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Public Opinion Quarterly 2005 69(3):429-438; doi:10.1093/poq/nfi026
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org.

What’s in a Name?

Preference for "Black" versus "African-American" among Americans of African Descent

Lee Sigelman and Steven A. Tuch

George Washington University

Jack K. Martin

Indiana University

This research was supported by grant RO1-AA-10243 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Address correspondence to Lee Sigelman; e-mail: lees{at}gwu.edu.

This research note examines the preferences of Americans of African descent for the label "black" versus "African-American." Racial labels have long been associated with majority-group attitudes toward minority-group members, and minorities themselves have changed their preferred terminology over time. We trace the evolution of racial labels from "Negro" to "black" to "African-American" and examine predictors of terminological preference among a national sample of Americans of African descent. Our respondents are nearly equally divided in their preference for the label "black" versus "African-American." Significant correlates or predictors of terminological preference include the racial composition of the grammar school that respondents attended, respondents’ degree of racial group consciousness, and age, region, and size of city of residence.


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