Didn't this BS start with the media sucking up to Jesse Jackson? - Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'

My favorite faux pas with this contrivance came from Geraldo Rivera. On his old CNBC panel show he was interviewing a lovely black lady. Rivera asked her for an "African-American" perspective.

She promptly corrected the PC buffoon Rivera by saying, "I'm not African-American, I'm English."

Newsvine - Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'

JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer 2-4-12

— The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House. Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past: "black."

For this group — some descended from U.S. slaves, some immigrants with a separate history — "African-American" is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s. Instead, it's a misleading connection to a distant culture.

The debate has waxed and waned since African-American went mainstream, and gained new significance after the son of a black Kenyan and a white American moved into the White House. President Barack Obama's identity has been contested from all sides, renewing questions that have followed millions of darker Americans:

What are you? Where are you from? And how do you fit into this country?

"I prefer to be called black," said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. "How I really feel is, I'm American."

--more at link-