I think he should be eligible for this award only if he has ancestors of African American descent. The news story doesn't reveal much about the kids family history. Were the parents simply living in Africa during the time he was born? If none of his relatives are of African American descent I feel he should not be eligible for the award.

- Jose

 

I'd be surprised if 10% of the people living in Africa would have ancestors of "African American" decent; they'd be lacking the "American" part.

Perhaps you simply meant "ancestors of African decent". In that case, how many generations of whites have to be born in and live in and die in Africa before they're considered "African"? One? Two? Ten? Fifty? More?

Once you decide how many generations are sufficient to make them "African", you have also decided on the same number of generations required to make them "American". Put another way, if you believe that the first generation of a family born in the US is "American", then you have to believe that the first generation of a family born in Africa is "African".

 

I didn't think about that.

After reading the story again and your post, I feel that he should be eligible for the award. Since he was born in Africa he is from there and the award being for African American students, he should be equally deserving of the award as much as any other person they feel is eligible. In this case, it seems that in naming the award they should have named it for Black students not African American.

"The award has been given the last eight years to an outstanding black student as part of the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration"
Clearly they didn't intend this award to be awarded to simply any one from Africa, they wanted to award it to a black person.

Also if I'm not mistaken, doesn't South Africa have a high population of white people? Does that mean that this award would include almost everyone in Africa except for half of South Africa? The award committee messed up in naming the award and now they will have to suck it up and allow the student to be eligible for this.

 

It should be called the "Distinguised Black Student" if that's what they want to award. Of course, then you get into the mulatto issue.

FYI, South Africa is about 75% black, and less than 15% white.

 

Well, that's a start, but you'll agree that a school should at least spell "distinguished" correctly.

 

That would probably be a good choice on their part.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by magician
Would a Russian American qualify as European American, or as Asian American?

 

I was looking for an example of a people whose country is obviously in Asia, but who are dark enough of skin that some misguided social anthropologist might try to include them in the same category as (black) African Americans.

The point is that there are a lot of people who are Asian who don't qualify under the common use of the adjective "Asian", just as there are lots of people who are African who don't qualify under the common use of the term "African".

My heritage is mainly Bohemian (Czech)/Irish/Scottish/Cherokee, but at least three generations removed from immigrants; if I move to Kenya and become a citizen, am I an American African? Is that equivalent to African American? If I later went to high school in Omaha would I be eligible for that award?

 

Haha one of the guy's who put up the posters posts on another forum I frequent and there's a big ol thread there, link in a sec

 

http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?s=&th...threadid=280222