Black Americans have been called a lot of names. Within the last century the ever-changing nomenclature has gone from Negro to colored, black, Afro American and now, African American.
But as the number of African immigrants and other foreign-born blacks increase, a quiet debate has ensued: Just who is African American these days?
Current racial labels are too broad to reflect the diversity of a group of people that includes U.S.-born blacks, and immigrants from African nations, the Caribbean islands, and Central and South America, said Benjamin Ola Akande, the Nigerian-born dean of Webster University’s School of Business and Technology.
“Labeling is an American phenomenon,” Akande said. “It’s dangerous, because what it does is it takes out the uniqueness of each of the individuals or groups that fall into this label.”
Finding a common description has been an issue since African slaves were brought to the United States and known simply as Africans. By the 17th century, “Negro,” which means “black” in many Latin-based languages, became widely used. “Colored” gained popularity by the early 1900s because it was seen as more inclusive.
The civil rights era shifted the word choice to “black,” as it became associated with political movements and groups such as the Black Panthers, and then Afro American, as more blacks began to reclaim their African heritage.
Today’s common use of the description “African American” is often credited to the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“Just as we were called colored, but were not that, and then Negro, but not that, to be called black is just as baseless,” he said in a 1988 speech. “Every ethnic group in this country has reference to some cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of maturity.”
Today, black and African American often are used interchangeably. The debate, however, is over to whom it should apply.