African American

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

<< Have you traced the origins of "African American" at all?  If so, I would
be interested in seeing your findings, as I have done research on this
myself.

Fred Shapiro >>

I'm sure Fred knows this, but perhaps others on our list don't, that there
are two significant articles on "African American" in the Summer 1991 issue
of American Speech (Vol 66 No 2):
"'What Is Africa to Me?': Language, Ideology, and African American" by Geneva
Smitherman
and
"The Politicization of Changing Terms of Self-Reference among American Slave
Descendants" by John Baugh. This latter especially deals with the "Jackson
factor" in introducing the term. - Allan Metcalf