<p>I want to say Ethiopia, but I’m not sure they speak Arabic?</p>
<p>Libya? Somalia? Ethiopia?</p>
<p>post deleted</p>
<p>I was originally thinking Tunisia or Libya, but wouldn’t they speak French and Arabic?</p>
<p>Is this a trick question?</p>
<p>Eritrea? I’ll keep guessing until I hear the answer!!</p>
<p>Token - I would guess Egypt? [Edit - after reading above, I’d like to consult a friend and go with Libya, too!]</p>
<p>Mercymom - answering your question about culture on MARTA – We happened to be on a train with quite a few young black men, dressed and behaving in ways that might be associated with gangs or inner cities: wearing heavy chains as jewelry, snapping and dancing to private music, low riding pants that caused them to shuffled when walking, dread locks. Greeting other passengers familiarly, in an accent that a foreigner would surely have difficulty with, but blantantly ignoring us. They were not doing anything “wrong”, and I think that is what caused my German friend to be surprised - that she would feel uncomfortable based on what seemed to be appearance alone, but I think was really more than that - a gut reaction that says “I don’t belong here”.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’ve been in places with groups of white teens/ young adults, with vividly-colored, spikey hair, strange piercings, and cliquey mannerisms, and have felt the same way. A “you’re not one of us” feeling.</p>
<p>PS re my previous post. Sorry for the misspellings! eg. I really do know that prejudice doesn’t have a D!</p>
<p>Ok, binx. Just wondering. It’s been a few years since I was last in Atlanta, but the last time I was there we spent a week and stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of town (it might have even been in a different town as everything sort of spreads out all over). We drove to the end of a MARTA line and rode MARTA to downtown every day. I remember it as fun and convenient, also clean, safe and efficient. We experienced rush hour on MARTA too, and I don’t remember feeling in any way uncomfortable or different. I do remember the (to me) ungodly traffic. On the weekend we drove to Stone Mountain and even then it seemed to take forever on some highway with what seemed like 6 or 7 lanes of traffic in both directions! Pretty intense to me.</p>
<p>I’m thinking Somalia - the southern half of the country was an Italian colony, while the northern part was a British colony. Arabic, Italian and English are all official languages. (I lived there from 1960-1964.)</p>
<p>My oldest used to describe kids by crayola crayon colors!</p>
<p>The country he was from is Somalia. The languages gave it away to me. Italian has stayed in common use in Somalia for a remarkably long time. The CIA for years hired Italian translators to read the major newspaper in Mogadishu to find out what was going on in Somalia. </p>
<p>In more recent years, after meeting the man in the hotel I mentioned above, I was surfing channels on my car radio once in about 1994 and heard an unusual language, with what sounded like a news report about various places in the Horn of Africa (I recognized some of the place names, even though I didn’t know the language). I wondered what that language was, and in a few months of following the local news, I found out that Minneapolis was gaining so many immigrants from Somalia that they are now the largest immigrant group in Minneapolis. In neighborhoods where two generations ago the predominant non-English language would have been Norwegian, it is now Somali. </p>
<p>So referring to comments above in the thread about identifying strangers in, say, reports of crime or the like, here in greater Minneapolis the term “black” is much too general, as most people who know this area well can now reliably distinguish Somali people (who have very distinctive dress, particularly on women) from antebellum-slave-descended African-Americans. I heard a news report just last night in which someone whose identity is as yet unknown was described as “black,” but I would try to be as specific as I could be and distinguish “Somali” from “African-American” if I had occasion to describe someone whose identity I didn’t know here.</p>
<p>Crayola crayon colors – I think I remember when “flesh” was the name of the peachish crayon. We’ve come a long way from those days.</p>
<p>This thread - especially mathmom’s comment about Crayola colors - reminded me of another incident that happened with a foster child we had once. She was a 5, as was my daughter. She had been removed from her mother’s custody, after the mother was arrested (don’t remember details). As the mother was taken into custody (by a white police officer, accompanied by a white social worker), she screamed “don’t let these white people take my baby!” The little girl ended up in our home, due to a shortage of AA foster homes in our county, but naturally, she was scared, and very quiet, and we were concerned with how she would respond to us. She wouldn’t have much to do with my husband or me initially. However, she and my own D began a tentative friendship, as 5-year-olds do. They sat at the kitchen table coloring, and naturally, the subject of color came up. They began discussing what “black” and “white” meant. Or more specifically, WHO was black, and who was white. My D said, happily, “I’m PEACH!” The little girl looked down at her own arms and said, “Yeah, and I’m BROWN!” At that point, they decided that “black and white” had nothing to do with them.</p>
