Who Are We?

For many years, I have been troubled by the apparent fact that we as Black Americans of African descent—whose ancestors had not immigrated willingly to America—have been unable to settle on a definitive identity.

Who are we? Who decided that we were “African Americans?” How did the world conclude that to be our designation? As children growing up we were called, with apparent acceptance “Colored people.” By the time the Civil Rights Movement was ushered in by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we were elevated to the respectable status of “Negro.” In college, I saw us move to “Afro American” and then to the preferred “Black American,” which I thought represented the result of the efforts of slain martyrs like Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, who perished so that we could be known as Black Americans. They died so that we could move forward and share in the fruits of our labor in America.

In the years following the death of Dr. King, we drifted into and out of various Afro-centric manifestations of dress and ties to continental Africa that eventually led us hesitantly to become “African Americans.” I use the term hesitantly because it came about gradually and not with full conviction by overwhelming acceptance. I have never really seen the conviction in it, or an understanding of what it means. I have seen enough disagreement with that position (including my own) that I finally wanted to take a thoughtful look at our identity crisis and try to find some logical foundation for who we are and how it came to be. I wanted to use thought and logic, combined with known facts and realities, to arrive at an acceptable conclusion—a conclusion that is the result of a cognitive process rather than some popular wave that is without thought, reason or analysis.

I am unable to understand why this has not been done before. I feel that there are thousands, if not millions of people who feel as I do but for some reason, perhaps the fear of expert opinion, have not demonstrated their opposition. For all of those people let me state without hesitation that I believe we are Black Americans of African descent. The African American designation is by definition and logic, a misrepresentation.

Fade to Black reminds all of us that the real tragedy of slavery and assimilation
was the loss of heritage and, of course, identity. Campbell does a masterful job
in pointing this out to his readers.
—Mike Kearby, author of Ride the Desperate Trail



		Who Are We? For many years, I have been troubled by the apparent fact that we as Black Americans of African descent—whose ancestors had not immigrated willingly to America—have been unable to settle on a definitive identity. Who are we? Who decided that we were “African Americans?” How did the world conclude that to be our designation? As children growing up we were called, with apparent acceptance “Colored people.” By the time the Civil Rights Movement was ushered in by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we were elevated to the respectable status of “Negro.” In college, I saw us move to “Afro American” and then to the preferred “Black American,” which I thought represented the result of the efforts of slain martyrs like Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, who perished so that we could be known as Black Americans. They died so that we could move forward and share in the fruits of our labor in America. In the years following the death of Dr. King, we drifted into and out of various Afro-centric manifestations of dress and ties to continental Africa that eventually led us hesitantly to become “African Americans.” I use the term hesitantly because it came about gradually and not with full conviction by overwhelming acceptance. I have never really seen the conviction in it, or an understanding of what it means. I have seen enough disagreement with that position (including my own) that I finally wanted to take a thoughtful look at our identity crisis and try to find some logical foundation for who we are and how it came to be. I wanted to use thought and logic, combined with known facts and realities, to arrive at an acceptable conclusion—a conclusion that is the result of a cognitive process rather than some popular wave that is without thought, reason or analysis. I am unable to understand why this has not been done before. I feel that there are thousands, if not millions of people who feel as I do but for some reason, perhaps the fear of expert opinion, have not demonstrated their opposition. For all of those people let me state without hesitation that I believe we are Black Americans of African descent. The African American designation is by definition and logic, a misrepresentation. Fade to Black reminds all of us that the real tragedy of slavery and assimilation was the loss of heritage and, of course, identity. Campbell does a masterful job in pointing this out to his readers. —Mike Kearby, author of Ride the Desperate Trail