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@ScreenOGenic
Whites created and maintain America as we know it, so it'll be silly and insulting to hyphenate them.
White people did not create this country by themselvesblack people built up the South for 300 years under slavery, and various other folks of color helped too. So white folks don't get to hog all the credit for it. That is what's silly and insulting to us.

As for hyphenated nationalities, it's merely a reflection of reality. If a race created or contributed most to the founding and maintenance of a country, and that race is the majority, then naturally they'll be accorded the eminence they deserve. Whites created and maintain America as we know it, so it'll be silly and insulting to hyphenate them. And since the nation as we know it has always been inhabited by multiple races the hyphens are used to distinguish those who aren't of the founding majority. You don't call a black South African as such because his people have lived in that land and its continent for centuries long before any other race and his people are the majority. It'll be redundant. But one can definitel5b4y call a person of European descent who's from there a white South African. It's as simple as that.
After all tomorrow is another day.

OP: Political correctness run amok. Smart minds are amused by it.
I don't think Americans are anti-British (well, the
real
Americans.) Ever since the U.S. became a superpower Americans have generally lost their inferiority complex and have become smug about their country's global status. It's the Brits who have issues with their cousins from across the pond ever since 1783 and when the U.S. replaced them as the one who calls the shots who everyone loves to hate.
After all tomorrow is another day.

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Steviebaby, I've been asking the same question for YEARS!!!!! Smh

next the OP needs to tackle the overuse of the term "liberal".
great job OP.

You just owned absolutely every liberal gutless piece of sht yellow-belly coward in America - of which, the are MILLIONS.
Well done.

..the general american population does t use this term because they want to. The pc crowd has made it seem wrong to use anything here. Sill i know. I just describe people by their cloths now rather than heritage.lol

This was probably posted here because Ms. Winfrey is an intelligent and cultured woman, who could explain the history and origins of the term. OPRAH would give "OP" the benefit of the doubt.
I do hope he won't upset Henry

Why in the world did you post this on Oprah's board and not, say, the general discussion boards? I fail to see where you connect your musings and Miss Winfrey.
Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt.

The Native people of Canada are Eskimos, while the 5b4native people of Haiti are Taino "Indians." Haitian is not an ethnicity or a race. A black person from Haiti is ethnically no different from one born and raised in the U.S. or in the UK or Brazil.
The same problem exists within the terms "Jamaican" and "Puerto Rican." These are not races. A person who is not from Puerto Rico or Jamaica cannot be Puerto Rican or Jamaican. Those are nationalities, not races. Taino Native is the only original heritage of Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Unless you have Taino blood in you, you cannot be of Haitian or Jamaican or Puerto Rican heritage (unless you mean to infer that you are descended from people who settled in these places a couple hundred years ago; in which case, you'd still be "White" or "Black" or African or English or Spaniard or whatever else those settlers were).
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

I stopped using the politically-correct term after mislabeling several black people. When I was recently corrected by a student and explained why I don't use 'African-American' ("how do I know if s/he is not Canadian of of Haitian descent?), I was given the deep-freeze from my classroom aide ( who is black).

Black is not a race, it's a color.

Because American's are racists, notice how they don't call white people European American, just American but they will call every other minority by their background first and then American even if they were born in America. I'm Canadian, my background is Kittitian and Jamaican and here I am called Canadian. If I need to identify my race it's black.

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A nationality is not a race or an ethnicity. A person from Canada's only nationality is "Canadian." There's no other answer.
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

You2000 know what else is weird, in Canada (which, as you know is part of North America) no one calls themselves African American, African Canadian or such. In Canada people are black, East Indian, Asian, middle eastern, etc.
and on top of that, a lot of expatriates are offended by that also and if you ask them their nationality, they will simply say Canadian. Simply Canadian is the most used answer. Maybe immigrants to Canada get a different vibe then in the U.S.

I understand and I agree as well. I dont call or say AA, I go refer Black.
follow me on twitter @nikki_drake

It's because if you are born white, than you are automatically an angry, racist, bigot who has to walk around on egg shells so as to not offend anyone. Slavery is 100% your fault, everything you earn is simply handed to you because of "white privilege," and you MUST pay reparations because of the way you treated black/African Americans 150 years before you were born.

Nobody calls Charlize Theron African-American yet she is more African-America than those other people. You can't say because she is white it doesn't count otherwise you would also have to remover Barack Obama from that category.

Then why not call white people European american? instead they get called american but every other minority has to have their ancestry placed in front of american.

@steviebaby62
O1354, thank you thank you for this post.
I understand that there is racism all over if you go a-hunting but I do think this explanation,discriminating between Mariah and Oprah etc ,just shows that instead of personal pride there is an an obsession right now with causing more segregation even within the 'black' community in the US.
I thought the caste system was something no one should aspire to.
However on some formal paperwork, albeit optional,I do find it irritating that sometimes one is asked to specify 'background' and try as they might, listing as many permutations as possthey haven't covered mine yet..
I am 'other' and always will be

I'm aware of that. I mentioned that my wife is Jamaican, and over there they have the same range of skin colours from light to dark. And the only reason that she has to call herself Jamaican-British is because she was born in Jamaica and has dual Jamaican-British citizenshipotherwise, all people of colour born in the UK call themselves British. It makes no difference where there ancestors come from. Naturally, they rightly embrace their parents' culture but they are British - not "African-British" or "Jamaican-British".
British by birth - English by The Grace of God