> They've been here longer than most whites (the great European migration happened right around the time the slave trade ended and that's not coincidental).
This sort of proves the point though. If the entire culture was born in America, it’s very young compared to the immigrant cultures brought over from Italy, China, etc.
It wasn't. Much of black culture can be traced to West African origins, from the grammatical structure of AAVE[0], to the vernacular art which became part of Southern visual and functional design patterns[1], to attributes of contemporary black music[2].
Yeah, it's more that America's "homegrown" culture largely appropriates the art of POC (and in particular black Americans) throughout American history. Pretty much all forms of popular music (i.e. country, rock, hip-hop) can be traced back to black Jazz musicians. Black people's experiences -- even when whitewashed -- are fundamental to the idea of "American-ness" for all Americans.
It's also incredibly reductionist for anyone to identify a person by their ancestry like the centuries in between didn't happen, and ignorant to assume that reconciling one's current circumstances with one's ancestry isn't a well-explored topic (if anyone is interested, Google "double consciousness" to get started on the last 150 years of American philosophy).
This sort of proves the point though. If the entire culture was born in America, it’s very young compared to the immigrant cultures brought over from Italy, China, etc.