Defining the "African-American"

[IllmaticDelta]

What's In a Name?
Negro vs. Afro-American vs. Black

Are there substantial grounds for the violent opposition to the word "Negro"?

To answer these questions and to relate them to the whole bubbling controversy, one must go back 400 years. For Americans of African descent have been arguing about names ever since they were forcibly transported from Africa by Europeans who arbitrarily branded them "Blackamoors," "Moors," "negers," and "negros." The English word "Negro" is a derivative of the Spanish and Portuguese word negro, which means black. The Portuguese and Spanish, who were pioneers in the African Slave Trade, used this adjective to designate the African men and women whom they captured and transported to the slave mart of the New World. Within a short time, the Portuguese word negro (no capital) became the English noun-adjective "negro." This word, which was not capitalized at first, fused not only humanity, nationality and place of origin but also certain white judgements about the inherent and irredeemable inferiority of the persons so designated The word also referred to certain Jim Crow places, i.e., the "negro pew" in Christian churches.

Although the word "Negro" became a generally acceptable designation in the l930s, there was strong opposition from militant radicals like Adam Clayton Powell, who continued to use the word "black," and from militant nationalists like Elijah Muhammad, who continued to speak of "so-called Negroes." This opposition, inchoate and unorganized, was sharpened in the '50s and '60s by the rhetorical artistry of Malcolm X and the emergence of the Black Power movement. But MalcoIm X and the Black Power movement were reflections of a general crisis of identity which is similar in tone and urgency to the crises of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th.

It appears, from this short historical sketch, that the word "Negro" has been a generally acceptable term in the black or, if you prefer, the Negro community for relatively short time. It appears also that there has been continuous and sustained opposition to the term. Contemporary critics of the word "Negro" say Booker T. Washington was primarily responsible for the campaign in which the word "Negro" supplanted the the words "black," "colored," and "Afro-American." There is truth in this -- the Negro Year Book and the Negro Business League were Washington projects -- but it is not the whole truth. The movement for adoption of the word "Negro" was also given a strong impetus by militant radicals like W. E. B. Du Bois, who was one of the founders of the American Negro Academy, and militant nationalists like Marcus Garvey, who used the word "Negro" consistently and named his organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Baird objects to the word "Negro" on two grounds. 1) The word "Negro" is a slave-oriented epithet which was imposed on Americans of African descent by slavemasters. "The word came into use," Baird says, "in connection with the enslavement of the African in the New World. The use of the word became connected with what Earl Conrad has so well called the "Negro-Concept," that grotesque conception of the African which has been shaped in the mind of the European and forced with Procrustean cruelty on the person and personality of the black American."

2) The word "Negro" is not geographically or culturally specific. "Historically," he says, "human groups have been named according to the land from which they originated .... The unwillingness of the dominant group to recognize the humanity of the African is evidenced by the fact that when it is necessary or desired to identify Americans in terns of the land of their origin, terms such as Italian-American, Polish-American, Spanish-American, Jewish-American (referring back to the ancient kingdom and culture of Judaea), etc., are employed. In the American mind there is no connection of the black American with land, history and culture--factors which proclaim the humanity of an individual." Baird denies that the English word "Negro" is a synonym for black. He says. "'Negro' does not mean simply 'black,' which would be the simple, direct opposite of 'white.' We talk about a 'white man' or a 'white Cadillac'; we may talk, as many unfortunately do, of a 'Negro man,' but never of a 'Negro Cadillac.'

Baird believes the word "Afro-American" will supplant the word "Negro." He does not object to the term "black," which, he says, lacks the historical and cultural precision of the word "Afro-American." He is supported in this view by Richard Moore, Harlem bookstore owner and author of The Name "Negro"--It's Origin and Evil Use. Moore says the word "Negro" is so "saturated with filth," so "polluted" with the white man's stereotypes, that "there is nothing to be done but to get rid of it." He prefers the word "Afro-American" because of its "correctness, exactness, even elegance." He believes the adoption of the word will force "these prejudiced European-Americans" to reevaluate black people in terms of their history and culture. "Black," Moore said, "is a loose color designation which is not connected with land, history, and culture. While I recognize it as a step forward in getting rid of the term 'Negro,' I think it is necessary to take the next step."

Bennett, What's In a Name? Negro vs. Afro-American vs. Black (1967)

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Yeah I think we need to define ourselves as an ethnicity more than ever.

Recently one of my friends who is Haitian-American said, "I never knew you were part Haitian?"

Me: "Yeah..."

Him: "I thought you were just black? "

Me: "What do you mean black?"

Him: "You know black, 'black'."

Me:" You mean African-American?"

Him: "I think so."

I had to elaborate to him that my family on my mothers side comes from the south, he knows that Haitians don't normally live in the south compared to here in the Northeast. That was the only way he understood what being African-American was.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Yeah I think we need to define ourselves as an ethnicity more than ever.

Recently one of my friends who is Haitian-American said, "I never knew you were part Haitian?"

Me: "Yeah..."

Him: "I thought you were just black? "

Me: "What do you mean black?"

Him: "You know black, 'black'."

Me:" You mean African-American?"

Him: "I think so."

I had to elaborate to him that my family on my mothers side comes from the south, he knows that Haitians don't normally live in the south compared to here in the Northeast. That was the only way he understood what being African-American was.

