I’m an old white guy who uses “black” because it seems the most semantically appropriate counterpart to “white.” But let’s recall that there was a time between “negro” and “black,” when “afro-american” was in vogue. These renamings — we’re seeing it with “Latinx” now — are political exercises. There is no inherent value to the new designation, but they probe the ability of oppressed groups to test the guilt level of their oppressors. The more white people you can get to pay the syllabification tax of “African-American,” the more power you know you have.

Meanwhile, new designations are not self-enforcing. So-called “opinion leaders” need to adopt them and promote them, so, in the absence of some particular depredation, a name change is a useful organizing principle for determining who matters and how much they matter. Note that when something bad is actually happening, an “African-American Lives Matter” movement does not arise. When there actually is a point to be made, “black” gets the job done. In the down-time, though, when there’s not much going on, a good redesignation keeps the pot boiling.