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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Maya Angelou died (28-5-2014)
Date: Fri, 31 May 2024 00:05:34 +1200
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 30/05/2024 7:34 p.m., Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
> On 2024-05-29 10:59:23 +0000, Ross Clark said:
> 
>> African-American writer and activist.
> 
> African American? She was born in the USA of American parents, lived in 
> the USA, worked in the USA, and died in the USA. She was American. She 
> may have had some ancestors from Africa, but that doesn't make her 
> African. I have very recent ancestors from Ireland (including my 
> mother), but I am not Irish.

Nor was she African. "African-American" (note hyphen) is a standard term 
for Americans with African ancestry (within the last few centuries, that 
is). Wikipedia also calls her just "American" (at the top), but later 
considers her "African American" (no hyphen). It's clear that her 
membership in that ethnic group had a great deal to do with her life and 
work. (She did actually live in Africa for a few years in the 1960s.)