May I Ask A Stupid Question?

Do Black people in Canada identify themselves as "African-Canadians" in the same way that many Blacks in the United States prefer to be called "African-Americans"?

Is the hyphenated label of ethnicity also popular across the pond? Do Blacks in the United Kingdom refer to themselves as African-Brits?

-- Allen

I have relatives that still say "negro"... only it's an elongated "E" sound... "neee-gro". It makes my skin crawl to listen to them talk.

When they saw a neighbor walk by, my grandmother said - "look, a nee-gro boy!"

ugh!

That's pretty weird.

to see the day that we are all just people

but I know that is an impossible dream

Sometimes afro-carribean (most of our black population came to us via the Carribean). I've never heard African-British, or indeed any hyphen British term; occasionally one gets Anglo-Indian, but that's pretty much died out now.

The whole race issue seems to be less contentious over here; we ended slavery quite a bit earlier, we didn't have the whole Jim Crow stuff, most blacks arrived post-W.W.II.

Some people still use the term coloured, though generally more from ignorance than prejudice.

Occasionally an older or uneducated person will use 'coloured'.

or seen an African-American, except on TV. None lived in our town or went to my school. At the age of 5, our church hosted a visiting preacher who happened to be black.

I can remember being so excited to meet this man. I couldn't wait until after services to shake his hand. I remember being fascinated by his unusual (in my limited world-view) skin color and beautiful smile. As kids are, I asked to touch his hair and he picked me up and told me to go ahead.

Later, my father asked him to our house for dinner. I had bragging rights that the "colored" man ate at MY house.

I used the term "colored" out of ignorance, not prejudice. Of course, now, I know better.