Category talk:African Americans

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IMO this organization needs to be more user-friendly. Imagine a 14 year-old trying to browse topics of interest related to African-Americans. I think all of the African-American figure subcats should be grouped under an African-American figures subcat.--Nectarflowed (talk) 00:08, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New category

I added African American inventors as a category. Where I have been re-catting I've dropped from this one. The above comment is correct: 600! odd names is too much. So if you notice this one declining it's because of my re-cat. Marskell 04:36, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hyphen?

Shouldn't this category be renamed Category:African-Americans? After all, they're not Americans who are also Africans. Two-word adjectives (like "two-word") are usually hyphenated. – Quadell (talk) (bounties) 17:23, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

This one and several subcategories should also have the hyphen. American usage is almost exclusively with the hyphen, certainly at the formal writing level; I have no idea how anyone came to think that hyphenless was even remotely appropriate. --Dhartung | Talk 17:54, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
The answer to the hyphen seems to be a convention at Category:American people by ethnic or national origin. Even so, I don't understand it!--Mereda 10:21, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
While I do not believe that so-called "African Americans" exist, an avalanche of articles exists on the subject, ergo, it is being (IMHO) "force-fed" to the public by many individuals. That said, it is best to scuttle the hyphen. Here is why: today, I struggled with English-Americans until I realized that it is called English Americans at this time. I think that it had been called "English-Americans" awhile ago. The hyphen often generates a heap of confusion (and extra work ... ) as I weave in and out of various categories. Superslum 15:12, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Greek-Americans still sports a hyphen, yet and still. The List of Scots-Irish Americans continues to exist as of July 18, 2006; Albanian-American and American-born Chinese are being perpetuated, too, in order to create so-called "ethnic groups" in the United States where most negroes are descendants of white (people). Others include:
Categories and terms which employ the hyphen may create extra work because it becomes necessary to search for them and to click the SHOW PREVIEW button excessively. Superslum never creates any so-called African American pages because Superslum prefers to say colored and negro (which infuriates the myth-makers). Simple words work better. Superslum 17:01, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blacks only?

"This category includes articles on black people who were born in the United States who are of African descent" What makes someone like Charlize Theron less African just because she is not black? Last time I checked, not all people from Africa were black. NorthernThunder 03:54, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

You've got to be kidding me. --- Hong Qi Gong 03:58, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
No, I am not kiddin at all. Just ask Charlize. There's lots of white people there. NorthernThunder 11:27, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
From African American:
  • An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa.
--- Hong Qi Gong 15:02, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
So how many generations does one's family have to live in a place to become indigenous? If you go back far enough everone is indigenous to Africa. — Linnwood 15:58, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
Categories for discussion This category was nominated for deletion, renaming or merging with another category on 2006 July 14.

The result of the discussion was no consensus.

Don't be stupid, Linwood. The term applies to black Americans or blacks who are descended from American slavery, whose African ancestors were brought to the USA during the Atlantic Slave Trade.