Black American
- noun
- /blæk əˈmɛrɪkən/
- The difference in the youth unemployment rate between Black Americans and Whites is even more dramatic.
- Black American experience
- Black American identity
- Black Americans emerge
She felt like a black American and human.
- She felt like a black American and human.
- You know, this country did elect her husband a black American president twice.
- Because my father hated, I guess, specifically black Americans speaking in a stupid way.
- If you, if I walk outside and run into a black American, are we going to have a problem?
- You talk about ways to, you know, make things better for black Americans.
- I mean to use a very prime example like the black Americans relationship with the police force.
- And I also want to point out that basketball, NBA, these sports are dominated by black Americans, disproportionately so.
- I mean, definitely that that double consciousness of, of, of being a black American that happens all the time.
- Fun fact, Negro was a distinction that was made for indigenous people and black Americans.
- It is very tragic to see how its enforcement led to the incarceration of young black Americans.
- So I think as a, as a black American, to do that and to take that on head on is, is damn gutsy.
- And Vincent Hurst, the tension between the Italian Americans and black Americans in Brooklyn, the Tawana Brawley Case and Mike Tyson.
Examples
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The beloved JFK was credited with highly important civil rights advancements helping black Americans.
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Residents here have taken to the streets in Birmingham, Alabama, to bring attention to their efforts against the segregation of black Americans.
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Although, I do believe that the Black American dream is quite different than the white American dream.
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We are here to talk about the fact that Black Americans are not safe.
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In this historical reading, the black American experience represented the experience of those who suffer anywhere.
Academic text (1992) -
Black Americans had zero possibilities for professional life.
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During periods of fundamental economic transition, Black Americans have always been especially vulnerable to exclusion from the new economy.
Academic text (1992) -
Despite kind words, the outlook for black Americans was not improving as the nineteenth century wound down.
Academic text (2011) -
Gospel music has, and it will continue to provide markers of social and theological change among Black American Christians.
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Before the Civil War, millions of black Americans were forced into a life of slavery.
Synonyms
A person in the United States whose family came from Africa, often brought there as slaves
A person in the United States whose ancestors came from Africa, often from families of enslaved people
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an American of African descent' is directly and compositionally derived from 'Black' (a person of African descent) + 'American' (a U.S. citizen). While there are sociocultural nuances and alternative labels (e.g., 'African American'), the basic referential meaning follows straightforward noun + noun composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand it.
Etymology
Black American comes from using Black to describe darker skin and American for people from the United States. It began as a simple way to name people whose 'ancestors' came from Africa, so today it means Americans of 'African descent'.