Editing African Americans (section)

==Terminology==
===General===
[[File:"Afro-Americans" float in Golden Potlatch parade, Seattle, July 1911 (MOHAI 5590).jpg|thumb|left|This parade float displayed the word "Afro-Americans" in 1911.]]
The term ''African American'' was popularized by [[Jesse Jackson]] in the 1980s,<ref name="wilkersonnyt">{{Cite news|last1=Wilkerson|first1=Isabel|date=January 31, 1989|title='African-American' Favored By Many of America's Blacks|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/31/us/african-american-favored-by-many-of-america-s-blacks.html|access-date=December 28, 2020|issn=0362-4331|quote=A movement led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson to call blacks African-Americans has met with both rousing approval and deep-seated skepticism in a debate that is coming to symbolize the role and history of blacks in this country. ... The question of a name has caused pain and controversy since the first Africans were captured and shipped to the Americas in the 17th century. The slaves called themselves Africans at first, but slave masters gave them English names and called them Negroes, the Portuguese word for black, historians say. That term was resented by some blacks who said it was degrading when whites mispronounced it, accidentally or intentionally.}}</ref> although there are recorded uses from the 18th and 19th centuries,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2015-04-20 |title=Use of 'African-American' Dates to Nation's Early Days |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/arts/use-of-african-american-dates-to-nations-early-days.html |access-date=2024-02-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> for example, in post-emancipation holidays and conferences.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Times-Picayune 29 Nov 1885, page Page 3 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-african-american-day/65889728/ |access-date=2024-02-12  |website=Newspapers.com |date=1885 |page=3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Evening Herald 09 May 1884, page 1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-herald-african-american-conferen/171531828/ |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Newspapers.com |date=1884 |page=1 |language=en}}</ref> Earlier terms also used to describe Americans of African ancestry referred more to skin color than to ancestry. Other terms (such as ''[[colored]]'', ''[[person of color]]'', or ''[[negro]]'') were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which some thought were being used as tools of [[White supremacy]] and [[oppression]].<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/outofmouthsofsla00john|url-access=registration|title=Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice|author=Baugh, John|page=[https://archive.org/details/outofmouthsofsla00john/page/86 86]|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|isbn=978-0-292-70873-0|year=1999}}</ref>

[[File:Michelle Obama official portrait crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Michelle Obama]] was the [[First Lady of the United States]]; she and her husband, President Barack Obama, are the first African Americans to hold these positions.]]

A 16-page pamphlet entitled "A Sermon on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis" is notable for the attribution of its authorship to "An ''African American''". Published in 1782, the book's use of this phrase predates any other yet identified by more than 50 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.harvard.edu/houghton/2015/04/23/exploring-the-origins-of-african-american/|title=Exploring the origins of 'African American' Houghton Library Blog|website=blogs.harvard.edu|access-date=May 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507153324/https://blogs.harvard.edu/houghton/2015/04/23/exploring-the-origins-of-african-american/|archive-date=May 7, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the 1980s, the term ''African American'' was advanced on the model of, for example, [[German Americans|German American]] or [[Irish Americans|Irish American]], to give descendants of [[Slavery in the United States|American slaves]], and other American Blacks who lived through the slavery era, a [[Cultural heritage|heritage]] and a cultural base.<ref name="books.google.com"/> The term was popularized in Black communities around the country via [[word of mouth]] and ultimately received mainstream use after [[Jesse Jackson]] publicly used the term in front of a national audience in 1988. Subsequently, major media outlets adopted its use.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Surveys in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century showed that the majority of Black Americans had no preference for ''African American'' versus ''Black American'',<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/black-african-american.aspx|title=Black or African American?|first=Frank|last=Newport|publisher=Gallup|date=September 28, 2007|access-date=September 26, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906124630/https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/Black-African-American.aspx|archive-date=September 6, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> although they had a slight preference for the latter in personal settings and the former in more formal settings.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Pepper|last2=Kemp|first2=Herb|title=What's Black About? Insights to Increase Your Share of a Changing African-American Market|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OzZr_U2x_wC&pg=PA8|publisher=Paramount Market Publishing, Inc|year=2006|isbn=978-0-9725290-9-9|oclc=61694280}}</ref> By 2021, according to polling from [[Gallup, Inc.|Gallup]], 58% of Black Americans expressed no preference for what their group should be called, with 17% each preferring ''Black'' and ''African-American''. Among those with no preference, Gallup found a slight majority favored ''Black'' "if [they] had to choose."<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Justin and Whitney Dupree |date=2021-08-04 |title=No Preferred Racial Term Among Most Black, Hispanic Adults |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/353000/no-preferred-racial-term-among-black-hispanic-adults.aspx |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Gallup.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2020, the [[Associated Press]] updated its [[AP Stylebook]] to direct its writers to capitalize the first letter of ''Black'' when it is used "in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-20 |title=Explaining AP style on Black and white |url=https://apnews.com/article/archive-race-and-ethnicity-9105661462 |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other outlets made similar changes at the same time, to put "Black" on the same footing as other racial and ethnic terms, such as Latino, Asian, and African-American.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Coleman |first=Nancy |date=2020-07-05 |title=Why We're Capitalizing Black |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black.html |access-date=2024-03-31 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

