"African-American" vs. "black" at the Olympics

[Wilson Gray]

On 3/8/06, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> Subject:      Re: "African-American" vs. "black" at the Olympics
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've read interviews with black hockey players, born in Canada of
> Barbadian ancestry, expressing mild confusion at being labeled
> "African-American" (especially in the press) when they play for US teams.
>
> David Bergdahl wrote:
> > Last fall some of my students referred to the blacks in Conrad's "Heart
> of
> > Darkenss" as African-Americans--I think they assumed that Af-Am is the
> > polite form of "black" and the nationality issue never occured to
> > them--these same students constantly referred to "British imperialism"
> > despite the fact that the novella is set in the Congo--ruled by Belgium
> at
> > the time.  I think something similar is going on with the sports-writer.
> >
> > On 3/7/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >> Subject:      "African-American" vs. "black" at the Olympics
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> From King Kaufman's sports column on Salon:
> >>
> >> -----
> >>
> >>
> http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2006/03/07/tuesday/index1.html#olympics
> >>
> >> Two weeks ago I wrote about NBC giving American speed skater Shani
> >> Davis short shrift by calling him "the first African-American" to win
> >> an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics when he was in fact
> >> the first black person of any nationality to do so.
> >>
> >>


True, but had he not been American, I, for one, wouldn't have cared.

-Wilson

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> Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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