Free at last from the label of “African-American”…

The Grand Rapids Press  02/12/012

“Some Blacks insisting: “I’m not African-American””

http://www.thegrio.com/news/some-blacks-insist-im-not-african-american.php  (I couldn’t find it on Mlive, but this is the article)

The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House.  Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past:  “black”.

For this group – some descended from US slaves, some immigrants with a separate history – “African-American” is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s.  Instead, it’s a misleading connection to a distant culture.

“I prefer to be called black” said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. “How I really feel is, I’m American”.

“I don’t like African-American.  It denotes something else to me than who I am,” said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina.  “I can’t recall any of them telling me anything about Africa.  They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby NC.

“That act of calling me African-American completely erased their history and the sacrifice and contributions it took to make me an author” said Joan Morgan, writer born in Jamaica and move to New York as a child.  

Common Sense Review

Finally, the times are changing… having respect for and appreciating personal history based on parent’s stories and photos creates the positive person going forward instead of the faux belief of being a lesser person because I may come from slaves… We are defined by our history as we know it… Not by the dictation of govt or people who think you should be called African-American or Caucasian, when you are not..