In 2023, the government released a new more detailed breakdown due to the rise in racially Black immigration into the US, listing African American as a compound termed ethnicity, distinguished from other racially Black ethnicities such as Nigerian, Jamaican etc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Improvements to the 2020 Census Race and Hispanic Origin Question Designs, Data Processing, and Coding Procedures |url=https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/improvements-to-2020-census-race-hispanic-origin-question-designs.html |access-date=2023-09-30 |website=Census.gov}}</ref>

The term ''African American'' embraces [[pan-Africanism]] as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as [[Marcus Garvey]], [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], and [[George Padmore]]. The term ''Afro-[[Usonia]]n'', and variations of such, are more rarely used.<ref>Brennan, Timothy. 2008. ''Secular Devotion: Afro-Latin Music and Imperial Jazz'', p. 249.</ref><ref>[https://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/12/what_call_americans "Yankees, gringos and USAnians"], ''[[The Economist]]'', December 9, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2014.</ref>

===Official identity===
[[File:US Census Bureau keypunch operators, Negro section.jpg|thumb|[[Racially segregated]] Negro section of keypunch operators at the [[US Census Bureau]]]]
Since 1977, in an attempt to keep up with changing social opinion, the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] has officially classified Black people (revised to ''Black'' or ''African American'' in 1997) as "having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa."<ref name="censusblack">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|first=Jesse|last=McKinnon|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=October 22, 2007|title=The Black Population: 2000 United States Census Bureau}}</ref> Other federal offices, such as the US Census Bureau, adhere to the [[Office of Management and Budget]] standards on race in their data collection and tabulation efforts.<ref name="OMB">{{cite web|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html |title=Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity |year=1997 |publisher=Office of Management and Budget |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315191301/https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html |archive-date=March 15, 2009 }}</ref> In preparation for the [[2010 United States census|2010 US census]], a marketing and outreach plan called ''2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan'' (ICC) recognized and defined African Americans as Black people born in the United States. From the ICC perspective, African Americans are one of three groups of Black people in the United States.<ref name="US2010ICCBlkAud">{{cite web|title=2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan|url=https://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|website=2010 Census|publisher=United States Census Bureau|page=225|date=August 2008|access-date=September 6, 2012|quote=The Black audience includes all individuals of Black African descent. There are three major groups that represent the Black Audience in the United States. These groups are African Americans (Blacks born in the United States), Black Africans (Black Immigrants from Africa) and Afro-Caribbeans, which includes Haitians.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310013605/http://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|archive-date=March 10, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The ICC plan was to reach the three groups by acknowledging that each group has its own sense of community that is based on geography and ethnicity.<ref name="US2010ICCBstRch">{{cite web|title=2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan|url=https://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|website=2010 Census|publisher=United States Census Bureau|page=230|date=August 2008|access-date=September 6, 2012|quote=Community, both geographic and ethnic, creates a sense of belonging and pride that is unique to the Black audience (African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, and Black Africans).|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310013605/http://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|archive-date=March 10, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> The best way to market the census process toward any of the three groups is to reach them through their own unique communication channels and not treat the entire Black population of the US as though they are all African Americans with a single ethnic and geographical background. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] of the [[United States Department of Justice|US Department of Justice]] categorizes Black or African American people as "[a] person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, [[United States Department of Commerce|US Department of Commerce]], derived from the 1977 [[Office of Management and Budget]] classification.<ref name="FBIpop">{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/ucr_handbook.pdf/view|title=Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook|publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation|page=97|year=2004|format=PDF|access-date=July 28, 2016|archive-date=July 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707134708/https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/ucr_handbook.pdf/view|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Admixture===
