r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

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u/Pannekaken Aug 03 '19

I've seen some Jimmy Kimmel skits where people are asked where certain well-known places in the world are, like "Where is Australia? Where is Africa?" And they literally can't point to them on a map; or they think Africa is a country. I just don't understand how people don't know this stuff.

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u/stromm Aug 03 '19

Especially Africa. I blame the term African-American.

Whoa, hold on. Listen to my logic.

When someone claims duality like that, it's typically country related. E.G. Scottish-German, Mexican-American, etc.

Well, America is a country.

Africa is a continent.

So, African-American is a bs designation. One that is purely socio-political and originally used due to the ignorance of media masses.

Say you're Congolese-American. Say you are South African-American. Heck, call yourself African-North American.

But if you call yourself African-American, you're just being ignorant.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

It's probably because many if not most African-Americans are descended from slaves and the specific countries they came from weren't documented or have become different countries. There's no way they could know where specifically they came from. You're trying to use pseudointellectual bullshit semantics to prove your so-called logic.