 

[Yehuda]

Recently one of my friends who is Haitian-American said, "I never knew you were part Haitian?"

Me: "Yeah..."

Him: "I thought you were just black? "

 

[BigMan]

Yeah I think we need to define ourselves as an ethnicity more than ever.

Recently one of my friends who is Haitian-American said, "I never knew you were part Haitian?"

Me: "Yeah..."

Him: "I thought you were just black? "

Me: "What do you mean black?"

Him: "You know black, 'black'."

Me:" You mean African-American?"

Him: "I think so."

I had to elaborate to him that my family on my mothers side comes from the south, he knows that Haitians don't normally live in the south compared to here in the Northeast. That was the only way he understood what being African-American was.

we second generation Americans tend to say stuff like "regular black" or "black black" or "just black" for AA

 

[Crayola Coyote]

My folks from Africa, I was born in America, I just say I'm African American. fukk it..

 

[IllmaticDelta]

What's In a Name?
Negro vs. Afro-American vs. Black










Bennett, What's In a Name? Negro vs. Afro-American vs. Black (1967)

follow up

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Good breakdown

 

[IllmaticDelta]

we second generation Americans tend to say stuff like "regular black" or "black black" or "just black" for AA

That's what Aframs say too about themselves in context/contrast with foreign blacks. As I said before, most Aframs don't identify by their ethnicity or nationality but more by their race whereas as foreign people of African descent mainly identify by nationality/tribe.

 

[K.O.N.Y]

we second generation Americans tend to say stuff like "regular black" or "black black" or "just black" for AA

 

[Bawon Samedi]

That's what Aframs say too about themselves in context/contrast with foreign blacks. As I said before, most Aframs don't identify by their ethnicity or nationality but more by their race whereas as foreign people of African descent mainly identify by nationality/tribe.

And there's gonna be more problems to come from that. But hey just continue...

 

[IllmaticDelta]

And there's gonna be more problems to come from that. But hey just continue...

aframs within context do identify by their nationality/ethnicity but in most informal situations, it's by race.

 

[Blackout]

AAs identify by race and ethnicity.

Its just that we value our race over our ethnicity while foreign blacks tend to value their ethnicity over their race.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

aframs within context do identify by their nationality/ethnicity but in most informal situations, it's by race.

Still African-Americans really badly need to specify our ethnicity so we can have our own cultural and historic legacy that is unique to our own. This is why I value African-American over Black-American and the reason why I created this thread. By continuing to go only by "black", we only allow other blacks(no offense to those blacks) to come right in and lay claim to any African-American achievements. Which is why we keep getting these debates about whether or not Hip Hop was created by African-Americans or not.

But worse we get people saying stuff like this and it being championing as fact:

Indeed.

African Americans are not a homogenous group.
I think it is a great injustice to try to group us all as "the same".
There is A LOT of diversity within the black American population that is ignored.

Again, they like the Gullah have roots in the Caribbean.

African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! - Culture - Nigeria

^^Those are posts by a member named Kails/MsDarkskin from Nairaland, she deactivated her account. She was a very cool person and me and her was cool back on Nairaland. But one thing that I didn't like about her views is that they were very "Caribbean-centric."

What she is essentially saying is that not only are African-Americans not homogenous, but that we all have different origins and some of those origins being outside of the USA and in the Caribbean. She also use to try and claim using faulty arguments that Gullah and Creoles don't have the same origins as "mainstream AAs" and that those two groups have origins more outside the USA; the Caribbean. We knows this is not true. She tried to use a study on Gullah and Jamaican DNA, but it doesn't say what she thinks it is saying. All it really said was that both Jamaicans and Gullahs in terms of distant plot closer to Sierra Leone, not that Gullahs are more related to Jamaicans or that Gullahs are FROM Jamaica. Plus a good number of people from South Carolina also have Sierra Leone ancestry. And we also know that the Gullah people and culture emerged in southern USA along with other AAs, but just that Gullahs compared to other AAs retained more of their early AA culture.

But that's besides the point, THESE are the type of talking points when we as AAs don't define our ethnicity and keep being afraid of the word "African" and using a racial term before "American. You have people sweeping right in making these types of statements. Back then I wasn't so well versed in African-American history or ethnogenesis so I really couldn't counter her claims. It wasn't even being influenced by creole named @Supper and another poster named "RandomAfricanAM" that I became more versed in AA ethnogeneis.

But you get where I'm coming from. AAs going primarly by a racial term can backfire on us...

 

[Apollo Creed]

AAs identify by race and ethnicity.

Its just that we value our race over our ethnicity while foreign blacks tend to value their ethnicity over their race.

It's because the "concept of Race" doesnt exist outside of the Americas. America is literally the "belly of the beast" when it comes to White Supremacy thus the concept of "Black" comes into play. Someone born in say Mali, has no concept of "Black" unless they have had interaction with non "Blacks" but even then in Mali they would still be referred to by their Tribe.

IMO African American is to the US as Yoruba is to Nigeria. It is an ethnic group native the the land it is in.

IMO someone who's parents are from say Ghana, but they are born in the US is not an African American they are what ever their Tribe is ethnically, but Nationally American thus they are Black American.

So if you have a hospital with 5 kids who's parents are from Harlem, Lagos, Kingston, Haiti, and Atlanta they'd all be Black Americans, but ethnically each one is different.

We are all united by our Blackness and the history of all of our ancestors is what unite us.