I live in the U.S. and in my neighborhood today and growing up (a mostly "african American" neighborhood) we used black or nigger. Not in any offensive way of course. And this slightly embarrassing but I didn't learn that nigger was a racial slur against black people until I was about 18... I honestly thought that it was a term of affection because only close friends called each other it.
Racism just wasn't big in my neighborhood I guess because nobody ever took offense to anything that I later learned were racial slurs.

Black. No bells or whistles.

A Raging Emo:
Actually, in the UK, we just call them "People".

I kinda laugh when I hear this sentiment.

So, you have no names or labels for people of a certain skin color or heritage? Everyone is just a "person"? So on forms or when the police are looking for a suspect they say "X skinned person"?

Mmmmhmmmm.

I live in the US, and the term is black. There was a time when political correctness got out of hand and white people decided that we couldn't use the most common term that black people use to describe each other... but we're over that now. Please? There's no need to complicate this. I don't demand to be called a European American, and I've never heard a black person demand to be called an African American. In fact, some of my friends pull an IRL /facepalm every time they hear the term.
Fewer syllables is better, people. Keep it simple and respectful.

In the US, here, I always use "black," because I never know if the person is from the US, and even then, I wouldn't call myself a European-American just because most of my ancestors are from Europe, so yeah.

The only people that are justified in using it are people that heavily follow the culture of their homeland, like German-Americans with heavy German accents, or African-Americans like President Obama with a father actually from Africa.

Volf:

girzwald:
In the US the "PC" term is "African-American". So I'm just curious as to how they are identified in other countries since "African-American" makes zero sense in other countries.

Please indicate your country of origin and the commonly accepted non racist term for black people.

no, I say Black and I live in the US. I don't say African American anymore than I say European American. Both are silly, because it sounds like your talking about immigrants, not native born

I agree. I remember a news story ironically about a news story...Where a black British guy was visiting the US and he got in some accident and the news reporter refereed to him as "black". And the news editor said "change it to African-American" , "but hes British, like born there, hes not American". "Change it to African-American or you lose your job".

And ya, nobody ever calls me "European-American". Nope, I'm "white". But according to the PC police, that's ok. Black? NO, NOT ACCEPTABLE, THAT'S OFFENSIVE.

girzwald:

A Raging Emo:
Actually, in the UK, we just call them "People".

I kinda laugh when I hear this sentiment.

So, you have no names or labels for people of a certain skin color or heritage? Everyone is just a "person"? So on forms or when the police are looking for a suspect they say "X skinned person"?

Mmmmhmmmm.

Incorrect. Their skin colour is a defining characteristic, not the name of their species; we're all human, and none of us should be labelled as "That Gay Person", or "That White Guy" or "That blonde chick". We should only use skin colour as a defining characteristic, otherwise we'll never completely abolish racial discrimination - if I have to describe somebody, I'll mention things such as skin colour, hairstyle/colour, height, and so on; until I have to describe them, they are simply "Person" (assuming I don't know their name).

On Police forms, do they only use skin colour to describe a person? Do they also leave out hair and eye colour? What about height? Age? Gender?

Precisely.

Their name?

Simple, but it works.

We call them just that or blacks sometimes.

Well seeing that we don't have african-americans in australia...

Black, aboriginal.

That's really up to their parents, isn't it?

*ba-dum-tish*

I hope I'm the first person to make this joke.

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
Germany.
Nigger.
Wish I was kidding.

Glad you are not. Suppressing a word only makes it more vulgar. Anyhoo...

Canadian.

We just call em black. Redundant reply is redundant.

CAPTCHA: rdersife that.

I think I will rdersife that.

In Australia.
If we are talking about the natives we use the term: Aborigional
If talking about the People from Asia we call them: Asians
If they are Italian/Greek we call them: Wogs
If we talk about Black people we say: Islander (as a general rule as many are from the various pacific Islands) The other term is FOB but I Don't like that term and it stands for: Fresh off Boat.
If the Black person is not from one of the Pacific Islands then we say Black Fella.
Please note that Australia Is extrememly racist but most of the hate is directed towards Aborigionals and Asians.

This is mostly because I live in the western suburbs of Sydney and most people believe whatever Tony Abbot says.

Until i got to my teen years and really started grasping the ENG language and got more involved with US pop culture i had no idea about the african-american racist issue.

In my country we 80% of the time reffer to them as "Negars" which is basically the kirilic version of "Niggar" i suppose the fact im from Eastern Europe and the small size of my country kind of ment we were not that up to date with the stuff going on over there. Also in movies they are often called that so when that is for a long time your only source of information you kind of stick with it.
In fact the jypsies in my country are called blacks or darkies as an insult. So i for a long time didnt see the N word as offensive. Until (as i said earlier) i got into pop culture and learned more about the US because of my understanding of the language.

And we also have absolutely 0 racist issues in terms of white-black. So i guess we dont really have a P.C term. That issue is heavily concentrated in the United States and you guys have to deal with it. By putting it behind and stop talkinga bout it (as Morgan Freeman once wisely said)

SmashLovesTitanQuest:

Kendarik:

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
Germany.
Nigger.
Wish I was kidding.

Is that considered a polite term in Germany, or just one that is used a lot?

Well, you have nigger in the offensive sense which is used by the majority of young people and "neger" which is used by the older generation. That last one used to be offensive but the old folks round here still use the word with no ill intended.

Only youths who think it makes them look like rappers and racists say "nigger". Normally it is offensive. "Neger" is still often considered offensive but not nearly as much. As you said, many people use it without ill intend.
But the normal term is just "Schwarze", blacks. At least where i am from.

...

In England?

Americans.

I guess if you need to highlight your ethnicity you can call yourself that. But whatever.

In that context I am Scot-English-Swede. Sup.

