I echoed the same sentiment in a Human Race Studies class I took some years ago…Afro-American is a cultural reference looking to classify a people by identifying origins…Black is more of a sociopolitical way of self-identifying particularly as an African turned American in the US.

I choose to be Black, because I don’t identify with African ideals, culture, and principals…Yet I’m not fully integrated and comfortable as an American, because of the unaddressed history of inequities and injustices that still persist.

Black is more powerful for me, because I’m still strong and my family is still thriving even as there were attempts to destroy us and we don’t truly have a home. While at times it feel we are culturally and geographically homeless there are many cultural traditions we created under duress that have stood the test of time and have been the epitome of community. To survive Hell on Earth and come out alive is amazing, yet we still have a long ways to go as the community has shattered with the availability of new ways developed to commit forms of familial suicide.

People put job positions, politics, pussy/penis, and misguided principles before their own family…That needs to change.