>with regard to your response: what do you mean when you say "black
>americans are americans"? what does "american" mean? are you using
>the term in a purely formal sense based on citizenship and physical
>presence? (i am implying that there is a different sense in which
>the term can be used - say cultural - but going into that seems not
>necessary for the purpose of my question and might distract).
Every sense - citizens, physical presence, economic actors, participants in and creators of culture (in both the sense of art and other cultural products, as well as the set of practices and understandings by which people live their lives), you name it. The contribution is obviously often disparaged and overlooked, but it shouldn't be.
Doug