Afro-Mexicans are an ethnic group which exists in certain parts of Mexico such as the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Guerrero, Veracruz and in some towns in northern Mexico. The existence of blacks in Mexico is unknown, denied or diminished in both Mexico and abroad for a number of reasons: their small numbers, heavy intermarriage with other ethnic groups and Mexico’s tradition of defining itself as a “mestizaje” or mixing of European and indigenous. Mexico did have an active slave trade since the early colonial period but from the beginning, intermarriage and mixed race offspring created an elaborate caste system. This system broke down in the very late colonial period and after Independence the legal notion of race was eliminated. The creation of a national Mexican identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico’s indigenous and European past actively or passively eliminating its African one from popular consciousness. This has been changing in recent decades, with the “Third Root” movement which works to raise the political and social status of Afro-Mexicans and promote its existence and culture to the general population.

African slavery in Mexico[link]

Statue of Gaspar Yanga

There is an assumption that there was not much African slavery in Mexico since there are now so few people of obvious black ancestry. However, this is not the case.^[1]

Mexican anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán estimated that there were six blacks who took part in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The first African slave brought to Mexico is said to be Juan Cortés, a slave who accompanied Hernán Cortés in 1519. Another conquistador, Pánfilo de Narváez, brought an African slave who has been blamed for the smallpox epidemic of 1520. Early slaves were likely personal servants or concubines of their Spanish masters, who had been brought to Spain first and came with the conquistadors.^[1][2]

Mexico never became a slave based economy but slavery did fill important niches in the colonial period. While a number of indigenous were enslaved during the conquest, slaves during the rest of the colonial period were either black or mulatto (black/European. The demand for slaves came in the early colonial period, especially between 1580 to 1640, when the indigenous population quickly declined.^[3] Carlos V began to issue an increasing number of contracts between the Spanish Crown and private slavers specifically to bring Africans to Spanish colonies. These slavers in turn made deals with the Portuguese, who controlled the African slave market.^[1] Mexico was an important slave port in the New World, harboring slaves brought by Spanish before they were sent to other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.^[4]

Important economic sectors such as sugar production and mining relied heavily on slave labor during that time.^[3] After 1640, slave labor became less important but the reasons are not clear. One factor was that the Spanish Crown cut off contacts with Portuguese slave traders after Portugal gained its independence. It declined in mining as the high profit margins allowed the recruitment of wage labor. One other factor was that the indigenous and mestizo population rose, and with them the size of the free labor force.^[3] In the later colonial period, most slaves continued to work in sugar production but also in textile mills, which were the two sectors that needed a large, stable workforce, which could not pay enough to attract free laborers to its arduous work. Slave labor would remain important to textile production until the latter 18th century when cheaper English textiles were imported.^[3]

Other sector of slave labor was generally restricted to Mexico City, where they were domestic servants such as maids, coachmen, personal service or armed bodyguards. However, they were more of a status symbol rather than an economic necessity.^[3]

Although integral to certain sectors of the economy through the mid 18th century, the number of slaves and the prices they fetched fell during the colonial period. Slave prices were highest from 1580 to 1640 at about 400 pesos. It decreased to about 350 pesos around 1650, staying constant until falling to about 175 pesos for an adult male in 1750. In the latter 18th century, mill slaves were phased out and replaced by indigenous, often indebted, labor. Slaves were nearly non-existent in the late colonial census of 1792.^[3] While banned shortly after the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence, the practice did not definitively end until 1829.^[2]

View inside the Museo de las Culturas Afromestizas in Cuajinicuilapa

Slave rebellions occurred in Mexico as in other parts of the Americas, with the first in Veracruz in 1537. Runaway slaves were called cimarrones, who mostly fled to the highlands between Veracruz and Puebla with a number making their way to the Costa Chica region in what are now Guerrero and Oaxaca .^[2][5] Runaways in Veracruz formed settlements called “palenques” which would fight off Spanish authorities. The most famous of these was led by Gaspar Yanga, who fought the Spanish for forty years until the Spanish recognized their autonomy in 1608, making San Lorenzo de los Negros (today Yanga) the first community of free blacks in the Americas.^[2][5]

From early in the colonial period, African and African descended people had offspring with people of European or indigenous races. This led to an elaborate caste system based on ethnic heritage. The offspring of mixed-race couples was divided into three general groups: mestizo for Spanish/indigenous, mulatto for Spanish/black and zambo or zambaigo for black/indigenous. However, there was overlap in these categories which recognized black mestizos. In addition, skin tone further divided the mestizo and mulatto categories. This loose system of classification became known as “las castas.” This did have problems. For example, those with African and indigenous heritage would hide the African as indigenous had a somewhat higher status at points in colonial history. Slaves with indigenous blood would be branded to prevent this. Free persons of African blood would hide such to avoid paying head taxes, not imposed on the indigenous. Las castas paintings were produced during the 18th centuries, commissioned by the wealthy to reflect Mexican society at that time. They portray the three races, European, indigenous and African and their complicated mixing. They are based on family groups, with parents and children labeled according to their caste. They have 16 squares in a hierarchy with the most European at the top. Indigenous and black women may appear at the top if they mix with European, but similar men never do. There is evidence that those of African heritage were classed as inferior to the indigenous, such as the idea that African heritage could not be “cleansed” in future generations. Also, as the formal caste system began to erode, those classed as “castizo” (Spanish/mestizo) were considered white, but moriscos (light-skinned offspring of Spanish and mulattos) were considered mulattos.^[2]

Numbers[link]

Numbers related to Mexico’s African descendant population have been in dispute or not clear. Many sources indicate that the percentage was very small, never exceeding two percent of the population and assimilated physically into the rest of Mexico’s mestizo population by the mid 18th century.^[2] One reason for the dispute is that defining Mexico’s black or African population is difficult as race is not seen in Latin America as distinct categories but rather as a continuum. While Mexico did have an official caste system (called “las castas”) in the colonial period, race was legally done away with after Independence with no official statistics on race since then.^[2][3]

