Just Call Us ‘Black Americans’

I hold no gripe against Africa or association with things African. I think it fitting that Kwanzaa, an African cultural holiday, was created by an American and is celebrated in America.

But as a person of color, born in the United States, I want to promote the use of “Black American” instead of “African American” to identify black people who were born in the United States. To be described as an African American denies contributions made by our parents, grandparents and other native-born Black Americans. Their remarkable record was established as American Negroes (later as Black Americans), not as Africans. The appellation African American ignores those we revere: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Mahalia Jackson, Marion Anderson, Jesse Owens, Justice Thurgood Marshall, Duke Ellington, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Ralph Bunche, Jackie Robinson and many other Black Americans who contributed much to the greatness of America.

The description “African American” should be assigned to those born in Africa who have become citizens of the U.S. We should not compromise their entitlement, or usurp their privilege to be proud African Americans of any color, anymore than those of color who are Korean Americans, Italian Americans, French Americans, English Americans, Canadian Americans, or the native-born from any other country. Hyphenated citizenship in the U.S. should not mean color but nationality.

Many black people from places like Haiti, Cuba and the West Indies are living in the U.S. What should they be called?

Africa is a continent that includes many colors, cultures and nations, including South Africa and Egypt. For people from the American black heritage, this distinction is very important. The American Black culture was fomented by slaveowners who stripped from their slaves the heritage they brought to America. As a result, the culture of the American Negro was established in America and stands as unique alongside that of the Native American.

Black people born in America are Americans, not Africans. The American black has become so assimilated genetically that it is very difficult to find native-born second-generation families without a European ancestral branch in their family tree.

The U.S. identity presented throughout the world as American is interwoven with the contributions of Black Americans as well. That which is American has not been separated into strands of black or white in other nations. From the perspective of others in the world, their concept of an American is that of a common nationality. It is therefore vital to Black Americans to claim their full share of the American heritage.

We must continue to exercise our right to vote and utilize other channels fought for through the struggles of those who preceded us. If you believe, as do I, that as a Black American you are entitled to the rights, privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in the United States, then help to ensure such entitlement by proudly wearing the mantle of being a Black American.

The U.S. 1990 Census of Population and Housing reports the preference for racial or ethnic terminology by the group of people the term is meant to represent: 44% preferred Black American; 28% preferred African American.