Free Blacks themselves adopted racist terminology against Africa and darker-skinned Blacks.

Evidence

Free Blacks remained overwhelmingly against colonization. Their resistance to the concept partly accounted for the identifier “Negro” replacing “African” in common usage in the 1820s. Free Blacks theorized that if they called themselves “African,” they would be giving credence to the notion that they should be sent back to Africa. Their own racist ideas were also behind the shift in terminology. They considered Africa and its cultural practices to be backward, having accepted racist notions of the continent. Some light-skinned Blacks preferred “colored,” to separate themselves from dark-skinned Negroes or Africans. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 412

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces Kendi’s core claim that racist ideas are not exclusive to White people but are adopted across groups as justification; complements his later treatment of Black assimilationist and even racist Black thinkers.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the concrete historical meaning behind the Negro-versus-African identifier shift, showing how labels encode political self-positioning.