In colonial Mexico, Africans far outnumbered Europeans, with the estimates of the number of Africans brought to Mexico ranging as high as 200,000, mostly in the 17th century. From the mid 16th to mid 17th century, Mexico had the most African slaves.^[4] A major reason that African population outnumber the Spanish was that many Spanish women or families would not go to the new colonies because of the lack of security. This strongly limited the growth of the Spanish population. The African origin population in 1553 estimated at over 20,000. In 1570, the black population was three times that of the Spanish. In the 1640s, the African population was over 35,000, about 2.5 times that of the Spanish. By the 1740s, the number declined to about 16,000 but African descendents outnumbered the Spanish descendents until 1810.^[1]

There have been no official figures on the numbers of Mexicans of African descent since 1810, when a census found that African descended people made up 10 per cent of the total population.^[6] Between 1895 and 1930, only the 1921 census contained questions about race. Racial indicators remain in marriage licenses until 1940. In 1930, over ninety percent of those who identified as “afro-mestizo” married within their own group. In 1940, this number drops to fifty percent, with most instances of marrying outside the “afro-mestizo” group is to mestizo women.^[2] Estimates of their numbers today range widely from 200,000 up to about a million.^[7]

^[8] or between two and nine percent of the total population.^[9] Many indigenous groups are much better counted and conceded to be larger.^[4]

There is no record that large numbers of Africans or African descendents died or migrated out of Mexico.^[4] The main reason for the low numbers despite Mexico’s history of African slaves is that most of these descendents have been so intermixed that those with strong African features or cultural elements only exist in a few places in Mexico.^[5] While Veracruz is considered to have the largest black population and does have distinct African elements in its culture, the largest number of visibly African-descended people live in the Costa Chica region in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero.^[6][10] There are also some small communities in the north of the country, especially Coahuila, which were the result of escaped slaves and free blacks migrating from the United States.^[4]

Invisibility and discrimination[link]

José María Morelos

Most Mexicans deny that there are issues with race; however, there is evidence that those with obvious African heritage or features do face discrimination.^[2] While European and indigenous people are considered part of the “mestizo” nature of Mexican ethnicity, African people and cultural contributions are not. There are a number of possible reasons for this. There are few to no fully African descended people in Mexico as almost all of those brought from Africa and their descendents intermixed with European and/or indigenous peoples.^[9] Those with significant African physical heritage have maintained only vestiges of their original cultures, generally do not diverge much from the mainstream culture in dress, language, housing food, etc.^[4][11]

In Latin America, only those with African physical features are considered black.^[4] for those who fit this profile in Mexico, there is little consensus as to how to refer to them. Some sources state that “afromestizos” is considered acceptable and preferred over “afrodescendientes” (African descent) and that “negro” (black) is not pejorative unless it is with a certain intonation. However, it then says it is better to say “morenos.”^[9] A survey done in the Costa Chica region determined that the Afro-Mexicans here themselves preferred the term “negro” (black).^[7] White and mestizos in the Costa Chica call them “morenos” and the indigenous call them “negros.” Researchers have called them “afromestizos” or “Afro-Mexicans” with the aim of using a neutral term.^[7] Then there are those who prefer be classified as simply “mestizo” with most of the rest of the Mexican population.^[4] While many acknowledge their African roots, many still stress their indigenous ones as “more authentically Mexican.”^[2]

While Afro-Mexicans have been stereotyped as being loud, opinionated, lazy, and fond of singing, dancing and parties, the main issue is that they are not considered to be Mexican at all.^[2][9] Despite a number of well-known Mexican heroes with African blood and features such as Vicente Guerrero, José María Morelos, Juan Álvarez, Valerio Trujano, Mariano Tabares, the Hermenegildo Galeana and Nicolas Bravo.^[11][12] Since Independence, the construction of a Mexican national identity has focus on its European and indigenous roots, with the African considered to be residual. The idea of this construction, especially since the Mexican Revolution, was to create a single notion of what it means to be “Mexican.”^[7] Since 1928, Mexico has celebrated October 12 as "The Day of the Race" and this singular Spanish-Indian mix denies the African-descended population.^[12] Not many in Mexico are even aware of the African element in the population of Mexico,^[12] in part because the African part of Mexico's story has been limited to a few sentences in school books.^[13]

This invisibility has led to Afro-Mexicans being shut out of most sectors of Mexico’s economy and lacking access to most social and governmental services. Most live in isolated rural communities in Veracruz and Oaxaca but even tourist cities such as Acapulco lack access to social programs such as employment support, health coverage, public education, food assistance and other from the Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL) .^[6][8][14] Education levels are low and teen pregnancy rates are high.^[9] They lack adequate primary and secondary education and are largely absent from institutions of higher education.^[6]

Just under seventy four percent do not have access to government medical services (80.5% in Guerrero, 63.5% in Oaxaca and 26.8% in Veracruz). Ninety five percent of Afro-Mexican workers do not receive paid vacation time and just over ninety four percent do not receive the legally mandated Christmas bonus called “aguinaldo.”^[9] The Afro-Mexican communities near Yanga lack schools, pushing young people to migrate out in search of work.^[8] The Costa Chica area lacks roads, which hinders economic activity, along with the Pinotepa region declared a national reserve, banning logging.^[6] The majority of the black Mexican population works in subsistence agriculture, fishing, construction and domestic work.^[6][8]

