How have the names that people of African descent use for themselves reflected identity and pride?
Topic 2.10 Black Pride, Identity, and the Question of Naming: how the terms people of African descent have used for themselves have changed over time and reflect shifting ideas of identity and pride.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 2.10, explaining how the names people of African descent have used for themselves, from African and Colored to Negro, Black, and African American, have shifted over time and reflect changing ideas of identity, dignity, and pride.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 2.10 examines the question of naming: the terms people of African descent have used for themselves over time, and how those terms reflect shifting ideas of identity and pride. The College Board wants you to see naming not as a trivial matter of words but as an assertion of self-definition and dignity.
Naming as self-definition
The changing terms
Over time, several terms have been used, each tied to a context:
The move from "Negro" to "Black" is the clearest example of naming as pride: a word once used neutrally or even pejoratively was deliberately reclaimed as a badge of dignity and beauty ("Black is beautiful").
Naming, identity, and pride
The deeper point is that naming reflects and shapes identity. Each term carries a different emphasis: ties to Africa, to color, to American belonging. Debates over which term to use are debates about identity itself, and they reveal both shared pride and internal differences within the community.
Because the power to name had been denied under slavery, reclaiming it was an act of resistance and self-determination, connecting this topic to the broader theme of asserting humanity and dignity that runs through Unit 2.
Try this
Q1. Name three terms people of African descent have used to identify themselves over time. [Recall]
- Cue. African, Colored, Negro, Black, Afro-American, and African American are all valid examples.
Q2. Explain how the shift from "Negro" to "Black" reflected pride. [Short explanation]
- Cue. During the Black Power era, "Black," once used neutrally or pejoratively, was deliberately reclaimed as a badge of dignity and beauty ("Black is beautiful"), asserting self-definition and pride in place of a term associated with an earlier age.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2024 (style)3 marksUsing sources from different eras that use different terms for people of African descent, complete the following. A) Identify ONE term people of African descent have used to name themselves. B) Describe ONE reason such terms have changed over time. C) Explain ONE way naming reflects identity and pride.Show worked answer →
A source-based Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per part.
A. Terms have included African, Colored, Negro, Black, Afro-American, and African American.
B. Terms changed with shifting political movements and ideas of dignity; for example, "Black" was embraced with pride during the Black Power era, replacing "Negro," and "African American" later emphasized heritage and belonging.
C. Naming reflects identity and pride because choosing one's own name asserts self-definition and dignity against terms imposed by others, and each shift signals a community's evolving sense of who it is.
Each part needs a specific, accurate claim.
AP 2025 (style)6 marksDevelop an argument that evaluates the extent to which the changing names used by people of African descent reflect changing ideas of identity and pride. Use specific evidence to support your argument.Show worked answer →
An argument-style free-response question, scored on a rubric rewarding thesis, evidence, and reasoning.
Thesis: "The changing names used by people of African descent closely reflect evolving ideas of identity and pride, from terms imposed under slavery to self-chosen names asserting dignity and heritage, though debates over naming also reveal internal differences."
Evidence: the shift from Negro to Black during the Black Power era; the later rise of African American; ongoing debate over terminology.
Reasoning: weigh naming as a marker of pride against its role in internal debate, showing that the power to name oneself is itself an assertion of identity.
Related dot points
- Topic 2.9 Creating African American Culture: how enslaved people blended diverse African traditions into a new African American culture in religion, music, language, food, and family.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 2.9, explaining how enslaved people created a distinctive African American culture by blending diverse African traditions in religion, music such as spirituals, language, foodways, and kinship, and how this culture functioned as both survival and resistance.
- Topic 2.8 The Social Construction of Race and the Reproduction of Status: how race was invented as a social and legal category to justify slavery, and how enslaved status was reproduced across generations.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 2.8, explaining how race was socially and legally constructed to justify enslavement, the role of pseudoscience and law in defining Blackness, and how enslaved status was reproduced across generations through hereditary slavery and the exploitation of enslaved women.
- Topic 2.14 Black Organizing in the North: Freedom, Women's Rights, and Education: the institutions free Black northerners built, including churches, schools, mutual aid societies, and the conventions and activism for abolition and women's rights.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 2.14, explaining how free Black communities in the North built churches, schools, mutual aid societies, newspapers, and the Negro Convention movement to fight for abolition, education, and rights, including the leadership of Black women.
- Topic 2.18 Debates About Emigration, Colonization, and Belonging in America: the debate over whether Black Americans should emigrate or remain and claim full citizenship, and the controversy over white-led colonization.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 2.18, explaining the nineteenth-century debate over whether Black Americans should emigrate (for example to Liberia) or remain and claim full citizenship, Black opposition to white-led colonization, and the question of belonging in America.
Sources & how we know this
- AP African American Studies Course and Exam Description — College Board (2024)