I think you're on to something. Throughout the long decades of integration, for all its ups and downs, we were all becoming simple "Americans." Some of us just happened to look different than others. ""White," "colored," and black" describe appearances, not ethnicity. "African American" is some weird made-up ethnicity that is neither African nor American. And it drives integration backwards from "we're all Americans" to "we're separate people."
You could make an argument that African Americans are their own ethnicity, with a unique genetic, linguistic, and cultural heritage. I think they really pushed that in the 90s, poncing about in
kente, trying to legitimize
ebonics, and pretending
Kwanza was real. But that's stridently anti-immigration. The only ones who can pull that off are the kind of people who live in little ethnic enclaves and only come out to do business.
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