The African presence in Mexico has often been denied or trivialized.^[5] José Vasconcelos’ book “La Raza Cósmica” explicitly promotes the idea of a European/indigenous identity and eliminating the idea of a black component.^[2] During the 19th and early 20th centuries, European immigration was encouraged while Asian and African immigration were discouraged.^[2] In the 1940s, the first study of Afro-Mexican presence and culture was undertaken by Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán to show that indeed a separate subculture and society exists.^[14] His major work was published in 1958 and called Cuijla:Esbozo etnográfico de un pueblo negro which established study of the ethnicity.^[4] Although he became Mexico foremost expert of African influence in Mexico culture, his work was not well-receive in his lifetime as it clashed with Mexico’s idea of itself as Spanish/indigenous.^[5] Aguirre Beltrán’s work was the only study of Afro-Mexicans until the 1990s.^[11] The ignorance of Mexico’s “third root” has continued. Blacks in Mexico have been statistically invisible in government records.^[7] In 2005, the Mexican government commissioned the first ever national survey on discrimination, but this work failed to include questions aimed at Afro-Mexicans.^[5] Afro-Mexicans from the Costa Chica, are often mistaken for immigrants from Belize or Cuba .^[5] Even in Veracruz, which is considered to be the country’s “blackest” state, Afro Mexicans are not considered to be “real Mexicans” but rather as immigrants from the Caribbean.^[4] In 2011, Afro-Mexican representatives have complained that the ethnicity has been detained and accosted by military who accuse them of not being Mexican, unaware that the ethnicity exists in Mexico.^[15]

While most Mexicans deny that they are racists, there was an incident which sparked tensions between Mexican and African-Americans in the United States. Mexico has had a comic book series established in the 1940s by Yolanda Vargas Dulché called “Memín Pinguín.” The central character is a shy and docile boy with black skin and exaggerated “African” facial features, which have been compared to the simian.^[4][12] It was an unchallenged aspect of Mexican culture until the federal government decided to issue a stamp with the character’s likeness, gaining the attention of the U.S. press and politicians.^[12] This caused denunciation in the U.S. which in turn pushed Mexican authorities to defend the characters and many Mexican to rush and buy the stamps.^[13] Another incident related to the governor’s race in the state of Michoacán, where an opponent insinuated the black Cuban wife of candidate Lázaro Cárdenas of being communist and anti-Catholic and therefore untrustworthy because of her heritage.^[4]

In 1992, the Mexican federal government officially recognized those of African descent as the “tercera raíz” or third root of Mexican culture.^[12][16] This is one of the results of the Third Root movement headed by a number of Afro-Mexican organizations since the late 20th century.^[12] This movement was spurred by both internal and external political forces for Mexico to recognize its various cultural groups. In the 1960s and 1970s, various leaders, especially those affiliated with the liberation theology movement, acknowledged and promoted the fact that Latin America has a wide variety of cultures that should be acknowledged, including African. Many of these were English speakers, influenced by the civil rights movement in the United States. However, efforts by these missionaries and activists had limited effect because they did not take into accounts some elements of Mexican/Afro-Mexican culture and politics such as the fact that Mexican law abolished race as a legal factor and the constitution provided some economic guarantees not found in the United States.^[7] Around the same time, black and indigenous communities had partnered in various ecological and economic projects, taking advantage of public and private monies in order to benefit local populations. These included organizations such as Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular and Convención Estatal Indígena y Afromexicana.^[7] The movement today includes organizations such as the Encounter of Black Populations, Black Mexico and more who work with both within Mexico and other African diaspora organizations in Latin America.^[6] The movement for Afro-Mexicans has been particularly strong in the Costa Chica region.^[7]

One success of this movement is that now Afro-Mexicans are represented separately in census counts. Another was the 2003 sponsorship by the federal government of the Third Root program, which developed educational television programs and promoted scholarship on the African heritage of Mexico.^[12] In Veracruz there has been a resurgence of African-influenced Son Jarocho music.^[6] A radio station in Jamiltepec has a one hour show on Sundays called “Cimarrones” dedicated to Afro-Mexican music and culture. The magazine Fandango was established in 2000.^[7] The Universidad Veracruzana now sponsors research and seminars on Afro-Mexicans, including black towns near Mexico’s border with Texas. Mexican filmmakers such as Rafael Rebollar are receiving recognition for their documentary work illustrating “La Raiz Olvidar” (The Forgotten Ones) and “Los Moscogos,” both dealing with stories relation to people of African and indigenous heritage. An anti discrimination law was approved in 2005, designed in part to deal with issues for this group.^[12] Oaxaca has since officially recognized Afro-Mexicans as an ethnic group.^[6]

Although in many parts of Mexico, many people of African ancestry still do not identify themselves as such, the increased migration of Afro-Mexicans to other parts of the country and to the US has significantly impacted on this population's consciousness of its African roots.^[6] According of missionary Glyn Jemmot, who work in the community of El Ciruelos in the municipality of Pinotepa Nacional, “black consciousness in Mexico is very recent.”^[9]

Afro-Mexican population in the Costa Chica[link]

Girl from Punta Maldonado, Guerrero.

Afromexicans from Costa Chica, Oaxaca.

The Costa Chica (“small coast” in Spanish) extends from Acapulco to the town of Puerto Ángel in Oaxaca in Mexico’s Pacific coast. The Costa Chica is not well known to travelers, with few attractions, especially where Afro-Mexicans live. Exceptions to this are the beaches of Marquelia and Punta Maldonado in Guerrero and the wildlife reserve in Chacahua, Oaxaca .^[10] The area was very isolated from the rest of Mexico, which prompted runaway slaves to find refuge here. However, this has changed to a large extent with the building of Highway 200 which connects the area to Acapulco and other cities on the Pacific coast.^[13] African identity and physical features are stronger here than elsewhere in Mexico as the slaves here did not intermarry to the extent that others did. Not only is black skin and African features more prominent, there are strong examples of African based song, dance and other art forms.^[12][17] Until recently homes in the area were round mud and thatch huts, the construction of which can be traced back to what are now the Ghana and Ivory Coast.^[10] Origin tales often center on slavery. Many relate to a shipwreck (often a slave ship) where the survivors settle here or that they are the descendents of slaves freed for fighting in the Mexican War of Independence.^[4][18] The region has a distinct African-influenced dance called the Danza de los Diablos (Dance of the Devils) which is performed for Day of the Dead. They dance in the streets with wild costumes and masks accompanied by rhythmic music. It is considered to be a syncretism of Mexican Catholic tradition and West African ritual. Traditionally the dance is accompanied by a West African instrument called a bote, but it is dying out as the younger generations have not learned how to play it.^[4][18]

