There's a debate, seemingly exacerbated by the current BLM protests about weather African Americans or Blacks is the right term, or who qualifies.
The term African American was coined around the time of civil rights movement to soften the adjective blacks at a time many have to to associate both the word negro and the word black with something bad.
The most dark toned peoples of the world are of African Heritage, just like a large number of pale skinned people with long faces are of Caucasian origin.
The hyphenated ethno-Americano is an age old expression that originated with the increasing assimilation of various peoples from the different nation states in Europe and Asia. Italian Americans, Irish Americans, Chinese American, etc are just a few examples. None of these ethno-Americans are subdivided into some special abstractions to please the sensibilities of some exclusionists whose only goal is to find a dividing line.
Black people have a tendency of self-division, and it has always worked against them. The idea that one sub-group is superior to others was one of the main catalysts of an extended slavery for black people. It has remained the Achilles heel of countries dominated and run by black people, on the African continent and elsewhere.
In America, black people who have been here the longest tend to want to separate themselves and distinguish themselves from new Arrivals. True, early Europeans did that, but increasingly, they have opted for cooperation and engagement. It is no coincidence that the term white, write-large now stands for almost any human hue that isn't dark skinned. This is because more people of European descent continue to opt for integration and acceptance, rather than division and exclusion.
African-America was coined as as ethno-qualifier for black people, because it is understood that all black people can trace their roots directly to the African continent regardless of their time of arrival or process of arrival.
As Americans and the world debate the situation of blacks in their countries, we shouldn't forget that slavery was not just an American problem. It was a global problem. And we shouldn't forget that the oppression of black men did not end with the abolition of slavery across the world, but rather that it continued with colonization and apartheid. Post colonization, majority black nations from the African continent to the Caribbeans continued to be held down by neocolonization policies that include foisting dictatorships on the peoples to weaken their ability to resist pillaging. True, there were always African turn coats who sold their people for some Esau porridge, but that was true at the time of slavery, and true during Jim Crow.
African-American is not a term reserved for the descendants of slaves. It is a universal term for All peoples of African descent (regardless of their color or ethnicicity) who also call themselves Americans. Just like Irish-American, Jewish-American, Armenian-America, Nigerian-American or any other ethno-hyphenation does for the given ethnic subgroup.
It is time that black people stop dividing themselves, and start working together for the good of their community and society at large.
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