African American

African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans, Black Americans, or simply blacks are an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and Central Africa. Many African Americans have European and/or Native American ancestry as well.

Nomenclature

The term African American has been in common usage since the late 1980s, when well-known African Americans, such as Jesse Jackson, pressed for the adoption of a more meaningful term. "African-American" was more in keeping with the tradition of so-called "hyphenated Americans" (like Irish-American or Polish-American), which link people with a geographic point of origin. Malcolm X originally coined the term at an OAAU (Organization of Afro American Unity) meeting, saying "Twenty-two million African-Americans - that's what we are - Africans who are in America."

Related Topics:
1980s - Jesse Jackson - Irish-American - Polish-American - Malcolm X

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Terms used at various points in history include Negroes, colored, blacks and Afro-Americans. Negro and colored were common until the late 1960s, but are now less commonly used and considered by many to be dated, and often derogatory. African American, black and, to a lesser extent, Afro-American are used interchangeably today, but their precise meanings and connotations are in dispute.

Related Topics:
Negro - Colored - Blacks - 1960s

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The term African American is sometimes problematic because of its imprecise cultural and geographic meaning. The term as originally applied refers to only those descended from a small number of colonial indentured servants and the estimated 500,000 Africans taken to British North America or the U.S. as slaves (of about 11 million Africans taken to the Western hemisphere in general). In slightly broader usage, the term can include West Indian and Afro Latino immigrants whose African ancestors also survived the Middle Passage or recent African immigrants/children of immigrants with American citizenship, but these groups tend to use the ethnic terms Latino or Hispanic, or identify themselves by their countries of origin (i.e., as Nigerian, Dominican or Jamaican instead of African American). The term does not include white, Indian or Arab immigrants from the African continent, and they are not generally considered Africans on the continent.

Related Topics:
Indentured servants - West Indian - Middle Passage - Nigeria - Dominican - Jamaican

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The Associated Press stylebook states that the preferred term is black. "African American" should only be used in quotations or with the names of organizations or if individuals describe themselves so.

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