There are a number of “pueblos negros” or black towns in the region such as Corralero and El Ciruelo in Oaxaca, and the largest being Cuajinicuilapa in Guerrero. The latter is home to a museum called the Museo de las Culturas Afromestizos which documents the history and culture of the region.^[4][18]

The Afro-Mexicans here live among mestizos (indigenous/white) and various indigenous groups such as the Amuzgos, Mixtecs, Tlalpanecs and Chatinos .^[10] Terms used to denote them vary. White and mestizos in the Costa Chica call them “morenos” (dark-skinned) and the indigenous call them “negros” (black). A survey done in the region determined that the Afro-Mexicans in this region themselves preferred the term “negro,” although some prefer “moreno” and a number still use “mestizo.”^[2][4][7] Relations between Afro-Mexican and indigenous populations are strained as there is a long history of hostility.^[10][13]

Afro-Mexican population in Veracruz[link]

Like the Costa Chica, the state of Veracruz has a number of pueblos negros, notably the African named towns of Mandinga, Matamba, Mozambique and Mozomboa as well as Chacalapa, Coyolillo, Yanga and Tamiahua .^[12][17][19] The town of Mandinga, about forty five minutes south of Veracruz city, is particularly known for the restaurants that line its main street.^[17] Coyolillo hosts an annual Carnival with Afro-Caribbean dance and other African elements.^[20]

However, tribal and family group were separated and dispersed to a greater extent around the sugar cane growing areas in Veracruz. This had the effect of intermarriage and the loss or absorption of most elements of African culture in a few generations.^[17][21] This intermarriage means that while Veracruz remains “blackest” in Mexico’s popular imagination, those with black skin are mistaken for those from the Caribbean and/or not “truly Mexican.”^[4]

The phenomena of runaways and slave rebellions began early in Veracruz with many escaping to the mountainous areas in the west of the state, near Orizaba and the Puebla border. Here groups of escaped slaves established defiant communities called “palenques” to resist Spanish authorities.^[5][16] The most important Palenque was established in 1570 by Gaspar Yanga and stood against the Spanish for about forty years until the Spanish were forced to recognize it as a free community in 1609, with the name of San Lorenzo de los Negros. It was renamed Yanga in 1932.^[5][8] Yanga was the first municipality of freed slaves in the Americas. However, the town proper has almost no people of obvious African heritage. These live in the smaller, more rural communities.^[8]

Because African descendents dispersed widely into the general population, African and Afro-Cuban influence can be seen in Veracruz’s music dance, improvised poetry, magical practices and especially food.^[17][19][21] Veracruz son music, best known through the popularity of the hit “La Bamba” has African origins.^[5] Veracruz cooking commonly contains Spanish, indigenous and African ingredients and cooking techniques.^[17] One defining African influence is the use of peanuts. Even though peanuts are native to the Americas, there is little evidence of their widespread use in the pre Hispanic period. Peanuts were brought to Africa by the Europeans and the Africans adopted them, using them in stews, sauces and many other dishes. The slaves that came later would bring this new cooking with the legume to Mexico.^[17] They can be found in regional dishes such as encacahuatado, an alcoholic drink called the torito, candies (especially in Tlacotalpan), salsa macha and even in mole poblano from the neighboring state of Puebla.^[21] This influence can be seen as far west as Puebla, where peanuts are an ingredient in mole poblano.^[17] Another important ingredient introduced by African cooking is the plantain, which came from Africa via the Canary Islands. In Veracruz, they are heavily used breads, empanadas, desserts, mole, barbacoa and much more. One other defining ingredient in Veracruz cooking is the use of starchy tropical roots, called viandas. They include cassava, malanga, taro and sweet potatoes.^[17][21]

Afro-Mexican population in northern Mexico[link]

There are some small black towns in the far north of Mexico, especially in Coahuila and the country’s border with Texas. Many ex slaves and free blacks came into northern Mexico in the 19th century from the United States.^[4] One particular group was the Mascogos, which consisted of runaway slaves and free blacks from Florida, along with Seminoles and Kickapoos. Many of these settled in and around the town of El Nacimiento, Coahuila, where their descendents remain.^[5]

References[link]

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The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.^[1]

As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.^[2]

Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub-Saharan African descent (see African diaspora). Among the members of this group, dark skin is most often accompanied by the expression of natural afro-hair texture. Other definitions of the term "black people" extend to other populations characterized by dark skin, sometimes including people indigenous to Oceania.^[3][4]

Physiological traits[link]

Dark skin[link]

Map of indigenous skin color distribution in the world based on Von Luschan's chromatic scale.

The evolution of dark skin is linked intrinsically to the loss of body hair in humans. By 1.2 million years ago, all people having descendants today had the same receptor protein of today's Africans; their skin was dark, and the intense sun lowered the chance of survival of those with lighter skin that resulted from mutational variation in the receptor protein.^[5] This is significantly earlier than the speciation of Homo sapiens from Homo erectus some 250,000 years ago.

Skin cancer as a result of ultraviolet light radiation causing mutations in the skin is less common among people with dark skin than it is among those with light skin.^[6][7] Dark skin prevents an essential B vitamin, folate, from being destroyed. In the absence of modern medicine and diet, a person with dark skin in the tropics would live longer, be healthier and more likely to reproduce than a person with light skin. As evidence of this expectation of adverse effects of light skin in the tropics, White South Africans ^[8] and white Australians have some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world.^[9]

Conversely, as dark skin prevents sunlight from penetrating the skin, it hinders the production of vitamin D₃. When humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D₃ levels became a problem, and humans with lighter skin were more successful in reproducing. White people of Europe, who have low levels of melanin, naturally have an almost colorless skin pigmentation, especially when untanned. This low level of pigmentation allows the blood vessels to become visible, which gives the characteristic pale pink color of white people. The loss of melanin in white people is thought to have been caused by a mutation in one letter out of 3.1 billion letters of DNA.^[10]

The genetic mutations leading to light skin, though different among East Asians and Europeans,^[11] suggest the two groups experienced a similar selective pressure due to settlement in northern latitudes.^[12]

Black skin pigmentation has been linked to a number of other properties, including tactile characteristics, and slower and less pronounced development of wrinkles.^[13]

Hair[link]

The texture of hair in people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry is noticeably different from that of European and Asian populations. Herodotus described the peoples of Libya (the "western Ethiopians") as woolly-haired.

