I'm not African-American

Okay if you want to get politically correct... I am Afro-Canadian. But whatever.

What is interesting is that some people prefer to use the old word many have tried so hard to avoid: "black"

There is even a Facebook group that is growing in popularity called "I'm not African-American" which is promoting the idea that black is the best word too choose.

"I prefer to be called black," says Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston who is a member of the group. "How I really feel is, I'm American."

"I don't like African-American. It denotes something else to me than who I am," says Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina. "I can't recall any of them telling me anything about Africa. They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C."

Gibré George, an entrepreneur from Miami, started a Facebook page called "Don't Call Me African-American" on a whim.

"We respect our African heritage, but that term is not really us," says George. "We're several generations down the line. If anyone were to ship us back to Africa, we'd be like fish out of water."