Did blacks or whites come up with the term "African Americans"?

It's a stupid and divisive term. Jesse Jackson was one of the first people to start using the term publicly in 1988 when he was still all tangled up in politics. 1988 was also when the whole country jumped on the Political Correctness bandwagon. After Jesse said it, the term "african-american" became a favorite media expression (and you know that white people own and run the media) and they ran with it during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991 and also when discussing General Powell during the first Iraq war. Apparently, the media felt that the word "black" wasn't "correct enough" to use in referring to black republicans. Point is, Jesse Jackson (a black man) may have started the whole thing, and you know what a race-bating attention-whore he is, but, as with most things, it all comes down to media spin and what gets the most attention or causes the most controversy. By hyphenating an ethnicity in front of -American, it serves to separate that group of people out of the mainstream in everyones' minds. Wereas just saying "black" makes most people think Black and American (as opposed to specifially African).

African Americans came up with the term. I personally don't mind the term Black American. I guess "Blacks" alone was too general because there are Black people all over the world, so they decided to differentiate the different Black groups. Black American would have been better than African American, but then again Black is a color, and they wanted the term to be associated with a place. Other ethnic groups are lucky to know EXACTLY where their from. All Black Americans know for the most part is America, it's obviously not our fault, but it still sucks.

Good Luck with your debate!

I hate that term, and all like it. My friend is an African American, except he's a white guy that was born in South Africa and immigrated to the United States. His family has lived in Africa for several generations, over 100 years.

Egyptians live on the African continent, but they're Mediterranean, not "black".

Australlian Aboriginies are "black", if they move to the US, does that make them African Americans? What about black people from any other continent?

Are we the only country that does this, or are there African Canadians up north?

My ancestors came out of Africa...several millions years ago, so I must be an African American too!

Basically, it's "politically correct" crap.

If you want to be technically and scientifically correct, Africans are negroids, Asians, are mongoloids, and Europeans are caucasoids.

I do believe it was part of the civil right movement originally; a term adopted by the blacks. Google "etymology of African American" and you'll get sources.

The term entered into usage largely starting in 1988, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson held a news conference to urge Americans to use it to refer to blacks. African American has largely supplanted black in health matters. For example, "Breast cancer tumors in African-American women are more aggressive than tumors in white women."

The term has been a subject of debate, in part because it is ambiguous. It might be limited to Africans who have immigrated to America or to people born to one African and one American parent. Some have argued that the term African American should refer only to the descendents of slaves brought from Africa to America.

From a scientific viewpoint, the term African-American makes absolutely no sense. Most genetic evidence now supports an African origin for all humans on earth. Thus, everyone living in the Americas today is, properly speaking, African American.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articl...

In 1982, Justice Blackmun Was the First to Use the Term "African American" For the next quarter-century, the word "*****" was slowly replaced by the word. Prior to the term African American, a shortened version, Afro-American, was briefly in vogue. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1077-3711(199722)...

It was largely popularized by Jesse Jackson, and quickly adopted by major media outlets. Many blacks in America expressed a preference for the term as it was formed in the same way as the names for other ethnic groups. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement and systematic attempts to de-Africanize blacks in the U.S. under chattel slavery, most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to a specific African nation; hence, the entire continent serves as a geographic marker.

Harry Andrew Blackmun, credited with coinage of the term African-American (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) , was a Republican and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. He is best known as the author of the majority opinion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, overturning laws restricting abortion in the United States and declaring abortion protected under a constitutional right to privacy.

Edit:

Forgot part of your question....Blackmun was caucasian.

Wow!

Chillin, you're going to get a lot of responses to this one. And from what i've read, a lot of ignorant responses.

The term African American is neither stupid nor ridiculous. It's an attempt to identify oneself with a country outside of the one that was the source of major oppression.

Not sure of your age, but when Africans were forcefully brought to this country, they were not allowed to speak their own language nor were they able to ethincally identify themselves.

They were called colored and ***** by Caucasians - among other horrible names. In the 70's the term Black is Beautiful became a mantra and people were proud to of their blackness.

Then, it became understood that Black is a color, not a land/country. There is NO land, country called Black. Black Americans wanted to identify themselves with a country and thus looked toward Africa. It is a term that includes all people of African descent in America.

Many people of African descent don't like being called African American because they have a warped sense of what we are and don't want to associate themselves with us. But the reality is, if it weren't for the strides made during the civil rights movement, blacks from other countries wouldn't have experienced the success they have in America.

And, many young African Americans should stop their ignornant behavior and straighten up, pull up their pants and...well, that's an answer for another topic.

Justin your friend is an idiot then. I have a white friend from Africa and she put caucasian because she is caucasian.

Also there are MANY Egyptians who ARE BLACK. There are BLACK people all over the world, the only issue is that America classifies them as both Black and African American.

Being Black does not imply African American as there are Black Jamacians, Trinidadians, Cubans, Americans, Arabs, etc. There are many Black ethnic groups.

And yes there are Black Canadians by best friend is Black Canadian.

I'm latino, but I didn't like the way you said you hate the term, like it bothers you although it doesn't affect you.

ANd NO, you are not African American, but if Black Americans had another country to connect to they could be properly labeled like German Americans, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, Mexican Americans, etc. It's not their fault they were ripped from Africa with no traces from the past. They are just trying to find their way.

Blacks descended from Africa. I once saw a Jamaican man on tv being called an African American. He was frustrated because he was niether from Africa nor American, but the politically correct news caster insisted on calling him African American anyway.

Blacks

It was largely publicized by Jesse Jackson. It modeled for instance the term German American. An American now but of German heritage.