NBC correspondent Joy-Ann Reid thoughtfully explained why “black” is the popular racial label for African Americans.

Appearing on C-SPAN’s morning show “The Washington Journal,” Reid responded to an interviewer who talked in regards to the various racial labels African Americans have used throughout American history, such as “black” and coloured,” but raised a protest question specifically about the “Black” label.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 26: Joy-Ann Reid attends the Los Angeles Red Carpet Premiere for Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” on the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on January 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

“Why do we still use the synonym ‘black’?” – the interlocutor asked, adding that the term “black” within the dictionary means “darkness” and “emptiness”. “There aren’t any Black people. We will not be Black people. We are brown,” she said.

Reid said the racial label “black” is a label that Black Americans need to reclaim from the white supremacists and slave owners who invented the terms “black” and “white” to distinguish themselves from the Africans they enslaved because the seventeenth century.

“I don’t think people understand that Africa is the continent with the greatest biodiversity. There are 2,300 distinct ethnic groups on the African continent,” Reid explained. “So when Africans were taken into slavery in the Americas, they mixed tribes that had no genetic relationship other than that they were all “black.” So the concept of ​​white and black was invented in America.

The terms “black” and “colored” were widely used until the mid-Twentieth century, when the civil rights movement began to change the social and political landscape of black people in America. These labels are inappropriate and inappropriate for Black Americans today.

When the Black movement emerged within the Nineteen Sixties, many Black activists and leaders advocated for brand spanking new labels.

In 1966, activist Stokely Carmichael, later known as Kwame Ture, famously introduced the phrase “black power” at a rally in Mississippi. Then got here a cultural turning point where phrases like “Black is beautiful” and “I am black and I am proud” began to emerge amongst Black Americans as powerful and empowering expressions that revitalized identity and well-being.

“When people re-adopted the term ‘black’ in the 1960s, it was because they decided to empower themselves. It was a term that seemed more powerful to them than just using the term ‘Negro,’” Reid continued. “So I don’t see any problem with ‘Black’. “Black” is a term that may mean power. It can mean beauty. It doesn’t have to mean darkness and horror. When it comes to Black culture, it doesn’t mean that.”

The racial term “African American” gained popularity within the Nineteen Eighties when many black leaders, such as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, supported its use and noted its “cultural integrity”. The term remains to be commonly used to refer to black people.

A 2021 Gallup poll found that Black Americans prefer to use the word “Black” (52 percent) over the term “African American” (44 percent).

New terms such as BIPOC and POC, referring to “people of color,” have begun to emerge over the past decade within the United States as comprehensive labels to refer to anyone who shouldn’t be white.