Such "afro-hair" texture is denser than its straight counterparts. Due to this, it is often referred to as "coily", "thick", "nappy", "bushy", or "woolly". For several reasons, possibly including its relatively flat cross section (among other factors^[14]), this hair type conveys a dry or matte appearance.^[15][16] Its unique shape renders it prone to breakage when combed or brushed.^[16]

The specific characteristics of the natural afro-hair form are unique among all mammals.^{[clarification needed][dubious – discuss][17]} The texture likely predates the evolution of dark skin. It evolved when, as pre-human australopithecines lost most of their fur to enable perspiration, the need to protect the newly exposed pale skin underneath this body hair was crucial (see^[18] in light of Rogers and others., 2004 and Harding and others., 2000). The trait ceased to be essential to survival at the equator upon the evolution of hairless dark skin. Yet it has continued to be expressed vestigially among most Melanesians, Andaman Islanders, and sub-Saharan Africans.

Sub-Saharan Africa[link]

A black woman and her albino son from Tanzania

Sub-Saharan Africa is a common, if imprecise term that encompasses African countries located south of the Sahara Desert. It is commonly used to differentiate the region culturally, ecologically, politically and, more controversially, racially, from North Africa, which has historically been considered part of the Mediterranean sphere and whose residents are primarily of Arab ethnicity.

Because the indigenous people of this region are primarily dark-skinned, it is alternatively called "Black Africa".^[19] However the terminology Black Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa is considered by some as a pejorative term and a vestige of colonialism, which divided Africa into European terms of homogeneity.^[20] Some criticize the use of the term, because, as it has become in many quarters synonymous with Black Africa, people may not realize that there are also indigenous black populations in North Africa. In addition, the Sahara cuts across countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad, leaving some parts of them in North Africa and some in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some black Africans prefer to be culturally distinguished from those who live in the north of the continent.^[21]

Cultural ideas of a black race[link]

South Africa[link]

A Khoisan man, an ethnic group in South Africa.

In South Africa during the apartheid era, the population was classified into four main racial groups: Black, White, Asian (mostly Indian), and Coloured. The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Coloured definition occupied an intermediary position between the Black and White definitions in South Africa.

The apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria in the Population Registration Act to determine who belonged in which group. Minor officials administered tests to enforce the classifications. When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance whether a person was to be considered Colored or Black, the "pencil test" was employed. This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck.^[22]

During the apartheid era, those classed as "Coloured" were oppressed and discriminated against. But, they had limited rights and overall had slightly better socioeconomic conditions than those classed as "Black".

In the post-apartheid era, the ANC government's laws in support of their affirmative action policies define "Black" people to include "Africans", "Coloureds" and "Asians". Their affirmative action policies have also favored "Africans" over "Coloureds". Some South Africans categorized as "African Black" openly state that "Coloureds" did not suffer as much as they did during apartheid. The popular saying by "Coloured" South Africans to illustrate their dilemma is:

We were not white enough under apartheid, and we are not black enough under the ANC (African National Congress)

In 2008, the High Court in South Africa ruled that Chinese South Africans who were residents during the apartheid era (and their descendents) are to be reclassified as "Black people" solely for the purposes of accessing affirmative action benefits, because they were also "disadvantaged" by racial discrimination. Chinese people who arrived in the country after the end of apartheid do not qualify.^[23]

Other than by appearance, "Coloureds" can usually be distinguished from "Blacks" by language. Most speak Afrikaans or English as a first language, as opposed to Bantu languages such as Zulu or Xhosa. They also tend to have more European-sounding names than Bantu names.^[24]

In the Middle East[link]

Near East and North Africa[link]

Black African and Near Eastern peoples have interacted since prehistoric times.^[25][26] Some historians estimate that as many as 14 million black slaves were transported across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert in the Arab slave trade from 650 to 1900 CE.^[27][28] The Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail "the Bloodthirsty" (1672–1727) raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard, who coerced the country into submission.^[29][30]

13th century slave market in Yemen. Yemen officially abolished slavery in 1962.^[31]

In more recent times, about 1000 CE, interactions between black people and Arabs resulted in the incorporation of extensive Arabic vocabulary into Swahili, which became a useful lingua franca for merchants. Some of this linguistic exchange occurred as part of the slave trade; the history of Islam and slavery shows that the major juristic schools traditionally accepted the institution of slavery.^[32] As a result, Arab influence spread along the east coast of Africa and to some extent into the interior (see Swahili people). Timbuktu was a trading outpost that linked West Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout the Arab World. As a result of these interactions, some female-mediated gene flow into the Middle East from Sub-Saharan Africa can be observed in certain populations.^[33]

According to Dr. Carlos Moore, resident scholar at Brazil's University of the state of Bahia, Afro-multiracials in the Arab world self-identify in ways that resemble Latin America. He claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry.^[34]

Soldiers of the Free Arabian Legion in Greece, September 1943.

Moore also claims that a film about Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had to be canceled when Sadat discovered that an African-American had been cast to play him. In fact, the 1983 television movie Sadat, starring Louis Gossett, Jr., was not canceled. The Egyptian government refused to let the drama air in Egypt, partially on the grounds of the casting of Gossett.^[35]

Sadat's mother was a dark-skinned Sudanese woman and his father was a lighter-skinned Egyptian. In response to an advertisement for an acting position he remarked, "I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish".^[36]

Fathia Nkrumah was another Egyptian with ties to Black Africa. She was the late wife of Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, whose marriage was seen as helping plant the seeds of cooperation between Egypt and other African countries as they struggled for independence from European colonization. This helped advance the formation of the African Union.^[37]

Bashi-bazouk of the Ottoman Empire by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1869

Because of the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men enslaved more black women than men, and used more black female slaves than males. The men interpreted the Qur'an to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage,^[38][39] leading to many mixed-race children. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab master's child, she became umm walad or “mother of a child”, a status that granted her privileged rights. The child was allowed to prosper from the wealth of the father and was given rights of inheritance.^[40] Because the society was patrilineal, the children took their fathers' status at birth and were born free. Some succeeded their fathers as rulers, as was the case with Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. His mother was a Fulani concubine of his father.

