African-American

A defense of the term

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

In 1988 Rev. Jesse Jackson urged black Americans to drop the adjective “black” and replace it with “African”. Jackson argued that “black” no longer described “our” situation in America. The term African-American was used for decades. Then Jesse Jackson fell from grace and his “invented term” fell out of favor.

Motown legend Smokey Robinson recently told an interviewer he hated being called an African-American. Robinson said the term disclaimed all the contributions that black people have made to America.

Many black conservatives rejected the term because they felt more American than African. Other black people said they preferred “black” because they weren’t from Africa.

Since the number of African immigrants in the United States has tripled since the 1990s, many black Americans believe the term African-American more accurately describes these immigrants and not them. Moreover, the adjective African is not synonymous with black, white billionaire Elon Musk was born in Africa and is also an American.

These reasons don’t take into account two details.

1). Many people from the African continent who have immigrated to the U.S. think the term “African-American” should only refer to black Americans because the term omits their specific cultural heritage…