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.