Why blacks were called African Americans

Many people have the question how to say "Negro" or "African American". People want to be correct, and in any case not to hurt the feelings of belonging to another race, because the word "Negro" was somehow offensive.

African Americans called for blacks who reside in the U.S., but have full or partial descent from Africa.

The struggle for the rights

The word "nigger" came into history from the days of slavery people, it was widely used against the black workers who worked on the plantations all day. The slavers, the Spanish and the Portuguese first introduced this designation, which meant "black," that is, the skin color of slaves.

Colloquial English the word "nigger" are often used themselves African Americans, podsalivaya and joking over each other, but in the mouth of a white person's word is considered offensive.

It is worth noting that even after the abolition of slavery, blacks have long struggled for their rights, equal rights with white people. And to fight for what was, after all, colonial America believed the Negroid people of the third grade. For example, common was the test on which African Americans were forced to read the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of independence in its entirety. Many illiterate ex-slaves could not cope with this task, and therefore considered white colonizers they could not participate in elections and to Express their demands, in fact, thus blacks were deprived of voting rights.

Terminology

With the adoption of the Covenant on the independence of blacks and their freedom, with the recognition of the right to nationality there is a need to get rid of the word, which at the time was the mark, and reminded them of slavery past all blacks.

A little later, at the official level, it was decided that the term "Negro" is offensive. And therefore, in the future began to use the word "African American", ie American, but with African roots.

At the moment, the U.S. is home to more than 42 million African Americans, part of this figure was accounted for by mulattoes, people with admixtures of other cultures: Indian, Asian, and Latin American.

By the way, the blacks afroamericanas called not everywhere, black men in Brazil even 5 years ago was called "preto", and it was not disappointing. Today Brazil comes to the common term.

The natural increase of the representatives of this race is about 13% of the total population of America every year. It is worth noting that in the years of slavery, the growth practically was not, it was due to difficult working conditions, high mortality from disease. Thus, blacks should be called African Americans to respect their history and what they had to struggle for years to have rights as other citizens of the country.