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Am I an African American?
I don't know what to put on government forms. Anthropologists tell us that all human beings are descended from Africans. How many generations does one have to go back to determine ethnicity? The Nazi's had their answer; what's ours? Is it skin color? Some 'black' people have very pale skin. Is it culture? What exactly is it?
Is a 'white' Afrikaaner whose family has lived in South Africa for 8 generations an African American? How about a person who is descended from 5 generations of free English scholars and who speaks impeccable king's English, votes conservative, but has ******* features and dark skin?
2 Answers
- Gary BLv 75 years ago
Legally, ethnicity is determined by your grandparents -- all four of them. If ONLY ONE of your grandparents was black, then you are WHITE. If ONLY ONE of your grandparents was white, then you are BLACK (Many forms list this as "*******", which is the correct scientific term).
My foist guess would be that you have never even visited Africa, and probably were not born there. So your probably cannot claim to be "African-" anything. On the other hands, I suspect that you were probably born in the Untied States, and so you are 100% AMERICAN.
"African" and "American" are NOT ethnicity, and make NO reference to the color of your skin. The only TRUE "American-Africans" are those who were born in Africa, have moved to the United States, and havr passed all legal requirements to become Naturalized American Citizens.