{{See also||Interracial marriage in the United States|Miscegenation#United States|Multiracial American|One-drop rule|hypodescent}}
Historically, "[[Miscegenation|race mixing]]" between Black and White people was [[taboo]] in the United States. So-called [[anti-miscegenation laws]], barring Blacks and Whites from [[Interracial marriage in the United States|marrying]] or having sex, were established in [[colonial America]] as early as 1691,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.backintyme.com/essay050101.htm|title=The Invention of the Color Line: 1691—Essays on the Color Line and the One-Drop Rule |author=Frank W Sweet |publisher=Backentyme Essays|date=January 1, 2005|access-date=January 4, 2008|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070409160923/https://backintyme.com/essay050101.htm|archive-date=April 9, 2007}}</ref> and endured in many [[Southern United States|Southern states]] until the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled them unconstitutional in ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'' (1967). The taboo among American Whites surrounding White-Black relations is a historical consequence of the oppression and [[racial segregation]] of African Americans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yancey|first=George|date=March 22, 2007|title=Experiencing Racism: Differences in the Experiences of Whites Married to Blacks and Non-Black Racial Minorities|journal=Journal of Comparative Family Studies|volume=38|issue=2|pages=197–213|doi=10.3138/jcfs.38.2.197}}</ref> Historian [[David Brion Davis]] notes the racial mixing that occurred during slavery was frequently attributed by the [[Plantations in the American South|planter class]] to the "lower-class white males" but Davis concludes that "there is abundant evidence that many slaveowners, sons of slaveowners, and overseers took Black mistresses or in effect raped the wives and daughters of slave families."<ref>[[David Brion Davis|Davis, David Brion]]. ''[[Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World]].''(2006) {{ISBN|978-0-19-514073-6}} p. 201</ref> A famous example was [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s mistress, [[Sally Hemings]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Memoirs of Madison Hemings|publisher=PBS Frontline|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1873march.html}}</ref> Although publicly opposed to race mixing, Jefferson, in his ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'' published in 1785, wrote: "The improvement of the Blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition of life".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Higginbotham |first1=A. Leon |title=In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process. The Colonial Period |publisher=Oxford University Press US |date=1980 |page=10}}</ref>

[[Harvard University]] historian [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]] wrote in 2009 that "African Americans...are a racially mixed or [[mulatto]] people—deeply and overwhelmingly so". After the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], [[Chinese Americans|Chinese American]] men married African American women in high proportions to their total marriage numbers due to few Chinese American women being in the United States.<ref name="The United States">{{cite web|url=https://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=America&x=ChineseBlacks|title=The United States|website=Chinese blacks in the Americas|publisher=Color Q World|access-date=March 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615185501/http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=America&x=ChineseBlacks|archive-date=June 15, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> African slaves and their descendants have also had a history of cultural exchange and [[Miscegenation|intermarriage]] with Native Americans,<ref name="gen2">{{cite web|url=https://www.african-nativeAmerican.com/1IntroPage.htm|title=Researching Black Native American Genealogy of the Five Civilized Tribes|first=Angela Y.|last=Walton-Raji|access-date=March 20, 2018|year=2008|publisher=Oklahoma's Black Native Americans}}</ref> although they did not necessarily retain social, cultural or linguistic ties to Native peoples.<ref name="sad">{{cite book|author=G. Reginald Daniel|title=More Than Black?: Multiracial|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9tP7_3j3WrkC&pg=PA129YEAR|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=9781439904831|date=June 25, 2010}}</ref> There are also increasing intermarriages and offspring between non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics of any race, especially between [[Puerto Ricans]] and African Americans.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|title=Census.gov|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=July 9, 2012}}</ref>

