by Roger Crain

Created on: July 12, 2010   Last Updated: May 16, 2012

I am an American, pure and simple.  So why should I refer to myself as being black or African American when the prevailing consensus dictates my role, and thus, my allegiance as a citizen of these United States of America.

The way I see it, it took an extremely long time for people of my ilk to reach the status of being referred to as Negroes.  Yet, up until that seminal moment in time, we were referred to as colored people or with those shades of meanings which has been passed down to us through those colorful variations of the n-word.

It wasn't until the era of the 1960's, when the black revolution was just getting under way, that a new generation of my people wanted to refer to themselves as black.  Thus, the black power movement took up the gauntlet where the civil rights movement had left off.  Colored people and negro held a disdain for these exuberant yet young black revolutionaries who viewed being called a colored person or negro as too slavish; and so, their efforts were to infuse a new paradigm for the masses of blacks to force them to break away from everything that didn't celebrate the pride of being a black man or woman.

They knew that they wanted the masses of blacks to be identified with who they were as a people.  Thus, the proponents of the black power movement adopted the moniker African American as a way for black people to identify with the mother country (Africa) yet retain their rights as American citizens.

Stokely Carmichael was one of the leading proponents of the black power movement; yet, he and his cohorts would often be at loggerheads as to what direction they wanted black people to take.  Consequently, the black power movement met its' demise because of conflicting ideologies within the movement.

Thus the question:  Does being black American constitutes me as being African American?  It does if you find your identity in your nationality and/or ethnicity.  My identity is found in the fact of being born in a free country and having all the rights and privileges accorded to me as a citizen of this great republic.  Furthermore, I also identify with who I am as a Christian; being born and raised a baptist, I entered a unique fellowship of believers at the age of 13.  This fellowship had a rather unorthodox method in teaching its' members a practical approach to the gospel, but our faith was genuine and was not to be belittled by the outward circumstances of our lives.

So saying that being black American constitute one to being African American only dilute the importance of the role that one has played as a citizen of this country.  That role shouldn't be sacrosanct as to the ethnicity of black or African American, but should be directly related to how one is living out his or her life as a citizen of this great republic.

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