"Say it loud," sang James Brown, "I'm black and I'm proud." The year was 1968, an exhilarating time of Black Pride, Black Power and slogans like "Black Is Beautiful." "Black" became more than a racial characterization; it was an assertion of social and political self-definition. The terms colored and Negro, in common use as late as 1967, were cast off as labels of second-class citizenship.
Now, if people follow the lead of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, "black" may become equally obsolete. Jackson declared last week that citizens of his race should henceforth be known as African Americans. "There are Armenian Americans...
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