Racially mixed marriages have become increasingly accepted in the United States since the civil rights movement and up to the present day.<ref name="Swanbrow">{{cite news|url=https://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/3396-intimate-relationships-between-races-more-common-than-thought|title=Intimate Relationships Between Races More Common Than Thought|last=Swanbrow|first=Diane|date=March 23, 2000|publisher=University of Michigan|access-date=March 20, 2018}}</ref> Approval in national opinion polls has risen from 36% in 1978, to 48% in 1991, 65% in 2002, 77% in 2007.<ref>[[Paul Krugman|Krugman, Paul]], ''[[The Conscience of a Liberal]]'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, p. 210.</ref> A Gallup poll conducted in 2013 found that 84% of Whites and 96% of Blacks approved of interracial marriage, and 87% overall.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve-marriage-blacks-whites.aspx|title=In U.S., 87% Approve of Black-White Marriage, vs. 4% in 1958|author=Newport, Frank|publisher=Gallup|date=July 25, 2013|access-date=December 21, 2015}}</ref> Black men are more than twice as likely to [[Interracial marriage in the United States|date and marry interracially than Black women]].<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=4850739 | date=2015 | last1=Raley | first1=R. K. | last2=Sweeney | first2=M. M. | last3=Wondra | first3=D. | title=The Growing Racial and Ethnic Divide in U.S. Marriage Patterns | journal=The Future of Children | volume=25 | issue=2 | pages=89–109 | doi=10.1353/foc.2015.0014 | pmid=27134512 }}</ref>

At the end of World War II, some African American military men stationed in [[Japan]] and [[Germany]] impregnated local non-Black women, resulting in the birth of thousands of mixed-race children. Many of these families later immigrated to the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dornsifelive.usc.edu/events/site/192/579045/|title=Rising Sun, "Rising Soul": Mixed Race Japanese of African Descent > Event Details > USC Center for Japanese Religions and Culture|website=dornsifelive.usc.edu|access-date=January 1, 2020|archive-date=January 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101093208/http://dornsifelive.usc.edu/events/site/192/579045/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-54737460 |title=Growing up as a black child in post-war Germany |publisher=British Broadcasting Company |website=BBC |date=30 October 2020 |access-date=7 February 2025}}</ref>

===<span id="The">Terminology dispute</span>===
Author [[Debra Dickerson]] has argued that the term ''[[Black people|Black]]'' should refer strictly to the descendants of Africans who were brought to America as slaves, and not to the sons and daughters of Black immigrants who lack that ancestry. Thus, under her definition, President Barack Obama, who is the son of a Kenyan, is not Black.<ref name="colorblind-salon"/><ref name="colbertnation.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.cc.com/video/12d71h/the-colbert-report-debra-dickerson|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813102913/https://www.cc.com/video/12d71h/the-colbert-report-debra-dickerson|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 13, 2021|title=The Colbert Report – Debra Dickerson|date=February 8, 2007|publisher=Comedy Central|access-date=December 6, 2021}}</ref> She makes the argument that grouping all people of African descent together regardless of their unique ancestral circumstances would inevitably deny the lingering effects of slavery within the American community of slave descendants, in addition to denying Black immigrants recognition of their own unique ancestral backgrounds. "Lumping us all together", Dickerson wrote, "erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress."<ref name="colorblind-salon">{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2007/01/22/obama/|title=Colorblind&nbsp;– Barack Obama would be the great black hope in the next presidential race&nbsp;– if he were actually black|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|first=Debra J.|last=Dickerson|date=January 22, 2007|access-date=October 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924194645/https://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2007/01/22/obama/|archive-date=September 24, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar comments have been made concerning Kamala Harris, the daughter of a Caribbean immigrant, who was elected vice president in 2020.<ref name="Libactivists" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Similar viewpoints to Dickerson's have been expressed by author [[Stanley Crouch]] in a ''[[New York Daily News]]'' piece, [[Charles Steele Jr.]] of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/sclc-head-michelle-obama-treated-more-roughly-than-her-husband-because-of-her-slave-heritage/XG74EGDUSZG23LDBKZOBX7WRI4/|title=SCLC head: Michelle Obama treated more roughly than her husband, because of her slave heritage|work=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]|date=June 21, 2008|access-date=June 4, 2021}}</ref> and African American columnist [[David Ehrenstein]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', who accused White liberals of flocking to Blacks who were ''[[Magic Negro]]s'', a term that refers to a Black person with no past who simply appears to assist the mainstream White (as cultural protagonists/drivers) agenda.<ref name="Obama the 'Magic Negro'">{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center |work=Los Angeles Times|title=Obama the 'Magic Negro'|date=March 19, 2007|first=David|last=Ehrenstein}}</ref> Ehrenstein went on to say "He's there to assuage white 'guilt' they feel over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history."<ref name="Obama the 'Magic Negro'"/>

