Is the term '흑인' the equivalent to African-American or black?
I was watching Korean television and I came across someone talking about black culture, hip-hop and so forth. I never knew of a way to say "black" in Korean (other than the color) and always used 아프리카 미국인. To see this other way caught my attention and I wanted to see if it has any other meanings behind it before I started to use it.

Does '흑인' mean anything else? I don't want to start referring to myself and say something degrading. Not to say that I believe it will, but just to be on the safe side.

정말 감사합니다! ^^

Question

Is the term '흑인' the equivalent to African-American or black?
I was watching Korean television and I came across someone talking about black culture, hip-hop and so forth. I never knew of a way to say "black" in Korean (other than the color) and always used 아프리카 미국인. To see this other way caught my attention and I wanted to see if it has any other meanings behind it before I started to use it.

Does '흑인' mean anything else? I don't want to start referring to myself and say something degrading. Not to say that I believe it will, but just to be on the safe side.

정말 감사합니다! ^^

Answer

흑인 is a term to refer to black people in general. They are not region- or heritage-specific.

아프리칸 미국인 is not Korean. :) More natural term is 미국계 흑인 (Americanized Black) although it is not exactly what "African American" implies historically and politically.

Gloups mentioned if 흑인, 황인 and 백인 are used to address someone and/or oneself. While Koreans use 흑인 and 백인 to refer others, they don't refer themselves as 황인. It's just a term that sprung up in response to 흑인 and 백인. Instead, Koreans call use 동양인 (People in the East).

I hope this helps!

Answer

To my knowledge, 흑인 unambiguously refers to literally 'black persons", so not specifically African Americans. Now i think it hardly happens that somebody refers to oneself or somebody else (at least if the guy is present), as 흑인, 황인, or 백인. Hope a Korean mate will answer... ;-)