Black - is it time for a change

Rodney D. Coates *

    Almost a decade ago, I became the director of Black World Studies
at Miami University of Ohio.  And almost immediately, I began exploring
the possibility of changing the name to something less, well - racial. 
As the Administration was all to eager to accommodate me, I decided to
put this on hold.  Now 15 years later, the program still goes under that
name.  As I ponder my own shifts and changes, I invite you go with me on
this journey into self, identity and reality.  
    As a self, I was formed under the auspicious banners of racial
pride and race politics.  I know that race served to form, inform, and
deform my perspectives and much of America as well.  The question, that
I now investigate is -is it time to change the term.  Are we past Black,
and if so what does post-blackness look like?
     Put another way, is there a difference between Black, African,
African American, and etc? Are they interchangeable terms, or does it
really matter?
    Coming out of the 60s', I know that African power would not have
stuck such a resolute note as Black power.  I know that Black mean more
then a racial designation, but what?  
   To be black, was to be proud of ones identity.  I guess today young
people who have claimed or reclaimed the term "Niggah" would understand
this.  But again, I wonder if it's really the same.  Whereas Niggah gets
a bit of a shock value, it is problematical when a white or other uses
it.  But Black, well Black remains black regardless of who uses it. 
Again, what would it be like to discard it?
    Well, I don't think the world would come to an end, nor would the
planets suddenly loose their place in the sky.  But there would be a
subtle shift in another direction.  And the question remains, what would
that be?
     At the end of the day, a rose is still a rose, and to be black
would it still be to be black?  Does this term mean and make a different
point then another?
    Let's see.  I recently asked a group of students -is this African
Black, or how African were they?  Their response was important -they
clearly did not refer to the African as being black, while they were
dubious regarding their own African identity.
     When I talk to a Ghanian, or Nigerian, or Libyan -there is a clear
cultural relevance to their identity.  When I talk of the African
American, again, there is much to question.  Just how African is the
African in America?  How much of their culture has been shaped by truly
African history, culture, language, world systems and how much of it has
been shaped in the American caldron of race?
    When we speak of Black culture we speak of the synergy of African,
European, Native American, and Carribean realities, histories, and
experiences.  Black is more then a racial reference point, but a
cultural reference point which directs us to the multitude of identities
which make us who we are.  It is neither African, European, Carribean,
or Native American.  Black culture, and identity, is a dynamic process
which continues to build and grow.  While we can discord it, it will yet
remain as a vital, vibrant reality which has formed, informed, and yes
deformed us to this moment.
    I am old enough not to have to play political games of correctness,
there are none that I have to impress.  I must however be true to
myself, and my identity -so its to Blackness that I cling.  You and your
choices are yours, for I am happy with mine..


Note: Rodney D. Coates is professor of sociology, gerontology, and
black world studies at Miami University.  He can be reached at
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