The [[American Descendants of Slavery]] (ADOS) movement coalesces around this view, arguing that Black descendants of American slavery deserve a separate ethnic category that distinguishes them from other Black groups in the United States.<ref name="NY Times overview">{{cite news|last=Stockman|first=Farah|date=November 8, 2019|title='We're Self-Interested': The Growing Identity Debate in Black America|page=A1|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/slavery-black-immigrants-ados.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/slavery-black-immigrants-ados.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited|authorlink=Farah Stockman}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Their terminology has gained popularity in some circles, but others have criticized the movement for a perceived bias against (especially poor and Black) immigrants, and for its often inflammatory rhetoric.<ref name="Libactivists">{{cite news|last1=Scherer|first1=Michael|last2=Wang|first2=Amy|date=July 8, 2019|title=A few liberal activists challenged Kamala Harris's black authenticity. The president's son amplified their message.|language=en|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-few-liberal-activists-challenged-kamala-harriss-black-authenticity-the-presidents-son-amplified-their-message/2019/07/07/f46c4b8a-9ccd-11e9-85d6-5211733f92c7_story.html|accessdate=March 13, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Chávez|first=Aída|date=February 13, 2019|title=Black Critics of Kamala Harris and Cory Booker Push Back Against Claims That They're Russian "Bots"|url=https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/ados-kamala-harris-cory-booker-russian-bots/|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=The Intercept|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=|first=|title=Controversial group ADOS divides black Americans in fight for economic equality|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-group-ados-divides-black-americans-fight-economic/story?id=66832680|url-status=live|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=ABC News|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119104455/https://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-group-ados-divides-black-americans-fight-economic/story?id=66832680|archive-date=January 19, 2020}}</ref> Politicians such as Obama and Harris have received especially pointed criticism from the movement, as neither are ADOS and have spoken out at times against policies specific to them.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|last=Hampton|first=Rachelle|date=July 9, 2019|title=A Movement or A Troll?: Why Claims That Kamala Harris Is "Not an American Black" Are Suddenly Everywhere|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/kamala-harris-not-black-ados-reparations-movement.html|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=Slate Magazine|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web|last=Russ|first=Valerie|title=It's not whether Kamala Harris is 'black enough,' critics say, but whether her policies will support native black Americans|url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/kamala-harris-ados-african-americans-black-immigrants-president-20190211.html|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=February 11, 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