Call yourself whatever you want, I generally refer to people as their name.

This sure would have recieved some interesting answers 20 years ago, I imagine I could still reel off a dozen derogatory terms even now.

Generally they're just 'black' tho, although in the UK we term the indian look as 'asian' and Chinese/Japanese as 'oriental'. If you ask for directions to an asian restaurant, you're more likely to be sent to a curry house than a stir fry place.

Really tho, unless it's the topic at hand, or you're actively needing to describe someone , it just doesn't really come up. It's always a bit strange when people are shy about saying 'black' tho, 'Oh Jim, he's the guy with the short dark curly hair, and glasses, no...dark eyes...no not him, Jim's ..um..got a Nigerian accent.' 'Oh the black guy?' 'IS he? I hadn't noticed!'

EDIT: I do wonder also how much of the use of 'bad words' is intended racism and not just ignorance on behalf of older generations. I've heard terrible words used many a time by my parents and friends of theirs, but they're not being intentionally rude, it's just the words they know. At the same time, I know they've stopped using certain words for the indian couple who run the corner shop as they've got to know them. Still amuses me how many euphenisms for 'maybe a bit gay' they can come out with tho, fairy, pansy, a bit funny, woofter, etc, yet they've got nothing against them, just haven't evolved to use the new terms is all.

WestMountain:
There is no politically correct way of saying "African-American" or the like in Sweden because if we do it's considered that they are different from other races.

Swedish people are really afraid of stepping on peoples toes....

I got to agree with you.

I guess mörkhyad (dark skin) is the most common that I've heard.. and nobody ever says that in front of a black person

girzwald:

A Raging Emo:
Actually, in the UK, we just call them "People".

I kinda laugh when I hear this sentiment.

So, you have no names or labels for people of a certain skin color or heritage? Everyone is just a "person"? So on forms or when the police are looking for a suspect they say "X skinned person"?

Mmmmhmmmm.

England is a rather funny place, the police i think still use IC 1 2 3 The level of PC ness on the police is a bit over the top. Last world cup i was working in a pizza place the owner hung an england flag out of the upstairs window, the police made us take it down because it was "inciting racial hatred"

but the level or racism is off the chart. In my town we have an absolute ton of eastern europeans, ukrain russia georgio checks slovacks just about everyone comes here , there women are a lot better looking than ours and i love that accent so its all good with me, but when you get in with a group of them the inter faction hatred is quite shocking , and we have the second generation black people going bat shit crazy on the new wave of Muslim immigrants.

The english people that are left tend to move to small villages and dig moats ;)

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
Germany.
Nigger.
Wish I was kidding.

Where do you come from?

To thread
Germany.
Black.

Wilhelm Figge:

Only youths who think it makes them look like rappers and racists say "nigger". Normally it is offensive. "Neger" is still often considered offensive but not nearly as much. As you said, many people use it without ill intend.
But the normal term is just "Schwarze", blacks. At least where i am from.

sign. Although i never heard anyone saying "Neger" without ill intend.
Thinking about it: I heard someone saying One of the N- words only one time.
It was an old idiot with no job, who said to his old idiot friends that he votes for the npd because a "nigger" stole his parking space.

Usually call them Mate... just like I call white, Asian, Friends, Enemies, bosses and subordiates, Mate

girzwald:
In the US the "PC" term is "African-American". So I'm just curious as to how they are identified in other countries since "African-American" makes zero sense in other countries.

Please indicate your country of origin and the commonly accepted non racist term for black people.

In the US the "politically correct" term, according to the census bureau, is negro, black, or African American. It entirely depends on what region of the country you're from, and surprisingly, yes, some people with dark skin tone do prefer the term "negro" to anything else.

Plus your post sounds ridiculous. I think a better question would be simply your final sentence. Asking a French person what constitutes as an "African-American" could conjure up images of Algerians in late 18th century attire (reminiscent of George Washington). What constitutes as "AFrican" in different parts of the world is completely different from America.

Goodness, your two sentences would be such a fun case study in an anthropology course!

If i had to point out someone as being black to someone else i would say "black dude", i guess there isn't an official term here in new zealand except maybe "black south african" because you rarely see a black person who isn't south african...or maybe its just the area where i live, i dunno.

South eastern Australia...

For people of african culture/descent it would simply either be "African", or it would be "Australian", depending on how long theyve been in Australia and how much they are a part of Australian culture.

We (at least in my experience) are significantly different from places like the US because we dont have many strong cultures that have changed from the culture they originated in. Whereas in the US for example there are specific things that can be called "African American culture" which are different from African culture, here it seems more like the culture is either African or Australian... we arent an old enough country for introduced cultures to have evolved into something noticably different from the original culture.

How can African Americans exist outside of America?

Anyways, I'm from the US and idk about using the term African American to refer to a person or race, the only reason I am using them now is because it is in actual context. I just say black, I will not call anyone African American EVER and I don't care if you call me white or caucasian. I will call black people black because political correctness just creates barriers to separate races. Don't be so uptight about it because all it is is asking for tension when you get your panties in a knot over something as trivial as being called black or white. I can understand a derogatory word, one that comes particularly into my mind that I think you can all guess, but that's different. Their are no ill intentions when someone calls someone black or white, its just what we are accustomed to.

I live in America (Arizona) and here It's black people.

I'm Irish. We tend to call africian Americans Africian Americans. If you mean individuals of a more recent africian extraction then probably Black.

I live in America, so what you said. But I call 'em black, unless they're from an undisclosed African country. Unless that's true, they're already American, they just happen to have black skin, so African-American isn't correct.

Neeger(kinda like nigger,non offencive)or black-skinned, dark-skinned. If you wanna be rude you could say murjam(moor-yam), which is the only word for black people that's specificaly meant to insult, atleast in estonian.