Am i african american?

coureur
Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:43:40 +0000

^^In general I agree but it’s not entirely that simple in the case of north African Arabs because not all Arabs are white. I lived next door to Egypt in Libya for over 4 years when I was a kid, and there white Arabs and black Arabs there in the same sense as there are white and black Americans - and for the same reason, the black Arabs being the descendants of slaves brought up from the south. There are also a lot that are of mixed blood.

So in this case the legitimacy of claiming to be an “African American,” in the sense that most Americans understand the term, may depend on whether the OP’s dad is a black or white Arab.