Such tolerance, however, was not extended to wholly black persons, even when technically "free." Arabs commonly believed that blacks were slaves.^[41] The term "abd", (Arabic: عبد‎,) "slave," remains a common term for black people in the Middle East, and, depending on the context, usually though not always derogatory.^[42]

Turkey[link]

Beginning several centuries ago, a number of sub-Saharan Africans were brought by slave traders during the Ottoman Empire to plantations between Antalya and Istanbul in modern-day Turkey.^[43] Some of their descendants remain, mixed with the rest of the population in these areas, and many migrated to larger cities. Some came from the island of Crete following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.^[44]

Israel[link]

An African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem child in Dimona.

About 150,000 black people live in Israel, amounting to just over 2% of the nation's population. The vast majority of these, some 120,000, are Beta Israel,^[45] most of whom came during the 1980s and 1990s from Ethiopia.^[46] In addition, Israel is home to over 5,000 members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem movement, who reside mainly in a distinct neighborhood in the Negev town of Dimona. Unknown numbers of black converts to Judaism reside in Israel, most of them converts from the UK, Canada, and the United States. Thousands of mixed-race individuals with non-black Jewish relatives also live in Israel.

In the Americas[link]

Approximately 12 million Africans were shipped to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade from 1492 to 1888. Today their descendants number approximately 150 million,^[47] most of whom live in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. Most notably Brazil has the largest population in the world, aside from Nigeria, of individuals of at least partial African descent. Many have a multiracial background of African, Amerindian, European and Asian ancestry. The various regions developed complex social conventions with which their multi-ethnic populations were classified.

United States[link]

Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist and conductor of the Underground Railroad.

In the first 200 years that black people were in the United States, they commonly referred to themselves as Africans. In Africa, people primarily identified themselves by ethnic group (closely allied to language) and not by skin color. Individuals would be Ashanti, Igbo, Bakongo or Wolof. But when Africans were brought to the Americas, they were forced to give up their ethnic affiliations when they were combined with other groups from Africa. In areas of the Upper South, different ethnic groups were brought together. This is significant as Africans came from a vast geographic region, the West African coastline stretching from Senegal to Angola and in some cases from the south east coast such as Mozambique. A new identity and culture was born that incorporated elements of the various ethnic groups and of European cultural heritage, resulting in fusions such as the Black church and Black English. This new identity was based on African ancestry and slave status rather than any one ethnic group.^[48]

In March 1807, Britain, which largely controlled the Atlantic, declared the trans-atlantic slave trade illegal, as did the United States. (The latter prohibition took effect January 1, 1808, the earliest date on which Congress had the power to do so under Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution.)

By that time, the majority of black people were U.S.-born, so use of the term "African" became problematic. Though initially a source of pride, many blacks feared the use of African as an identity would be a hindrance to their fight for full citizenship in the US. They also felt that it would give ammunition to those who were advocating repatriating black people back to Africa. In 1835 black leaders called upon black Americans to remove the title of "African" from their institutions and replace it with "Negro" or "Colored American". A few institutions chose to keep their historic names, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. "Negro" and "colored" remained the popular terms until the late 1960s.^[49]

The term black was used throughout but not frequently as it carried a certain stigma. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech,^[50] Martin Luther King, Jr. uses the terms negro fifteen times and black four times. Each time he uses black it is in parallel construction with white, for example, "black men and white men".^[51]

With the successes of the civil rights movement, a new term was needed to break from the past and help shed the reminders of legalized discrimination. In place of Negro, activists promoted the use of black as standing for racial pride, militancy and power. Some of the turning points included the use of the term "Black Power" by Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and the release of James Brown's song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud".

African-American Michael Jordan, considered by many the greatest basketball player in history.

In 1988 Jesse Jackson urged Americans to use the term African American because the term has a historical cultural base. Since then African-American and black have essentially a coequal status. Controversy continues over which term is more appropriate. Some such as Maulana Karenga and Owen Alik Shahadah argue African-American is more appropriate because it accurately articulates geography and historical origin.^[48] Others have argued that "black" is a better term because "African" suggests foreignness, despite the long presence of black people in the US.^[52] Still others believe the term black is inaccurate because African Americans have a variety of skin tones.^{[citation needed]} Surveys show that the majority of black Americans have no preference for "African American" or "Black,"^[53] although they have a slight preference for "black" in personal settings and "African-American" in more formal settings.^[54] Increases in the number of immigrants to the United States from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America have brought up questions about who uses the term African-American. The more recent African immigrants may sometimes view themselves, and be viewed, as culturally distinct from native-born people who are descendants of African slaves.^[55]

The U.S. census race definitions says a black is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or who provide written entries such as African-American, Afro-American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian. However, the Census Bureau notes that these classifications are socio-political constructs and should not be interpreted as scientific or anthropological.^[56]

A black Gl and a Chinese soldier place the flag of their ally on the front of their jeep, truck convoy on the Stilwell Road, Burma, 1945

A considerable portion of the U.S. population identified as black also has some Native American or European ancestry. For instance, genetic studies of African-American people show an ancestry that is on average 17–18% European.^[57]

One-drop rule[link]

Since the late nineteenth century, the South used a colloquial term, the one-drop rule, to classify as black a person of any known African ancestry. This practice of hypodescent was not put into law until the early twentieth century.^[58] Legally the definition varied from state to state, and was more flexible in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before the American Civil War. For instance, Thomas Jefferson held persons who were legally white (less than 25% Black) according to Virginia law at the time, but, because they were born to slave mothers, they were born into slavery, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, which Virginia adopted into law in 1662.

