by DjWhite

Created on: June 27, 2008

Are you African-American, Black-American, Other, or do you have the guts, the tenacity, or knowledge of self, to just say, American.

Do we, as America's darker brother, really know who we are? Langston Hughes said "We too, are America" and he's right! Just because of the blood and sweat our ancestors poured in to building America.

Which term is more logical, African-American or Black-American? I venture to say that a high percentage of Black-Americans haven't a clue as to which label to subscribe to.

There are many treatise written about where the term African-American came from. Back in the late seventeen hundreds the term African-American was used to denote the more elite Blacks. During the great war, Northern Blacks were called Black Yankees. Suffice it to say, you can go back a long way and find the different ways each term was used.

In the seventeen hundreds the term or label African-American was closer to the truth than it is now. The people of the late seventeen and early eighteen hundreds, who were captured from the continent without cold, and brought to America, were indeed African-Americans.

Now, those of us who are descendants and have been here for three hundred years, can't logically be called African-American.

Why do I say that?

Let's look at my family history. I'm a Black-American. I've been fortunate enough to trace my history back to the late seventeen hundreds. Not all of my family history is pure African. I [we] suspect our ancestors came from Gambia. We know they were brought to South Carolina and sold.

When my slave owning ancestor died, his white children had a huge fight over his will. They fought about who would get the slaves, one being my great, great-grandmother who was his daughter by a slave. Her son was my maternal great-grandfather. We actually have a copy of that will.

Next, I [we] know that my other maternal great, great, Grandmother was Cherokee and walked the trail of tears when she was nine years old. Her daughter married the grandson of my slave owning ancestor and the progenitorship goes on from there.

Terms, terms, terms, in the human condition the race, ethnicity, nationalism are synonyms for the concept of labeling. Humanity seems to be predisposed to labeling something or someone. Black-American, African-American, Mexican-American, Arab-American, the sun is yellow, no, the sun is orange... etc, etc, etc!

In the late eighties Jesse Jackson, other Black people of distinction, the press, columnists, and commentators, made the phrase

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