<p>When S1 was in 6th grade we moved from a rural area of a state sometimes reputed for racism (in the 7 years we lived there, there was only ever one black family in town) to an area of a nearby state where it was more normal to find a diverse population. When S1 began riding the bus to school, he used to complain about the black kids on the bus and said something to the effect that he didn’t like them “because they were black.” I stopped him right there and reminded him that it was all right not to like the kids, but it had nothing to do with their race. He didn’t like them because they were loud and obnoxious or because they were mean to him. He admitted that I was right and never said anything like that again. In HS he ended up with a few black friends. </p>
<p>S2 was only a toddler when we moved and his K experience was telling. The school population in our town is about 47% minority. (In fact, we were clearly told by the real estate agent that the rural schools were better–clearly meaning whiter). There were 30 kids in the K class, 24 of them black and 2 very dark Asian Indian. There were only 4 white kids, and in addition, the teacher was black as well. S2 thought nothing of it, and in fact, that teacher was the best teacher either of my kids ever had. Later on, when S2 would talk about kids from school, I wondered from the names whether they were perhaps black, but I never wanted to draw his attention to race by asking. I’d wait until I met them or saw the yearbook.</p>
<p>We used to have annual affirmative action meetings at work conducted by outside consultants who were typically black. They drilled it into us that it was inappropriate to use the color of one’s skin as a descriptor. For example, it was inappropriate after a meeting if someone asked which person was George Jones to respond that he was the black man at the far end of the table. Rather, one should respond with, “he was the man at the end of the table sitting to the right of the woman with red hair” (couldn’t even describe the color of her suit since that might be viewed as sexist for some strange reason). It always sounded like PC gone wild. I’m glad to see that we may have evolved from that nonsense but it sounds like the effect lingers on.</p>
<p>I went to a party once where I was one of the few “white” people. My African American friend who was giving the party also invited her mother who was in town visiting family and friends. When I asked where her mother was so I could meet her, my friend said - go to the kitchen and look for a lady who looks white! Most African Americans have no qualms about describing people based on their color.</p>
<p>Blacks can’t be accused of racism… There is no reason for them to fear using color as a descriptor.</p>
<p>“Blacks can’t be accused of racism… There is no reason for them to fear using color as a descriptor.”</p>
<p>Some people who believe that to be racist one has to come from a culture that has the power in society believe African Americans can’t be racist.</p>
<p>However, there are many people like me who think that anyone can be racist.</p>
<p>Regardless, of one’s perspective on the definition of racist, I’ve seen black people accused of being racist. This includes their being accused of racism by other black people.</p>
<p>Haven’t read all the posts here but… Growing up in Asia, I never heard an adjective relating to any color plugged unceremoniously before the individual’s native description. People were referred to as the Tibetan Indian or Bihari fellow, or North Indian, South Indian, Delhi-ite, Bombay-ite etc.</p>
<p>I have now lived in the US long enough to feel like an outsider in Asia but I still cringe when I hear people being called “black” “brown” or “colored” or “yellow” in the US. I find it very demeaning and disrespectful to call anyone by the color or lack thereof. I think its much more respectful to call people Asian American, African American or Caucasian, etc.</p>
<p>May be some of you on-line may not mind being called one adjective or the other. Nevertheless, we ought to promote and nurture speech that is respectful to ALL, not just a few.</p>
<p>Pharmagal, one of the problems with the term African American is that many black people in the US 1) aren’t American, 2) aren’t of African heritage, or 3) don’t like being part of a “hyphenated” group. Many people prefer the term African American, but many other people (including black people) prefer the term black. Very few white people I know use the term brown, but almost all of my friends from India and Pakistan use the term to describe themselves and their group. Neither yellow nor colored are widely used, in my experience.</p>
<p>“aren’t of African heritage”</p>
<p>All people whom the U.S. would categorize as “black” would be of African heritage, no matter how distant.</p>
<p>I agree with the rest of your post, however.</p>
<p>With each succeeding generation, the people of this country will define themselves as more of all-of-the-above, then just one ethnic or racial mix. Should I define with the ancestors from my dad’s side or my mom’s side? What about my kids - how do they define themselves?</p>
<p>Our colors will mix and eventually those stupid little boxes on the legal forms will have even less meaning then they do now. </p>
<p>I have students that ask me how to define themselves for college applications. It is a tough call.</p>