DEFINITION: 'African American'

     I developed this definition, 3 years ago, to help teach students I interacted with at Purdue University how one term carries with it a history of cultural, political, and even spiritual implications. 
     The use and understanding of the term must be accompanied by other terms --used overtime-- to categorize the racial group in the United States that is made up of African people. 
     The trauma that brought us to this nation-space lives in us, but we have refused to value it properly. We have refused to make who we have been constructed to become -- to date -- a major part of our generational ties to children and community. We abandoned our own stories - the majority of us have done this. Now, it seems, the only thing that unifies us is our collective anger and outrage when what we should be the proprietors of -- our image, our experiences, our Black lives --is claimed by those we did not invite to the 'racial identity development for Black folks' party. 
     Funny thing, we should have been having those parties for real. If we had, all the "cultural appropriation" in the world would not disturb our peace the way it has over the past week.

I presented this definition at the Association of Black Cultural Centers Annual Conference at Purdue University, October 2012.

African American: An Inclusive Definition of a Racial Group in the United States

By Jolivette Anderson-Douoning

© October 17, 2012

African American

1. A person born or living in the United States who is descended from regions of the African continent where the people have dark hue or pigment in their skin that give them a definitive color.  A person previously identified as ‘Black’, ‘Negro’ or ‘Colored’ who has relatives that were either enslaved persons (Slaves) or Free Blacks (Free Persons of Color) in the United States or its founding colonies.  A person who can be connected through family history and/or Bloodline to a person- known or unknown- who entered the United States as property or  - whose skin was dark enough for them to be classified as potential property, if they could not prove their status as a ‘free person of color’. A person born in the United States to parents with dark skin. A person that can – based on appearance alone-- be viewed as a shade of the colors black or brown. A person that has historically received dehumanizing treatment because of the color of their skin. A person that may have a family lineage in the U.S. that dates back to the early 1600 or before. A person whose identity has followed a trajectory that included the following identifiers:  
1. African
2. Captive
3. Slave (Enslaved Person)
4. Free Person of Color (Free Black)
5. Colored
6. Negro
7. Afro American
8. Black
9. African American
2. A person of African Descent born in the United States to bi-racial parents where one parent is White and the other is of African descent born outside of the U.S. and has been generationally immersed in the customs and culture of their native land. A person whose identity has been categorized as:
1. Mixed
2. Bi-Racial
3. Mulatto (Quadroon, Octoroon, etc. based on percentages of African blood)

This person will also have been identified as: 

1. Colored 
2. Negro 
3. Afro-American 
4. Black and 
5. African American (negating exclusively their White parentage but would never be identified exclusively as a White person, negating their African parentage)

This person will also have a ‘bi-cultural’ heritage but may not practice it due to living in American culture.

3.  A person of Black African descent born outside of the United States who has immigrated to the United States. A person residing in the U.S. as a Permanent Resident (African in America = African American) or who has become a naturalized citizen. A person who is connected to his/her ethnic (tribal) identity by name, by family relationships, and by cultural practice whether in their native land or in the United States. A person who lives in the U.S and may be a citizen but identifies him/herself primarily as either:

1. African
2. West (other region) African
3. Immigrant
4. Citizen of Country of Birth (ex: Nigerian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, etc.)
5. American (note: not African American)

The above definition was put together to assist those who don’t know the history of African Americans in the United States. It is meant to foster a greater understanding of how diverse one term (African American) can be when applied to all people with dark skin living in the United States. It is written to take into account the ‘treatment’ people received due to the color of their skin. It is designed also to acknowledge a host of tensions that exist between African American peoples with specific focus paid to those who have generational memory of Jim Crow and Slavery. It is my opinion that we who descend from the institution of Slavery and Jim Crow are viewed as complainers, victims, or people who play the victim instead of a people who struggle with the remnants of the treatment received by our ancestors who were forced to interact with their children and each other in a way that rewired the individual brain of men and women as well as the family structure. This rewiring also caused the acceptance of behaviors that became so commonplace that it is now identified as ‘cultural’ or ‘Black Culture’. It is a manufactured ‘difference’ made by Black people to survive harsh treatment, hostile environments and the constant indignity of being labeled as ‘inferior’ or ‘subhuman’ under a white supremacy system.