I found a website that supposedly guesses your ethnicity based on a picture of you, I got this

@bijouxbroussard I think I will start referring to you as bijouxbrousardczjch

@bijouxbroussard May I ask the need to use african American? I get that you're trying to show the ridiculousness of the website but why can't your dad just be black? I don't often see or hear white Americans refer to themselves as European Americans?

@SW-User They don’t say European-American because they can usually say [b]Polish[/b], or Irish or French, etc. I use African-American and black, as I [b]choose[/b].

@bijouxbroussard That's fair. No fight here. It just baffles me how an American native can refer to themselves as anything other than American.

@SW-User Then you missed that entire period after “Roots” when people were doing the ethnic-hyphenated identification thing. Irish-American, Chinese-American, Mexican-American, etc. That’s when African-American became an option for some of us (Native Africans, like most Europeans, know their family’s actual country of origin-Nigerian-American, for example). It was important to some of us. The term Native American is generally used by former “American Indians” since it’s been established that they’re not from India. Does that make sense ?

@bijouxbroussard Let me put it to you this way. I've never heard a white individual from Africa refer to him or herself as European African, or Euro-Ghanaian, or Euro-South African. They are either South African or Ghanaian or african and that makes more sense to me than African American, Euro American. Heck native American is the most egregious of them all but that's just my point of view.

@SW-User Like I said, [b][b]it was important to some of us[/b][/b], because of our lost history in this country. Most people have come to just respect that, even if they don’t understand.

@bijouxbroussard I know the historic significance, but it still makes no sense how an American can be anything other than just American. White Americans don't do it most of them call themselves American (from what I've noticed anyway). That's it, while minority groups tend to hyphenate even though they've been Americans for multiple generations at this point.

Perhaps I'm wrong on this but even in Britain, blacks are simply Brits. In France blacks are French and that makes sense as that's exactly what they are.

@SW-User Okay, I’ll try again…
In the US, the ancestors of white Americans [b]chose[/b] to come here, chose the name of the country, even with indigenous people already living here. Other minorities who chose to come here also kept their ethnic identities, languages and names, or at least some form of them (generally speaking). Those of us descended from African slaves had ancestors who didn’t choose, lost names, languages, family ties, and countries of origin. The term “African-American” was a way of attempting to reclaim a lost identity that was important to some of us. It can’t be accurately compared to other groups because it’s been a different experience.

@bijouxbroussard Blacks in Britain are English and blacks in France are French. But I guess we'll simply settle on having a difference of opinion on the matter.

@SW-User Depending on the subject of the conversation, I refer to myself either as an American, an Italian-American, or a European-American. I was born in the U.S.

My mother was born in Italy, as were all my grandparents, and so as I was growing up I was very aware of being part of a culture that was different from that of my peers in school, at the same time feeling very much as American as they were.

I think this is one of the greatest divisions in the culture wars these days: some Americans identify very strongly and proudly with their immigrant roots, and see those roots as having shaped them in a particular way, while others see their family immigration as something that happened "back then" and thus we are all "just" Americans now. This is not, as I see it, a difference of political point of view. It is primarily, and sincerely, a difference in the actual experience of living here, which might lead to political differences.

@SW-User No, we’ll have to accept that the US is [b]not[/b] Britain or France. We’re a [b]different[/b] country with a [b]different[/b] history, so we’ve done things [b]differently [/b]. It’s not a question of agreeing or disagreeing about it. That would be like someone “disagreeing” with another person’s [b]name[/b]. 🤦🏽‍♀️

@bijouxbroussard I see it more as disagreeing with a persons "personal" pronoun that doesn't gel with his or her biology

@SW-User And [b]again[/b], you don’t get it. I wasn’t initially offended that you think you are qualified to tell me who and what I am, ethnically, because I assumed if I explained, that would be the end of it.

@bijouxbroussard I never made the suggestion I'm qualified to call you anything, however if me calling you American is wrong then fair enough. Take care.

@SW-User I called my father American, so you can’t claim that. You [b]questioned[/b] my right to add “African” to it. 😳

@bijouxbroussard I did not question your right, I questioned your reason. Your reason may or may not make sense to me but it is what it is.

@SW-User And I gave you the reasons patiently and in detail. That should’ve sufficed.

@bijouxbroussard Like I said, your reason may or may not make sense to me. However I do agree your reason is YOUR reason if that helps.

@SW-User which is what I said initially, it’s important to some of [b]us[/b]. It doesn’t have to make sense to [b]you[/b]. There’s another posted story based on a conversation I had with another Brit about differences in our culture racially.

@bijouxbroussard Fair enough.