Why blacks and whites?

Question

so why do people call african americans black and caucasuns white? when neither are that? why not call each other by their true color or nothing at all? like im mixed if someone seen me (expection of eyes) theyd say black but im not im tan and if some one see's a cauca person their white not cream, fair or light? like who came up with the notion that its okay to say what someone is or classify them? how do you feel about it?

Answer 1

I'm not bothered being called white, nor do I feel bad calling someone else white or black.  To call someone by their true color would be too hard to pin-point since everyone is so diverse and people's colors can change.  When a discrepancy is needed in conversation about a person of African descent and a Caucasian I will say black and white, because it's easy.  I don't want to waste my time typing out African American or Caucasian, and I don't know why these terms would offend anyone.  I say let all other terms go and use black and white.  They're known, rather acceptable, and do not, in my opinion, connotate offense.  I don't find g*y and L*****n offensive terms either, and they shouldn't be made that way by ignorant people coining offensive slang.  For simplicity's sake, I'd like to think that mature, intelligent people can handle these words.

And in case it seems like I digressed, I don't think of it as unfair classification, I think of it as a discrepancy necessary to certain conversations, informal or semi-formal in nature.

Answer 2

I don't like saying black or white and I really don't like saying African American...I'm just an American (that just happens to be brown skinned) not African and my roots probably do trace back to Africa but h**l that was hundreds or years ago not even worth thinking about. Just get my name use it and be breezy.  

Answer 3

It's because a lot of pure blooded Africans are very, very dark skinned, and a lot of pure blooded Caucasian people (mostly in northern parts of the world) are very pale.

Examples of what I mean:

http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/TV2/archive...

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/09/0...

Also, it takes lesser syllables to say "white" or "black" than it does to say "African" or "Caucasian". People are prone to make things as convenient as possible, and less syllables means more convenience.