Motown legend Smokey Robinson told CNN’s Chris Wallace why he doesn’t wish to be referred to as an “African American,” but moderately considers himself a Black American.

This week’s episodes of Wallace’s HBO Max/CNN sequence Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace featured interviews with Robinson and tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian.

All the way through his intensive interview with Robinson, Wallace lined numerous floor within the icon’s good occupation, including concerning the problem of race and self-identification:

WALLACE: You might have said that you resent the speculation of being called an African American, that you’re a Black American. Give an explanation for.

ROBINSON: , Chris, I’ve been mainly everywhere the arena. I’ve by no means been to Africa. At any time in my life. I’ve by no means been to Africa.

I think that once they name Black individuals who have been born and raised for generations on this us of a, in the event you settle for the deal with of African American that says that you simply don’t settle for being an American American. You don’t accept being born in Chicago or New York or Detroit, or anywhere you had been born.

For generations, your loved ones has been here, , built this united states of america too sweat and tears and all that, you already know, fought in every warfare. K. So, this is my u . s . a . here.

So, I don’t want to be referred to as African American. I’m an American American. My people died and carried out everything for this u . s . a ..

You know, there’s a line in the poem that I wrote about that. And it says all the glorious Black Americans who served in the militia, and gave their lives in all the wars. They didn’t try this for Timbuktu or Cape City or Kenya. They did that for Mississippi and Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, Texas and Virginia. In order that’s why I think like that.

Watch above by means of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace. The whole interviews are to be had on HBO Max.

The publish WATCH: Smokey Robinson Tells Chris Wallace Why He Desires To Be Known as ‘Black American’ Now Not African American first appeared on Mediaite.