The Cultural Legitimacy of Black Americans: How Power Shapes Global Ethnic Recognition

Immigrant groups, seeking acceptance in white-dominated societies, may adopt anti-Black biases to position themselves as "model minorities"...

Black Americans don’t need to justify their ethnicity—they’ve built a culture that shaped the modern world. The real question isn’t whether their traditions are "authentic," but why some groups feel entitled to police cultural legitimacy in the first place. True understanding of ethnicity requires recognizing that no culture is static, and survival itself is a creative act…

Ethnicity refers to shared cultural identity— shared history, dialect, language, traditions, ancestry, religion, or heritage. Unlike race (a social construct often tied to physical traits), Ethnicity is about cultural belonging. Example: Someone may be racially Black but ethnically Jamaican, Nigerian, or African American.

I have noticed Black Americans have faced scrutiny from other ethnic groups—African immigrants, Caribbean communities, Asians, and others—who sometimes dismiss African American culture as “less authentic” because it emerged from slavery rather than uninterrupted traditions. This perspective fails to recognize that Black American culture is not a diminished form of African heritage, but a distinct ethnic identity forged through resistance, adaptation, and innovation in the face of systemic oppression.

Many cultures define cultural legitimacy through unbroken lineage—traditional foods, languages, and customs passed down for centuries, untouched. Because slavery forcibly severed Black Americans from specific African ethnic ties, outsiders often assume their culture is “forever lost”, “inferior” or “rootless.” This ignores how Black Americans created new traditions from fragments of African heritage, European impositions, and sheer survival necessity.

Caribbean and African immigrants sometimes distance themselves from Black Americans, claiming stronger ties to “original” cultures. Yet this hierarchy reflects colonial attitudes that privilege pre-colonial traditions over diasporic innovation. It also overlooks how Black American culture (from jazz to hip-hop, AAVE to Juneteenth) has globally influenced music, language, and protest.

Its important to remember that Ethnic legitimacy is often granted by dominant power structures. Just like “Race” is an americanised concept, Immigrant groups, seeking acceptance in white-dominated societies, may adopt anti-Black biases to position themselves as “model minorities.” This reinforces the false idea that Black Americans—whose culture was shaped by oppression & survival rather than voluntary migration—have “less to offer.”

Black Vernacular English (AAVE) is a legitimate dialect with West African grammatical influences, not “broken English.” Soul food—collards, cornbread, fried fish—isn't just “slave rations,” but a cuisine of ingenuity, blending African, Indigenous, and Southern survival techniques. Juneteenth, HBCU homecomings, and Black church goings are uniquely American ethnic practices;

The dismissal of Black American ethnicity reveals how White Power operates. Colonial mentality privileges cultures that align with Eurocentric ideas of “civilization.” Respectability politics forces marginalized groups to prove their worth through rigid traditions, while dominant groups (like white Americans) face no such scrutiny. Global anti-Blackness leads even other people of color to undervalue Black cultural production unless it's commodified (e.g., hip-hop, fashion, hair).

Black Americans don't need to justify their ethnicity—they've built a culture that shaped the modern world. The real question isn't whether their traditions are “authentic,” but why some groups feel entitled to police cultural legitimacy in the first place. True understanding of ethnicity requires recognizing that no culture is static, and survival itself is a creative act. This understanding of ethnicity reveals how power shapes which groups get to claim cultural legitimacy and which must constantly defend theirs. ..

The measure of a culture's validity should be its ability to sustain and uplift its people through generations of challenge and change.

Moving Forward~ Are Black Americans ethnic? Yes. African Americans are an ethnic group with a unique cultural identity shaped by slavery, colonialism, Religion, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, Jazz, Hip-hop, Black Vernacular English (AAVE), and shared generational traditions like Juneteenth, Church goings, soul food , Masonic Organisations and even open casket funerals). Many Black Americans also have additional ethnic identities due to historical displacement (e.g., Haitian American, Somali American, Nigerian American, Jamaican-Chinese).

What about White/European Americans? Well, whiteness in America was purposefully constructed to erase ethnic differences among Europeans (Irish, Italian, Polish, etc.) to consolidate power. Over time, these groups assimilated into "white" identity, often shedding ethnic ties and social placement. Many white Americans identify broadly as "white" without ethnic affiliation. Others reclaim ethnic roots (e.g., "Italian American," "Jewish American"). Unlike Black Americans, "white American" isn't treated as an ethnic group because it doesn't share a distinct culture evolving from systemic oppression.

This understanding of ethnicity reveals how power shapes which groups get to claim cultural legitimacy and which must constantly defend theirs.