We Are All “African-Americans”

           The United States Census Bureau, part of the Obama Administration, is eliminating the choice of “Negro” as a race, allowing only “black” or “African-American” in its place.  Negro (pronounced nay-gro) is Spanish or Portuguese for black, from the Latin nero.  Traditionally, Negro refers specifically to the African members of the so-called “Negroid race,” as opposed to those blacks who migrated out of Africa many millennia ago, such as Australian Negroes or the Negrito people of New Guinea.    

Apparently, because Negro was in use during the period of the rise of racism and widespread discrimination, the word has come to be thought of as pejorative through a kind of guilt by association, even though it is simply a foreign word for black, which is how most American blacks refer to themselves. There does not appear to be any thought that those of us of Spanish, Portuguese or Italian (the Italian language comes from Latin) ancestry might find the suggestion offensive itself that a word from our language family is considered inherently offensive.

There are several objections to the term “African-American” to label blacks from Africa who reside in America.  It is imprecise in a number of ways to the point of being confusing, and even meaningless.  

The first is that not all Africans are black.  Aside from colonists from Europe and Asia, some indigenous Africans are Asian.  Many North Africans are Semitic while Madagascans are mostly Malayan-Polynesian.  For example, Egyptian-Americans are “African-American” because Egypt is an African state, but most are not black.  Additionally, not all African blacks come directly from Africa, such as some South Asians and those mentioned above from Australia and New Guinea who thousands of years ago all left Africa.   

            The main objection to the term “African-American” for Africans who are black is that it is applicable to all human beings.  According to biologists who traced the mitochondrial DNA all major ethnic groups, all modern humans are descended from an East African woman.  Thus, all humans are genetic Africans.  Therefore, all Americans – not only those who are black from Africa or elsewhere – are “African-Americans.”

            The word black or perhaps the terms black African or African black are better than “African-American” to refer more specifically to blacks from Africa and not to members of the Negroid race from elsewhere.  Black African or African black would differentiate better than black between members of the Negroid race and the “untouchable” dark-skinned caste of India, who are Asian.  

           The Census bureau has yielded to political correctness in eliminating “Negro” and allowing “African-American” as choices.  Moreover, scientists also tell us that although there are some minor physical differences between some ethnic groups that are generally because of physical adaptations to their environments, there really is no such thing as race among human beings.  There is only the human race – a species, homo sapiens, with origins in East Africa thousands of years ago.