An issue of identity: African and Caribbean immigration to the U.S. is spurring a debate about who qualifies as 'African-American'.

Abdulaziz Kamus, who is 48 years old and Ethiopian by birth, has lived in the United States for 20 years and is now an American citizen. So when the is asked to characterize his race, the answer seems perfectly clear to him: He is African-American.

But to other blacks who trace their roots to slave ancestors in the U.S., Kamus may indeed be both African and American, but he is not an "African-American."

"The census is claiming me as an African-American," says Kamus, who is an advocate for African immigrants in Silver Spring, Md. "If I walk down the streets, white people see me as an African-American. Yet African-Americans are saying, 'You are not one of us.' So I ask myself, in this country, how do I define myself?"

PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES

That question is increasingly being raised as the growing number of foreign-born blacks in the U.S. inspires a quiet debate over who can claim the term "African-American." The debate could have practical consequences both in the application of affirmative-action programs, which were intended to remedy past discrimination, and in how black Americans of all kinds view themselves.

In the 1990s, the number of blacks in the U.S. with recent roots in sub-Saharan Africa nearly tripled while the number of blacks with origins in the Caribbean grew by more than 60 percent, according to demographers at the State University of New York at Albany. By 2000, according to census data, foreign-born blacks constituted 30 percent of the blacks in New York City, about 34 percent of the blacks in Miami, and about 25 percent in Montgomery County, Md., the Washington, D.C., suburb that includes Silver Spring.

In recent years, black immigrants and their children have become more visible in universities, the workplace, and in politics, with Colin L. Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, serving as Secretary of State, and Barack Obama, born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, winning a U.S. Senate seat last month representing Illinois and emerging as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

DELICATE QUESTIONS

The demographic shifts, which gained strength in the 1960s after changes in immigration law led to increased migration from Africa and Latin America, have been accompanied in some places by fears that newcomers might eclipse native-born blacks. And they have touched off delicate questions about ethnic labels, identity, and the often-unspoken differences among people who share the same skin color.

Some blacks say that the term "African-American" should refer to the descendants of slaves brought to the U.S. centuries ago, not to newcomers who have not inherited the legacy of bondage, segregation, and discrimination in this country. Earlier this year, the debate spilled into the public arena when Alan Keyes, the black Republican candidate for the Senate seat in Illinois, questioned whether Obama, who gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, should claim an African-American identity. "My ancestors toiled in slavery in this country," Keyes said. "My consciousness, who I am as a person, has been shaped by my struggle, deeply emotional and deeply painful, with the reality of that heritage."

Other black Americans argue that black immigrants, like Kamus, and the children of immigrants, like Obama and Powell, are African-American. Yet some immigrants and their children prefer to be called African or Nigerian-American or Jamaican-American, depending on their countries of origin. Other people prefer the term black, which seems to include everyone, regardless of nationality.

Bobby Austin, an administrator at the University of the District of Columbia who is black, says some people fear that new black immigrants and their children will snatch up the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights movement.

"We've suffered so much that we're a bit weary, and immigration seems like one more hurdle we will have to climb," says Austin, 59, who traces his ancestors back to slavery. "People are asking: 'Will I have to climb over these immigrants to get to my dream? Will my children have to climb?'"

Obama says black descendants of slaves share more similarities than differences with black immigrants and their children. He says his grandfather worked as a servant in Kenya and was described as a "house boy" by whites even when he was a middle-aged man. "Some of the patterns of struggle and degradation that blacks here in the United States experienced aren't that different from the colonial experience in the Caribbean or the African continent," says Obama, 43, adding: "For me the term 'African-American' really does fit."

SHIFTING LABELS

Shifting ethnic labels have long inspired fierce debates and discussions among blacks in America, reflecting changes in socioeconomic circumstances, political strategies, and evolving views of identity since Africans were first brought here as slaves.

The term "African" was used sporadically during the 17th and 18th centuries, says Michael Thornton, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1800s, according to Thornton, "colored" started gaining popularity because it was viewed as more inclusive, referring to those of mixed-race as well as full African heritage.

And in the 20th century, many black Americans shifted from "colored" to "Negro" to "black" and, most recently, to "African-American," sometimes within one generation.

The term "African-American" has crept steadily into the nation's vocabulary since 1988, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson held a news conference to urge Americans to use it to refer to blacks. "Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base," Jackson says. "African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity."

Many whites now use the term for all blacks. (Teresa Heinz Kerry, who was born in Mozambique and is Senator John Kerry's wife, has called herself African-American.) But among blacks there is less agreement. Even adherents of "African-American" acknowledge that shifting demographics have made the term's meaning more ambiguous.

'THIS IS OUR HOME NOW'

"It's a comfortable term for me personally and for people like me who are of African descent and have been in this nation for a long time," says Michael Lomax, the president of the United Negro College Fund, which raises money for 38 historically black colleges. "But it gets more confusing when you recognize that this nation is full of all kinds of people of African descent."

In Silver Spring, Kamus is still searching for the right label. He says he would like to be described simply as a universal man, but he knows that the U.S., like many countries, has a long history of categorizing its people. And he would like to find a way of stitching his twin identities--one Ethiopian, one American--into a whole.

