Professor: Why It’s Time to Retire the Term ‘African American’

A conversation that’s been happening for decades behind the ivory towers of academia has officially spilled onto the timeline. As a university professor and the Associate Director of Africana Studies, I see it play out every single semester in my Philosophy of Race class.

For decades, the term “African American” was considered the most standard, correct way to describe Black people in the United States. It was a good idea for its time. But it’s officially time to retire it.

Though the term “African American” appeared occasionally in the 18th and 19th centuries, it remained rare. For generations, the dominant terminology evolved from “colored” to “Negro” to “Black.”

But the phrase finally entered the mainstream in 1988 when Jesse Jackson championed the term because, much like “Italian American” or “Irish American,” it formally recognizes our ancestral heritage and cultural identity.

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As I said, it was a good idea. But it is time we do to it what Megan Thee Stallion did to Klay Thompson. Let me give you three reasons why.

We Are a Distinct Ethnic Group

My sincere apologies to the brilliant Malcolm X, but we are not simply Africans who happen to live in America. I understand why he embraced that way of thinking. At that moment in history, emphasizing our connection to Africa made perfect sense. But I don’t think that frame best describes who we are in 2026.

People may not want to hear me on this, but even though this country has attacked us on every side, we are a distinct ethnic group whose identity was forged in America. Our ancestors came from many different African tribes that spoke different languages and practiced different religions.

I’ve gotta get professorial for a minute. An ethnic group isn’t just a collection of people who share the same skin color. It’s people who share a common history, traditions and collective memory. By that definition, Black Americans are an ethnic group every bit as much as Cajuns or the Navajo.

Our ethnic identity was deliberately destroyed by the institution of slavery. Yoruba, Igbo, and dozens of other peoples were forced together and were not allowed to speak their native languages. In their place emerged something new.

Our roots may be African, but our identity was built in America. That’s why we have strong opinions about how grits should be eaten and fewer opinions about the proper way to cook jollof rice. Which leads me to my second point.

Our Culture is Undeniably American

Our culture wasn’t shipped across the Atlantic intact. It was forged under uniquely American conditions that existed nowhere else in the world. Nearly everything that defines the life of our community today emerged from the experience of Black people living in this country.

Blues became jazz. Spirituals became gospel. Soul food was born from making meals out of scraps. We developed our own way of speaking. The Black church, HBCUs, Black Greek organizations, and even hip-hop all grew from our people’s experience in this country white folks stole from Indigenous Americans.

These aren’t African traditions preserved over time. They are original cultural creations forged through resistance and innovation.

Now that we’ve got philosophical, it’s time to get practical.

The Term Doesn’t Fit Anymore

The problem isn’t that the term “African American” is offensive. It’s that it confuses ancestry with ethnicity.

A man who moved here from Nigeria last year is African American. So is a woman whose family came from Ghana or Ethiopia. But their history is not our history. They are African immigrants to this country; therefore, that terminology is fitting for them. Not for those of us whose ancestors were brought to this land in chains.

We are descendants of American slavery. The experiences of our forefathers and mothers produced an entirely different culture from the one that they came from. Calling all of us African American blurs distinctions that matter.

Look, I understand why Jesse Jackson said what he did in the ’80s. It made sense then. However, identities evolve. For decades we’ve fought to prove that Black history is American history. It seems odd that the name we prefer points somewhere else.

Our ancestry may be African. But we should call ourselves Black American.