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| Black Americans or African Americans (photo: Google Search-Fair Use) |
No, this doesn’t
mean that Black Americans are denying heritage, but it brings about an
opportunity to talk about Blackness and its meanings without inserting another
culture that we’ve (Black Americans) have been 20-generations removed. Yes,
Black Power; it’s the hour-to-tower!
By Don Allen,
M.A. Ed./MAT
Let’s stick to the facts; when did the term African American become the term to identify Black American-born people? That moment unfolded in December 1988, in a lower-level conference room of the Hyatt Hotel near O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was holding a closed session with the National Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH board and other high-ranking campaign supporters. The meeting was to be an “agenda-setting” session intended to send a signal about Jackson’s future and how he would harness the potential of the coalition he had built during his presidential bid. Anticipation was high from the media, with serious speculation about runs for mayor, governor, senator, or appointment to ambassadorships. The discussions were free-flowing, with most of the attendees wanting to tackle ongoing issues from apartheid and sanctions to labor unions to farmers, and even talk about planning for a third presidential race and what would be needed to make it viable.
After lunch, unexpectedly, the late C. Delores Tucker (best known for taking on rap music and Tupac Shakur) stood up and made a highly passionate argument for the use of “African-American” as opposed to Black. Her reason was clear and simple: “Nobody lives in Blackland!” Everyone has a spiritual and cultural connection attached to a place in the world that their ancestors called home, except black people. “African-American” would give us a connection to our heritage, our past and our future.
Most Black
Americans do not identify with Africans and most genuine African-Americans
(i.e., people who recently emigrated from Africa to the U.S. or who divide
their time between two continents) do not identify with Black Americans. The
Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made this point very movingly in a
recent talk she gave at the Free Library in Philadelphia as part of a tour she
is on to promote her new book Americanah. “American,” Adichie explained in
response to a question about what race she had in mind when someone was
referred to simply as “American,” “is a mark that culture leaves, never a
physical description.” She said that when she came to the U.S. she did not want
to be identified with black Americans and even “recoiled” when a man in
Brooklyn referred to her as “sister.” I’m not your sister, she thought to
herself. I have three brothers and I know where they are, and you’re not one of
them!
Many argued that
the term African-American should refer to the descendants of slaves brought
to the United States centuries ago, not to newcomers who have not inherited the
legacy of bondage, segregation and legal discrimination. Dr. Bobby Austin,
an administrator at the University of the District of Columbia understood why
some blacks were offended when Mr. Kamus claimed an African-American identity.
Dr. Austin said some people feared that Black immigrants and their children
would snatch up the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights
movement (Source).
Do a google
search on the term “African-American” if you want to see how many black
Americans feel about it. Check out the Facebook page “Don’t Call Me
African-American,” or Charles Mosley’s guest column in in the February 12, 2013
edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “By using the term ‘African-American’ to
refer to black people,” Mosley writes, “columnists, readers, TV hosts and
commentators perpetuate and embrace Jim Crow racial stereotypes, segregation
and historical distortions. … Africa is not a racial or ethnic identity. Africa
is a geographical identity.” In fact, you almost never hear blacks refer to
themselves as “African-American,” unless it is to please a white audience,
and there is a good reason for that: They do not think of themselves as
African-American. They do not identify with Africa, at least not until we
remind them, by referring to them as “African-American,” that they are supposed
to (Source).
Black Americans
are at a crossroad; when an African immigrant with no history or experience of
racism or slavery associates with the mainstream, they are treated as model
citizens. When Black Americans engage the mainstream system, we (in most cases)
are considered “less-than” our African immigrant brothers and sisters - its been that way for a long time. The
suggestion would be that Black Americans take back the power of being Black in
America and call us what we are: “Black Americans.”
