An analysis of the recent switch from the name Black to African
American symbolizes a reconceptualization of Americans of African
descent away from race to culture. This book examines the emergence
of a new representation whose rapid spread has been fuelled by
widely shared projections of a different future capable of
overcoming the legacy of racism.
Far from being just another label, the new name is capable of
representing the group in question by projecting a different future
for all of us in a multicultural America based on inclusion,
fairness, and equality. Such projections are collectively
elaborated, driven by the adoption of African American in the media
as a more positive alternative to Black and its equally consistent
use among a socio-demographically distinct subgroup of black
Americans as a vehicle for a new self-identity. The
contradistinction between these two alternative terms implies two
different representations of the same group, one still based on
race and the other rooted in culture. This tension between race and
culture, crystallized in the competing uses of Black and African
American, points to a more profound cultural transformation
currently under way in America. This book takes a close look at the
current state of flux in race relations in the United States
through the lens of a social psychologist focusing on the emergence
of an alternative name as a new social representation.
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