Yes a white guy can be african american. Black and African American are not synonyms as this article shows. The institution made an error in their association with African American with the Black experience of slavery segregation jim crow and all of those ugly things that occurred and are still occurring in this country as a result of your skin being dark.

Um, yeah. There are white skinned African-Americans. I have always thought the term, African American to describe the color of ones skin type to be "black" as idiotic. That's like saying all European-Americans are white. For a country that likes to put labels on others, we sure don't do a good job of it.

I know plenty of white african americans, and I'm black american and not african american. My family has more ancestry than Africa, and I think it's ignorant for people to think of black as soon as they think of African American.

You are what your DNA says you are. GEEEZ this is supposed to be med school. I'd feel a lot safer if our affirmative action doctors of the future could please be encouraged to focus on medicine?
Linda
Rancho Cucamonga

If this man is not a white africian american please tell me what he is.
White or Black , if he was born in Africa what would that make him.
In the eyes of people they see what they want to see and come to their own conclusions but the fact remains, this man is a white african american.

DNA – Not sure what that means.
But – Can we also figure out who are Palestinians. Prior to 1948 the WORLD considered Israeli Jews – Palestinians.

I was a classmate of Paulo at NJMS and I would like people to know that there are two sides to every story. He wants you to believe he is the victim where as I witnessed the numerous incidents that supported his suspension by displaying his own overt racism and disregard for the viewpoints and feelings of others. The issue at hand had nothing to do with Paulo identifying himself as an African American, but rather was based on him telling a black classmate that she did not have the right to call herself that term because she was not born in Africa. He proceeded to publish an article in the school newpaper belittling the significance of African American history and slavery. In addition, he wrote that most blacks had no right calling themselves African Americans, as they have never been to Africa. Numerous rebuttals did follow but students were also acting on their right to freedom of speech as he did in his article. Furthermore, he went on to make a racist joke in a student wide email, refering to a "lynch mob" being after him. Please do not give this grown man sympathy without seeing the otherside and the lack of empathy he has shown for his actions. Honestly, considering the large population of blacks in the Newark, would you really want him treating that community based on his own blatant bias?

A lot of people in America live under the idea that all Africans are Black and they forget about people like Paulo. Of course a white person can be a white African American and Paulo is one of them. Paulo's self definition is as simple as the words themselves: He is a white person, therefore WHITE. He is African, therefore African, and he became American. I think his self definition is fair and nobody should feel offended. If Paulo cannot define himslef in these terms, then how should he do so? There are many other examples of white African Americans, such as Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz, who is also a Mozambican native. I am Mozambican and people often categorize me as African American which is something I conisder as incorrect because I am simply African/Black and in no real way American. I hope that I will not be forced or induced to change the way I define myself, as all or at least most black people in America are called African Americans, which in certain cases can be considered offensive as well.

The school's deplorable actions are typical of an ignorant society. Africa is full of white people who have lived there for many generations. They are africans and they are white.

If I were from Canada, I would call myself canadian. It's only natural that the white guy from Mosambique would call himself African.

In 1947, Sinclair Lewis published "Kingsblood Royal," a story about Neil Kingsblood's attempt to find royalty in his past. Instead, he discovers that he had a negro ancestor. At that time, if an individual was 1/32nd or more negro, they were considered negro (remember, this was 1947 and "Black" had not yet come into vogue). Here is the acid test for ethnocentrism, if one who is 1/32nd black is to be considered black, then, how about one who is 1/32, or more white? Shouldn't these individuals have an equal right to consider themselves, and be considered, white? Hence, I submit that it is perfectly logicial that an individual may consider himself to be a "White" African American.

Also, what about Congressman Adam Clayton Powell? He had such light skin that he passed as being white until someone asked him how a white man could have a father who was the pastor of a black church in Harlem. After Powell embraced his color, he was responsible for appending civil rights legislation to every bill passing his desk.

If he was born in Mozambique, he is African-American! Africa is a big continent. Many of the indigenous peoples of north Africa (Egyptians, Moroccans, Libyans, etc.) are not black, so why shouldn't someone of European origin born in Africa be considered an African-American?

what is this 1954? And why punish HIM of all people? Geez . .Let me guess .. Christian, right? Ignorance is alive and "well" in America

A good way to stop racist on paper anyway

Yes, a white guy can be African-American. Yes there are white people who live in Africa. Yes it is now the time to redefine the meaning. People, this is not rocket science. If a white man was born in Africa and decided to become an American citizen, what do you call him? You call him White African American, literally.

yes, i think he can be african and america and white. people should really lose their obsession with race. what is the big deal??

I'm white African-American I was born in Kigali Rwanda and I think it is ridiculous that someone would be put through something like this. When I've told people in the past that I'm African American I usually get a few laughs if anything...no one is deserving of violence or discipline for something they were asked to disclose in school or anywhere for that matter...

I'm a TRUE African-American.
I’m a proud American, born in Africa. Yes, I happened to be white.

Imagine being an Aborigine and being called an African-American, just because of your skin color?

Time for us to practice what we preach! Racism in any form is BAD!

ok heres it comes all you albinoes out there you cant be african american no more because your the wrong color.

I don't see what the issue is. There are white people that are African. If they then come to America...how are the NOT white and African and American?

The university is clearly wrong. This was a class in *cultural* diversity in which the student was asked to *define himself*. It was not a class in racism, and he was not asked to define his race. He defined himself as he saw himself from his own cultural perspective. First of all, the professor of the class obviously needs to take a remedial course in cultural diversity himself before being allowed to teach cultural diversity ever again. If he hadn't let his bias overcome his professionalism he should have been able to avert this whole controversy. Perhaps he didn't have the guts or intellectual prowess to face down the overbearing, arrogant, obstinate, and 1984-ish PC crowd that has invaded college campuses.

A psych evaluation? What is this, the gulag archipelago?

African American is someone whose ancestors are ORIGINALLY from Africa. South Africans are European IMMIGRANTS, their ancestors were from Europe and they immigrated to Africa. An African American is someone whose ancestors can be traced to AFRICA, meaning someone who is of dark skin.

Then that person (whose DNA and ancestry is from REAL Africans (not europeans born in Africa) ) is born in America (American meaning Brazil, USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, etc)

so that person is African – American.

the South Africans are European-Africans

The people from the USA are European – Americans

A south African born in African whose ancestors are European and then moved to the USA is an European-African nationalized American. PERIOD

At "yo": So by your definition of African-American is someone that can trace their ancestral roots to Africa, then would not every human on the planet be African-American? Is it not widely considered by the vast majority of the scientific community that both genetic and archeological/paliological (sp) evidence supports African as the cradle of civilization and location of man's evolution. So GOOD NEWS EVERYONE we can now all join the various African clubs and racially biased scholarship programs offered across the country!

I don't call myself an African American. I'm a black woman, plain and simple. A few points....

1) Did anyone notice the post from MDM? The university did not come after Paul because he said he was a White African American but because of the other things he had done following that class. If that is indeed the case, I would have kicked him out too.

2) All life started in Africa. Doesn't that mean that those of us that now live in America are all African American?

3) I recently traced my ancestry and found that my maternal bloodline was middle eastern. We somehow made it to this country and mixed with African Americans and Whites. When you look in my face I'm a beautiful brown skinned sista. My label is unimportant.