry picked. Anecdotally, usage of the term tends to be dominated by the US Census definition, which is much more expansive. Firefangledfeathers ( talk / contribs) 01:58, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
... presented Obama as if he were a descendant of slavery (a conventional "African American")In my opinion, that's the idea that only descendants of slavery are "conventional" African Americans. Since I don't believe in that idea (but would like to be convinced by good sources), I don't think the parents are important enough to be mentioned in the lead. Rsk6400 ( talk) 15:14, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
Some of this needs to be corrected. I understand the shift of different people coming to the Americas but I can't just identify with a people because it suits you or fits your situation. American blacks are specifically the descendants of slaves brought to America. Immigrants don't constitute American blacks. The distinction needs to be made. Userace1117 ( talk) 07:30, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Can you change this sentence: "African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa."
To this:
"African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans who descend from the formerly enslaved Africans of the United States."
The issue with the prior statement is that it is not specific enough and it is causing erasure. Caribbean, Latin American and Continental African immigrants all fall under the initial statement and they are not members of our ethnic group. You can not immigrate into an ethnic group. I can not provide a source because our ethnic group is not formerly defined. There are only articles that debate who belong to our ethnic group, or there are articles (and official statistics) who lump us in with Caribbean, Latin American and African peoples. We Black Americans know who we are and who our people are. Anyone who descends from the freed enslaved of 1865 are Afro / Black Americans. This change is imperative for us to begin defining who we are because many come to Wikipedia as the first line of research and we need this page to be as accurate as possible.
If you need me to prove that I am Black American I would be more than happy to if it means our ethnic group can gain more specificity. Asahae ( talk) 18:15, 9 July 2024 (UTC)
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18:20, 9 July 2024 (UTC)