The term used to be "colored." (In the 1950's). Then we were told that it was arrogant for whites to use this term, because all people have skin pigmentation, so it was wrong of whites to say "those people" were colored.

So next, the preferred term was "Negro". But by the time of the radical movements of the 1960's, this term was rejected. The Black Power movement objected to using "Negro" because it was "the name the white man gave us" and favored the word "Black."

But over time, the word Black was associated with radical politics: the Black Panthers, the Black Separatist Movement, Black Power, the Black Muslims, the Black Revolution. As the country became less polarized, the civil rights movement wanted to foster a new image of Blacks as wanting the same opportunities in America as other immigrant groups wanted, that Blacks were in pursuit of the same American Dream. But since the word Black had come to have almost the opposite connotations -- one of violent revolution -- the term Afro-American was adopted. This soon became African American. The idea was to think along the lines of any other ethnic group: Italian Americans, Irish Americans, and so on.

Other countries do not define themselves in terms of immigration the way the United States does, and this is probably the reason we have this unique term.

It was the black people that came up with that name

id rather be referred to as African American rather than black coz what pops into my mind is blackmail, black book, blacklist, black sabbath, black market, blackballed, black monday.....

I just read that on 9gag two mins ago

Rodney: Many people think of the United States as full of big cities, but we have many more rural areas, actually.

Rodney: I say England when I mean England and London when I mean London.

most white people, myself included, are so scared of being called racist that we have begun to think that saying "black guy" is racist.

@Rod, right? 😂

Blacks ask to be called that so we accomodate them