TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/010289/01028900.024

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 1.7 KB | 37 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 80

American Notes  

RACE

What's in A Name


   "Say it loud," sang James Brown, "I'm black and I'm proud."
The year was 1968, an exhilarating time of Black Pride, Black
Power and slogans like "Black Is Beautiful." "Black" became
more than a racial characterization; it was an assertion of
social and political self-definition. The terms colored and
Negro, in common use as late as 1967, were cast off as labels
of second-class citizenship.

    Now, if people follow the lead of the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
"black" may become equally obsolete. Jackson declared last week
that citizens of his race should henceforth be known as African
Americans. "There are Armenian Americans and Jewish Americans
and Arab Americans and Italian Americans," he explained. "Every
ethnic group in this country has reference to some land base,
some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that
level of cultural maturity."

    The term Afro American came into vogue during the 1970s, but
African American is just beginning to catch on. Former tennis
champion Arthur Ashe has written a new three-volume book, A Hard
Road to Glory, that is subtitled A History of the
African-American Athlete. While some people may find the phrase
too much of a mouthful, it does have what Jackson calls
"cultural integrity," conveying the dual heritage of blacks
born and bred in this country.

    In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. DuBois wrote of
the "twoness" that blacks in the U.S. constantly confront. If
"African American" wins wide usage, it may be a small step
toward reconciling some of the conflicts and contradictions of
black life in this nation.