Why I Hate the Term “African American”

America is a country full of many races, nationalities, cultures and is overall a melting pot of diversity. But after years of adversity between races, religions, and nationalities in this country, we have prevailed and have risen up as a very powerful nation. Currently, we have let things like labels; define who we are as a people. Labels created by society, that define people before they have a chance to define themselves. Labels lead to stereotypes, that may influence people to a certain kind of thinking or image, that can be positive or negative. Some examples of stereotypes are; women are bad drivers, all Asians are smart, all Arabs and Muslims are terrorist. One thing that these stereotypes have in common is that they are defined to one group of people.

Stereotypes are often implanted into the mind at a very early age, and we use stereotypes because they are fast and efficient cognitive shortcuts.  

After hundreds of years of oppression towards Black people, from 1619 when the first slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Slaves were referred to by slave masters as “Negro” which means “black” in Spanish and Portuguese, and that term was used for centuries until the word “colored” was adapted. Even though words such as, “Negro” and “Colored” were later abandoned by most from the written and spoken word, organizations such as;  (NAACP), the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People,  and (UNCF), The United Negro College Fund, which was started in 1942, chose to keep those words in their titles.  Later came the Civil Rights Movement and the word “Blacks” became the norm, however, some people started to take a stand against the words, “Negro”, “Colored”, and “Blacks”. In December of 1988, Jesse Jackson, a major Civil Rights Activist among other things, stated,

“Just as we were called colored, but were not that, and then Negro, but not that, to be called black is just as baseless…Black tells you about skin color and what side of town you live on. African- American evokes discussion of the world.” 

Ever since that, “African-American” became the proper name to refer to black people. But in recent discovery, the term “African-American” was actually used hundreds of years ago; in the “Sermon On the Capture of Lord Corn Wallis written By an African-American” which was dated back to 1782. The author, who we knew nothing about, did not let anyone dictate what he was to be identified as, instead, he had referred to himself as an “African- American” and that has made all the difference.

However, we now live in a world full of  ‘woke’ people, these are people who exhibit a specific kind of awareness of what is happening in not only their communities but in other social and ethnic groups around the world. In an effort to be more ‘woke’, I now question a term that has been used to describe myself for years- “African American”.

In discovering the history behind the word, “African-American” I admire the symbolic meaning of the word but hate how it is misused in American culture. For one, some people tend to use the word as a nicer way to describe the Black race in America. Secondly, not every black person living in America is an “African-American”, it is seen as a way to generalize a whole entire race/ethnic group, and also suggests that they are only half American, even if they were born in America or have a long line of American ancestors.

A hyphened designation is more commonly used by people who identify with another nationality or ethnic group. But to refer to all Black Americans as “African-American” suggests that they identify with being African, even though many Black Americans do not know their heritage, or simply do not identify with being African. Interestingly enough, many Black Americans do not refer to themselves as “African-American”. We should also realize that there is a huge difference between a “Black American” and an “African American”. An “African-American” can also refer to someone who has emigrated from Africa to America; while, A Black American can have ancestors who were native to Africa or be of mixed heritage but in some way of African descent.

However, I believe that if we identify with the term “African-American” then we should instead identify everyone with terms such as; “European-American” instead of “white”, “Asian-American” instead of Asian, etc. It is also time to find out about your cultural heritage and to not be defined by a simple label no matter the race or nationality.