If you call someone African-American, shouldn’t that be more of African-North-American? Or if you make sure a nation is represented in one part, it’s should be also in the other? Such as Congolese-American? Asian-American or African-American sounds to me that an American doesn’t know nor care if there are countries in Asia/Africa.

In Finnish we might say a person is Finland’s-Swedish, for example. (Literal translation.) A citizen living in Finland, but has Swedish origins. Finnish person in Sweden would be Sweden’s-Finnish. Those are pretty much the only definitions we use, since we have a special relationship with Sweden*.

Charlize would be Finland’s-South-African, if she would be a citizen. Regardless of skin color or religion. It only represents the country of origins. We just wouldn’t call her Finland’s-South-African, but only Finnish. By her current nationality, not by her skin color nor origins. If it is relevant to the subject, we might say she is “South-African born Finnish”.

(* - We have a love/hate relationship with Sweden. They are our closest neighbours, not only geographically, but also culturally. Still, we’ve been dominated from about 1000 CE when crusades came to North, up until late 1800’s when national awakening started. In 1200’s Finland was already officially a part of Sweden. - 1812 neutral Finland didn’t want to fight a war alongside with Russia against Napoleon, so Russia conquered us from Swedish. In October 1917 they had some minor problems in Russia, so we managed to gain independence in December. But still today some (read:many) Swedish look down on us. Almost a thousand years under domination doesn’t wash away easily, but on our part we have succeeded quite well. We’re friends now.)

The target demographic are often entirely unable to see ironies and hypocrisies.

It’s an odd situation that so many people can’t understand that a “constructive” mention of race is anything but.

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By the way - I’m allowing cookies here - but I have to re-enter my “Name”, “Mail” and “Website” for each comment.

It’s possible to be African-American and still be white.

Consider model/actress Charlize Theron, for example. I don’t know if she has become a U.S. citizen, but if she has, then she would be a very white, very blond, very attractive African-American.

Instead of gaining the best of both ‘tribes’ (small Indian shoulders, large German breasts, tiny Indian waste, shapely German legs and small waist, nicely padded Indian butt) I end up EXACTLY the opposite.

But the one time I am actually GLAD I look the way I do is when it comes to knowing that I got where I am because of my knowledge and skills. I do not have some deep seated insecurity (like many minorities I know) who KNOW damn well that they are smart and capable professionals, but who always will wonder if they would have gotten that job if they did not look like a minority.

I could have check marked the ‘minority’ box and had a leg up… but I prefer to have paid out the extra money in collage to have the piece of mind for the rest of my life that it is who I am and not what I am that is important. It is worth looking like a hunchbacked wine barrel with huge hips, a concave chest, no ass and thighs the size of a redwood tree (when I am at my PERFECT weight) to have the option that so many minority do NOT have.

(Example: We should hire more people of X demographic, but we can’t set a number on how many has to be hired.)

I’m not saying Starbucks, or any company for that matter, deserves a cookie for each other-than-cracker hired, but I fail to see the big problem with publishing goal-tracking numbers.

My employer has always prided itself on workplace diversity. Not because they check up to the minute race and sex population numbers before every interview, but because they don’t. We find pride in the fact that we don’t hire on race, sex, creed, etc and have ended up with an incredibly diverse workforce as a result.

-isms in hiring would only result in a lack of diversity, a monochromatic workplace of closeted XY chromosomes; but that isn’t what the numbers show.

put that in your glass pipe and smoke on it for a moment