John McWhorter is no longer calling himself African-American. From now on, he’s black. Such naming and renaming is nothing new. After World War I there was a fight to replace “colored” with Negro with a capital “N.” A half century later, black, once negative, became infused with pride. By the late 80’s black leaders declared a new name: African-American. But as the number of people moving here from Africa has tripled, a new debate is underway about who’s really African-American.
Guests:
John McWhorter, linguist, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.