Outside of the US, some other countries have adopted the one-drop rule, but the definition of who is black and the extent to which the one-drop "rule" applies varies greatly from country to country.

The one-drop rule may have originated as a means of increasing the number of black slaves^[59] and been maintained as an attempt to keep the white race pure.^[60] One of the results of the one-drop rule was uniting the African-American community.^[58] Some of the most prominent civil-rights activists were multiracial, and advocated equality for all.^{[citation needed]}

Blackness[link]

Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, was throughout his campaign criticized as being either "too black" or "not black enough".^[61][62][63]

The concept of blackness in the United States has been described^{[by whom?]} as the degree to which one associates themselves with mainstream African-American culture and values. To a certain extent, this concept is not so much about race but more about culture and behavior. Blackness can be contrasted with "acting white," where black Americans are said to behave with assumed characteristics of stereotypical white Americans, with regard to fashion, dialect, taste in music,^[64] and possibly, from the perspective of a significant number of black youth, academic achievement.^[65]

The notion of blackness can also be extended to non-black people. Toni Morrison once described Bill Clinton as the first black president,^[66] because of his warm relations with African Americans, his poor upbringing and also because he is a jazz musician. Christopher Hitchens was offended by the notion of Clinton as the first black president noting "we can still define blackness by the following symptoms: alcoholic mothers, under-the-bridge habits...the tendency to sexual predation and shameless perjury about the same". Some black activists were also offended, claiming Clinton used his knowledge of black culture to exploit black people like no other president before^[67] for political gain, while not serving black interests. They note his lack of action during the Rwanda genocide^[68] and his welfare reform which some claim led to the worst child poverty since the 1960s^[69] along with the fact that the number of black people in jail increased during his administration.^[70]

The question of blackness also arose in Democrat Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Commentators have questioned whether Obama, who was elected the first black President of the United States, is black enough, as his mother was white American, and his father was a black Kenyan immigrant.^[61][63] Obama refers to himself interchangeably as black and African-American.^[71] "Is Barack Obama the first black President of the United States?"^[72]

Brazil[link]

The topic of race in Brazil is a complex and diverse one.^{[citation needed]} A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only two categories to choose from. Between a pure black and a very light mulatto over a dozen racial categories would be recognized in conformity with the combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred to appearance, not heredity.^[73]

Jongo, a Brazilian dance of African origin, c. 1822

There is some disagreement among scholars over the effects of social status on racial classifications in Brazil. It is generally believed that upward mobility and education results in reclassification of individuals into lighter skinned categories. The popular claim is that in Brazil poor whites are considered black and wealthy blacks are considered white. Some scholars disagree arguing that whitening of one's social status may be open to people of mixed race, but a typically black person will consistently be identified as black regardless of wealth or social status.^[74][75] Multiracial persons can even reappreciate their African heritage and start to declare themselves as black persons with increasings of social status and education.

Statistics[link]

From the year 1500 to 1850 an estimated 3.5 million Africans were forcibly shipped to Brazil.^[74] It is estimated that more than half of the Brazilian population is at least in part descendants of these Africans. Brazil has the largest population of Afro-descendants outside of Africa. In contrast to the US there were no segregation or anti-miscegenation laws in Brazil and as a result intermarriage has affected a large majority of the Brazilian population. Even much of the white/Asian population has either African or Amerindian blood. According to the last census of the twentieth century 54% identified themselves as white, 6.2% identified themselves as black and 39.5% identified themselves as Pardo (brown) — a broad multiracial category.^[77]

A philosophy of whitening emerged in Brazil in the nineteenth century. Until recently the government did not keep data on race. However, statisticians estimate that in 1835 half the population was black, one fifth was Pardo (brown) and one fourth white. By 2000 the black population had fallen to only 6.2% and the Pardo had increased to 40% and white to 55%. Essentially most of the black population was absorbed into the multiracial category by intermixing.^[73] A recent study found that at least 29% of the middle class white Brazilian population had some recent African ancestry.^[78]

Race relations in Brazil[link]

Afro-Brazilian women during a Candomblé ceremony.

Because of the ideology of miscegenation, Brazil has avoided the polarization of society into black and white. The bitter and sometimes violent racial tensions that divide the US are notably absent in Brazil. According to the census, 6.7% of Brazilians said they were black, compared with 6.2% in 2000, and 43.1% said they were mixed race, up from 38.5%. According to Brazil's minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, attributed the change to growing pride among his country's black and indigenous communities.^[79]

However, the philosophy of the racial democracy in Brazil has drawn criticism from some quarters. Brazil has one of the largest gaps in income distribution in the world. The richest 10% of the population earn 28 times the average income of the bottom 40%. The richest 10 percent is almost exclusively white. One-third of the population lives under the poverty line, with blacks and other non-whites accounting for 70 percent of the poor.^[80]

Fruit sellers in Rio de Janeiro c. 1820

In the US, black people earn 75% of what white people earn.^[81] In Brazil, non-whites earn less than 50% of what whites earn. Some have posited that Brazil does in fact practice the one-drop rule when social economic factors are considered. This is because the gap in income between blacks and other non-whites is relatively small compared to the large gap between whites and non-whites. Other factors such as illiteracy and education level show the same patterns.^[82] Unlike in the US where African Americans were united in the civil-rights struggle, in Brazil the philosophy of whitening has helped divide blacks from other non-whites and prevented a more active civil rights movement.

Though Brazilians of African heritage make up a large percentage ^[83] the population there are very few black politicians. The city of Salvador, Bahia, for instance, is 80% Afro-Brazilian but has never had a black mayor. Critics indicate that US cities that have a black majority, such as Detroit and New Orleans, have never had white mayors since first electing black mayors in the 1970s.^[79][84]

Black people in Brazil c. 1821

Non-white people also have limited media visibility. The Latin American media, in particular the Brazilian media, has been accused of hiding its Black, Indigenous, Multiracial and East Asian population. For example the telenovelas or soaps are said to be a hotbed of largely light-eyed white and light-skinned mulattoes and mestizos (often deemed as white persons in Brazil if achieving the middle class or higher social status) actors. Most rare empowered persons of color represented in Latin American media possess typically Caucasian features due to a mix of racist standards of beauty, colourism and lookism. Nevertheless, in the last years, the number of empowered afrodescendants (either economically or by other ways) increased in Brazilian media coverage. Despite Brazil also possessing criminal black man stereotypes, it is considered a huge prejudice and mostly not used in a disordered way by the media, in spite of sometimes common "humouristic" sexist jokes and LGBT stereotyping ^[85] and as such lack of politically correctness in native race issues is not a major problem (there are way more stereotypes of Asian people, Europeans or U.S. Americans, for example).