"We are in a critical stage of defining ourselves, who we are as Americans," Kamus says of African immigrants and their children here. "But one thing is clear. We are here and we are not going home. This is our home now. That is the reality."

Debating Heritage

As the number of blacks born in other countries grows, a quiet
debate is occurring on who can call themselves African-American.

                    Number         Percentage         Change in
                    of Blacks *    Foreign-Born       Percentage Points

                    2000           1990     2000      1990-2000

United States       36,216,207     4.9%     6.7%      + 1.9
     New York       2,265,870      26.2     30.2      + 4.0
       Boston       165,297        20.7     27.9      + 7.2
   Montgomery
  County, Md.       140,870        20.0     25.3      + 5.3
        Miami       101,938        33.5     33.8      + 0.3
  Minneapolis       77,802         3.6      16.2      + 12.6

* includes those listing black in combination with some other race

RELATED ARTICLE: In college, exactly what is diversity?

By Sara Rimer & Karen W. Arenson

The debate over just who is African-American is playing out in the admissions offices at some of America's top colleges, many of which have affirmative-action or diversity programs aimed at increasing the numbers of blacks in the student body. But who should qualify for those programs? At some schools, many of the black students are recent immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean, or their children.

Researchers at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania who have been studying the achievement of minority students at 28 selective colleges and universities (Yale, Columbia, Duke, and the University of California at Berkeley among them) found that 41 percent of the black students identified themselves as immigrants, as children of immigrants, or as mixed race.

"Colleges and universities are defaulting on their obligation to train and educate a representative group of future leaders," says Lani Guinier, a law professor at Harvard, where as many as two-thirds of the black undergraduates are immigrants or the children of immigrants.

But others say there is no reason to take the ancestry of black students into account. "The issue is not origin, but social practices," says Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia University. "It matters in American society whether you grow up black or white. It's that differential effect that realty is the basis for affirmative action."

But some students certainly make these distinctions. Sheila Adams, a Harvard senior born in New York, who is the daughter of a school security officer and a subway token setter, says there are so few black students like her at Harvard that they have taken to referring to themselves as "the descendants."

Sara Rimer & Karen W. Arenson are reporters for the Times.

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand how demographic shifts are prompting a debate: Should immigrant blacks identify themselves as African-Americans? Should they benefit from civil rights programs that were intended to remedy past discrimination against black Americans?

BACKGROUND: Concern about immigration is not new. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin railed against German immigrants. Anti-immigrant violence took place in cities in the 1830s and 1840s. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. From the 1920s to the 1960s, quotas favored immigrants from the British Isles and Western Europe.

CRITICAL THINKING/WRITING: The article addresses the struggles that black Americans and black people in colonial countries have had to endure.

Have students write brief essays in which they address these issues:

* Explain why some groups are oppressed by others.

* Discuss some of the "unspoken differences among people who share the same skin color."

ROLE-PLAY: Ask students to pretend they are college admissions officers. They are examining the applications of two equally qualified black high school students who are vying for the last opening. One student is a Jamaican immigrant, the other was born and raised in Kansas. Which factors should they consider when deciding which student to admit?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* If you were born in the U.S., do you think of yourself simply as American? Do you have a strong sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group?

* Bobby Austin has a responsible position as a university administrator. So why do you think he regards black immigrants as "one more hurdle we will have to climb"?

FAST FACT: In August 1619, the first blacks in America--20 slaves seized from a Spanish ship--arrived in Jamestown, Va., aboard a Dutch ship. The captain traded them for food.

WEB WATCH: www.loc.gov/exhibits /african/intro.html, "The African-American Mosaic," a Library of Congress site, provides links to information about significant developments in African-American history.

1. The 1990s saw a huge increase in the number of immigrant blacks from sub-Saharan Africa and

a South America.

b Southern Europe.

c Central America.

d the Caribbean.

2. The growth in black immigration can be traced to

a more job opportunities for immigrants.

b changes in U.S. immigration taw.

c the influence of American missionaries in Africa.

d new interest in the reunification of families.

3. Some U.S.-born blacks object to immigrants calling themselves African-American because they say immigrants

a remain culturally linked to their native countries.

b are an economic burden on the U.S.

c have no legacy of the discrimination experienced by American blacks.

d came to the U.S. only to make money.

4. Barack Obama says many immigrant blacks

a experienced the same struggle as U.S. blacks.

b lived in countries that were more racially equal.

c need more access to education than U.S. blacks.

d need more financial, help than U.S. blacks.

5. All Americans are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants, Yet immigrants have tong faced discrimination in the U.S. What do you think explains this?

6. How can immigrants become fully Americanized white remaining true to their heritage?

Answer Key

1. (d) the Caribbean. 2. (b) changes in U.S. immigration law. 3. (c) have no legacy of the discrimination experienced by American blacks. 4. (a) experienced the same struggle as U.S. blacks. 5. Answers will vary, but might include the idea that earlier immigrants were from Western Europe and were biased against other ethnic groups, or that those who come first often resent those who come after. 6. Answers will vary, but could include the idea that immigrants learn the language and culture of their new home but can speak their native languages at home and keep in touch with families and events in their homelands.

Rachel L. Swarns is a reporter in the Washington bureau of The Times.