Stephen Lynn: I’m American, not African-American
Forget all this talk about taking down the Confederate flag. Want to stop something offensive? Stop using the term African-American!
As a black male born and raised in the United States, I find nothing more offensive than being called African-American – a term that whites in this country created in the 1900s to designate where blacks were from.
Not all of us with brown or dark skin are from Africa! Some of us are part Native American, a group of people who were here before both whites and blacks.
The irony is that whites aren’t native to the United States at all yet have the nerve to call another group of people brought here against their will blank-American.
I have friends from Africa who are naturalized American citizens. They are true African-Americans.
Unless my roots have been traced to Africa, call me American, period!
Stephen Lynn
Willow Spring
This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Stephen Lynn: I’m American, not African-American."