African-American - Simple English Wikipedia

# African-American

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

An African-American generally refers to a person who lives in America and speaks English, but whose ancestors were from Africa. It could also describe a first-generation African immigrant to America.

The term is usually associated with "black people". This is because of African-Americans' dark skin. Many Africans were brought to the United States as slaves. A large amount of the U.S. population (especially in many urban or city areas) is African-American. Outside of urban areas, there is also a wide rural area from Maryland to East Texas that has a lot of African-American living there.

## [edit] African-American as an Ethnicity

African-American is a term for the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States. This term was created because of a need to have an ethnic link to Africa for people who were American. The African in African-American is a filler for the unknown ethnicity. American shows the nationality of the United States. African-American is an ethnicity trying to contain specific cultures, traditions and heritages of the descendants of African slaves.

The term African-American should only be compared to other ethnic groups. It is not an attempt to bring together two continents. It is not an attempt to merge a continent with a nationality. An African who knows his ethnicity would not be an African-American. He would still be, for example, Mende, Mandigo, Fulani etc. If that person wanted to say that she were an American citizen they would be Mende-American, or Fulani-American, but not African-American.

African-American is not the same as Black. African-American is a ethnic group. Black is a term that could be applied many other ethnic groups throughout the world. Black has been used to show African-American culture from in the late 1960's. It was used to replace the term negro.

## [edit] See Also

African American Vernacular English

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