These patterns of discrimination against non-whites have led some to advocate for the use of the Portuguese term 'negro' to encompass non-whites so as to renew a black consciousness and identity, in effect an African descent rule.^[86] It generates criticism since Pardo, or Brown people, is intended to include caboclos (mestizos), assimilated Amerindians and tri-racials, not only afrodescendants — thus Brazilian of some or no recent African descent, as most White Brazilians, become 60–70% of the population, breaking the argument of possible Brazilian one-drop rule since real noticeable mulattoes, cafuzos (zambos) and black persons are a minority and the Brazilian poor represents larger percents in Brazil. As one would expect from an underdeveloped country, there are pockets of poverty in White-majority and Japanese Brazilian-majority areas, rarer in urban developments but common in rural areas. They are even more common among Mestizo-majority areas, and Amerindian communities.

In Asia and Australasia[link]

Siddi folk dancers performing at Devaliya Naka, Sasan Gir, Gujarat.

China[link]

As of August, 2008, The Migration Information Source article noted that "A Nigerian Embassy spokesman estimated that Nigerians possibly make up the largest group of Black Africans in China, with about 2,000 to 3,000 Nigerians in Guangdong in 2006. Most businessmen only stay temporarily."^[87][88]

An ethnic Ati woman of the Philippines. The Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia.

India and Southeast Asia[link]

The Great Andamanese are one of five Negrito ethnic groups (Adivasi or tribal) native to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; they are among the first inhabitants of what is now India, arriving over 70,000 years ago. They are facing extinction.^[89] The other four ethnic groups are the Jangil, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese. By their external physical appearance (phenotype) such people resemble Black Africans with dark skin and sometimes tightly coiled hair. There have been suggestions of a Black African origin. However, in the case of the Andamanese people, a study conducted by the NCBI indicated that the Andamanese people possessed closer affinities with the Southeast Asian population than with the Black African population.^[90]

In South India there are also several communities of Black African descent, such as the Sheedis/Siddis, specifically the Siddis of Karnataka, who descend from Black African slaves. In Pakistan, these descendants are known as the Makrani.

Other black people of Southeast Asia, collectively known as Negritos, include the Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand the Aeta of Luzon and the Ati of Panay in the Philippines.^[91]

Melanesia[link]

There are several groups of dark-skinned people who live in various parts of Asia, Australia and Oceania who sometimes are referred to as black people. They include the Indigenous Australians, the Melanesians (now divided into Austronesian-speaking populations and Papuans, and including the great genetic diversity of New Guinea), the Semang people of the Malay peninsula, and indigenous first nation Fijians. They are as genetically, anthropologically and culturally related to Africans only as much as all other non-Africans are related to Africans, and because of this it has been deemed controversial to label them black people in the sense of some relation to the native African peoples and the African diaspora that is not similarly present in other Asian, Oceanic or European populations.

In Europe[link]

Portrait of a black woman, Katherine, in Antwerp, 1521, by Albrecht Dürer.

United Kingdom[link]

According to the Office for National Statistics, as of the 2001 census, there are over a million black people in the United Kingdom; 1% of the total population describe themselves as "Black Caribbean", 0.8% as "Black African", and 0.2% as "Black other".^[92] Britain encouraged the immigration of workers from the Caribbean after World War II; the first symbolic movement was those who came on the ship the Empire Windrush. The preferred official umbrella term is "black and minority ethnic" (BME), but sometimes the term "black" is used on its own, to express unified opposition to racism, as in the Southall Black Sisters, which started with a mainly British Asian constituency, and the National Black Police Association, which has a membership of "African, African-Caribbean and Asian origin".^[93]

France[link]

The pioneering Chadian-French rapper MC Solaar.

While census collection of ethnic background is illegal in France, it is estimated that there are about 2.5 – 5 million black people residing there.^[94][95]

Balkans[link]

Due to the Ottoman slave trade that had flourished in the Balkans, the coastal town of Ulcinj in Montenegro had its own black community.^[96] As a consequence of the slave trade and privateer activity, a considerable number of Ulcinj inhabitants until 1878 were black.^[97] The Ottoman Army also sent an estimated 30,000 Black African troops and cavalrymen to its expedition in Hungary during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18.^[98]

Eastern Europe[link]

As African states became independent in the 1960s, the Soviet Union offered many of their citizens the chance to study in Russia. Over a period of 40 years, about 400,000 African students from various countries moved to Russia to pursue higher studies, including many Black Africans.^[99][100] This extended beyond the Soviet Union to many countries of the Eastern bloc.

A cultural classification of people as "black" exists in Russia. Certain groups of people who are ethnically different, and generally darker than ethnic Russians are pejoratively referred to as "blacks" (chernye), and face specific sorts of social exclusion (see Racism in Russia). Roma, Georgians, and Tatars fall into this category.^[101] Those referred to as "black" are from the former Soviet republics, predominantly peoples of the Caucasus, for example, Chechens.^[102] Although "Caucasian" is used in American English to mean "white people", in Russian – and most other varieties of English – it only refers to the Caucasus, not European people in general.

See also[link]

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• two African American boys Clarence 'Grandpa' Liv and Alonzo 'Teddy' Tucker at the Wright Brothers bicycle shop, 1897(old-pictures.com database)
• Clarence Liv and Alonzo 'Teddy' Tucker at the Wright Cycle Company, photo taken by Wright Brothers 1897(old-pictures.com)