Medal winners Tommy Smith (center) and John Carlos (right)
show the raised fist on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games
in Mexico City while silver medallist Peter Norman from Australia
(left) wears an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to show his
 support for the two U.S. athletes


During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the unfortunate mistake of saying that President Barack Obama was a “light-skinned African-American” with “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” His gaffe was revealed in the recently released book, “Game Change,” by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Reid later apologized for his statement and went on to receive the support of strong Black leaders such as Al Sharpton, Rep. Barbara Lee, former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume and more.

But it was not Sen. Reid’s comments that have caused such an upset among Negroes, Blacks, African-Americans or Colored folks. It was what was on the 2010 U.S. Census that has them angry. More than 200 years after slavery, the 2010 Census still contains the racial classification, “Negro.”

According to Census officials, some African-Americans still refer to themselves by this term, as evidenced by a series of tests conducted in 1996. Therefore, they were instructed, in 1997, by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to keep the classification on the survey. The goal was to keep from undercounting Blacks as well as to avoid offending those who do not consider themselves African-American or Black. Nevertheless, some people of color were offended.

Some Blacks believe that the term “Negro” was used when it became unacceptable to call Blacks, “Nigger.” But in truth, the word “negro” is a Spanish word, meaning “black or dark.” It was used in the early 1400s by the Portuguese to describe the natives upon arriving in sub-Saharan Africa.

With the ravages of slavery in America came the loss of identity for Blacks stolen from the content of Africa. Slave owners seeking to divide Africans, and diminish their strength as a people, would not allow Blacks to sing or speak in their native language. Nor would they allow them to pass on their African culture or history in any other way. This distinguished the criminal acts committed against Africans sold in the American slave trade from those of the Jews or any other race of people. Black Americans became a race of people without knowledge of their ancestral identity.

Following the abolition of slavery, the word, “Negro,” continued to be used by great institutions such as the United Negro Fund, established April 25, 1944, and by Martin Luther King Jr. and other great Black leaders, who preferred the use of that word to “Nigger,” the previous classification of Blacks in America. Some say “Nigger” was the result of slave traders’ mispronunciation of the word, “Negro.” In earlier prints, Webster’s Dictionary defined “Nigger” as being an ignorant person, unable to read or write. But in reality, the word originated from the Latin adjective, “niger,” meaning, “black.” Many languages have at its base, some form of the word, “nigger.” For the French, it is “negre” and “noir.”

The word, “Nigger,” became widely used throughout America during the slave trade and was often used without hateful intent in what is considered classic literature. It was used in Mark Twain’s book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” and “The Nigger of Narcissus” by Joseph Conrad. However, what made the word so ugly was its painful association with the atrocities of slavery and Jim Crow racism. Because of this, Blacks came to welcome the term, “Negro,” over the term, “Nigger.”
In addition to their meaning and negative history, the words “Nigger” and “Negro” shared another commonality. Those words were used by White people to define Black people.

For years, African-Americans took on the identity given to them by their oppressors. But with the Reconstruction era in the 1800s came the desire for Blacks to create their own identity. Hence, from “Negro” or “Negra” in the South, came the term “Colored.” The word was chosen based upon the fact that Blacks were actually brown, not black, with a wide range of color variations, from practically lily white to blue black, with red, olive or golden undertones.

In fact, “Colored” was adopted by the NAACP as it launched its attack against legalized racism on Feb. 12, 1909. When recently questioned about their continued use of the term, Carla Sims, communications director for the NAACP in Washington, D.C., explained, “The term ‘Colored’ is not derogatory; [the NAACP] chose the word ‘colored’ because it was the most positive description commonly used at that time. It’s outdated and antiquated but not offensive.”

For years, Blacks continued to self-identify as “Negro,” or “Colored.” But Americans, and Blacks especially, found themselves in the midst of a revolution, which would come to be known as the Civil Rights movement. Nearing the end of the Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans once again became dissatisfied with their racial classification, feeling it no longer defined who they had become or who they wished to be. And with a bolder generation, a generation tired of being pushed around and denigrated, came the desire for a bolder identity. Hence, the racial classification, Black, emerged, and with that, the “Black Power” movement.

Robert Williams of the North Carolina NAACP is credited as being the first to use the term, “Black Power,” in a speech. According to the documentary, Negroes with Guns, Williams was a radical who believed in self-defense and formed the Black Guard, which was armed and defended their community from massive Klan riots, rescued Freedom Riders from bloody attacks and stopped the repeated sexual assaults of Black women following the 1954 Brown vs. The Board of Education ruling. For many Americans, black became the color of strength and power. A source of pride, not shame. But not all leaders embraced the movement.

Stanford University reports, “Although King was hesitant to criticize Black Power openly, he told his staff on 14 November 1966 that Black Power ‘was born from the wombs of despair and disappointment. Black Power is a cry of pain. It is in fact a reaction to the failure of White Power to deliver the promises and to do it in a hurry.… The cry of Black Power is really a cry of hurt.’”

While Dr. King, one of the most prominent leaders of the time, reportedly opposed the Black Power Movement, emerging leaders such as Kwame Ture, Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton actively pushed the movement, with Carmichael and Hamilton releasing a book called by the same name in 1967. The message resonated with the younger generation, sending the signal to Whites that the time for justice and equality was now and Blacks were determined to achieve it by any means necessary.

For so many years, Blacks were treated as a second- and third-class Americans, and taunted with statements such as, “Go back to Africa.” But for better or worse, Blacks had been separated from their motherland and genetically integrated with Europeans through the rape of their ancestors.

Like victims of Stockholm syndrome, Blacks identified more with their kidnapper than with their ancestry. After all, Blacks had built the country through their labor and inventions and served in every major war to preserve the freedom they were so often denied. America was home and Blacks were every bit as American as any other U.S. citizen and they wanted that to be clear in the way they were identified. yet, they feared that in their efforts to embrace their current citizenship, many had forgotten where they came from. In an effort to preserve their sense of identity, another classification was born, African-American. 

The term was popularized by Rev. Jesse Jackson, But, according to a report by Georgia State University, Theorizing the Postcoloniality of African-American English, Dr. Ramona Edelin, president of the National Urban Coalition is the one who coined it. Edelin suggested organizers call the organization’s 1989 summit, the “African American Summit” instead of the “Black Summit.” Edelin felt that “Present-day Africans in America were facing a new reality . . . [and] the situation called for reassessment within the framework of a global identity linking Africans in America with those on the Continent and throughout the Diaspora.” The new classification spread quickly.

While “Black” and “African-American” remains the politically correct classification for Blacks, the search identity remains. The question is now being raised why Blacks call themselves African-American and should they continue to do so. Perhaps the real question is, what’s in a name?
Does what one calls themselves truly impact who they really are or effect the way they are viewed by themselves and others?