Many [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] movements and organizations that are ideologically [[Black nationalism|Black nationalist]], [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], [[Anti-Zionism|anti-Zionist]], and [[Scientific socialism|Scientific socialist]] like The [[All-African People's Revolutionary Party|All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP)]], have argued that [[African diaspora|African]] (relating to the diaspora) or [[Republic of New Afrika|New Afrikan]] should be used instead of African American.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 18, 2016 |title=The Resurgence of New Afrikan Identity |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-resurgence-of-new-afr_b_9448640 |access-date=March 2, 2022 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref> Most notably, [[Malcolm X]] and [[Stokely Carmichael|Kwame Ture]] expressed similar views that African Americans are Africans who "happen to be in America", and should not claim or identify as being American if they are fighting for Black (New Afrikan) liberation. Historically, this is due to the enslavement of Africans during the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]], ongoing anti-Black violence, and structural racism in countries like the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Witt |first=Karen de |date=April 14, 1996 |title=Conversations/Kwame Ture;Formerly Stokely Carmichael And Still Ready for the Revolution |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/weekinreview/conversations-kwame-ture-formerly-stokely-carmichael-still-ready-for-revolution.html |access-date=March 2, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Malcolm X – Ballot or the Bullet (Washington Heights, NY, March 29, 1964) |url=https://genius.com/Malcolm-x-ballot-or-the-bullet-washington-heights-ny-march-29-1964-annotated |access-date=March 2, 2022 |website=Genius}}</ref>

===Terms no longer in common use===
Before the independence of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] until the abolition of slavery in 1865, an African American slave was commonly known as a ''[[negro]]''. ''[[Free negro]]'' was the legal status in the territory of an African American person who was not enslaved.<ref>{{cite book|last=Frazier|first=Edward Franklin|title=The Free Negro Family|year=1968|page=1}}</ref> In response to the project of the [[American Colonization Society]] to transport free Blacks to the future Liberia, a project most Blacks strongly rejected, the Blacks at the time said they were no more African than White Americans were European, and referred to themselves with what they considered a more acceptable term, "[[colored]] Americans". The term was used until the second quarter of the 20th century, when it was considered outmoded and generally gave way again to the exclusive use of ''negro''. By the 1940s, the term was commonly capitalized (''Negro''); but by the mid-1960s, it was considered disparaging. By the end of the 20th century, ''negro'' had come to be considered inappropriate and was rarely used and perceived as a [[pejorative]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tottie|first=Gunnel|title=An Introduction to American English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWDUtK-f1tQC&pg=PA200|year=2002|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-631-19792-8|page=200}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=Talmadge|first2=James|last2=Stewart|title=Introduction to African American Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=49tXR1Ok6poC&pg=PA3|year=2007|publisher=Black Classics Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-1-58073-039-6|page=3}}</ref> The term is rarely used by younger Black people, but remained in use by many older African Americans who had grown up with the term, particularly in the Southern US.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/they-put-negro-on-there/38094/|title=They Put 'Negro' on There?|first=Chris|last=Good|date=March 26, 2010|website=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=October 7, 2010}}</ref> The term remains in use in some contexts, such as the [[United Negro College Fund]], an American philanthropic organization.

There are many other deliberately insulting terms, many of which were in common use (e.g., ''[[nigger]]''), but had become unacceptable in normal discourse before the end of the 20th century. One exception is the use, among the Black community, of the slur ''nigger'' rendered as ''[[nigga]]'', representing the pronunciation of the word in [[African-American English|African American English]]. This usage has been popularized by American [[rap]] and [[Hip hop music|hip-hop]] [[Music of the United States|music cultures]] and is used as part of an [[In-group and out-group|in-group]] [[lexicon]] and speech. It is not necessarily [[Pejorative|derogatory]] and, when used among Black people, the word is often used to mean "[[wikt:homie|homie]]" or "friend".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rahman|first=Jacquelyn|date=June 2012|title=The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American Community|journal=Journal of English Linguistics|volume=40|issue=2|pages=137–171|doi=10.1177/0075424211414807|s2cid=144164210|issn=0075-4242}}</ref> Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word ''nigga'' is still debated, although it has established a foothold among younger generations. The [[NAACP]] denounces the use of both ''nigga'' and ''nigger''.<ref name="BaltSun">{{Cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-07-10-0707100124-story.html|title=NAACP aims to bury the 'N-word'|last=Brewington|first=Kelly|date=July 10, 2007|work=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=June 15, 2019|archive-date=October 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024221608/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-07-10-0707100124-story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>