Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label Chicano is sometimes used interchangeably with "Mexican American", although the terms have different meanings. While "Mexican American" identity emerged to encourage assimilation into white American society and separate the community from African-American political struggle, Chicano/a identity emerged among anti-assimilationist youth, some of whom belonged to the Pachuco/a subculture, who reclaimed the term (which had previously been a classist and racist slur). "Chicano/a" was widely reclaimed in the 1960s and 1970s to express political empowerment, ethnic solidarity, and pride in being of Indigenous descent (with many using the Nahuatl language as a symbol), diverging from the more assimilationist "Mexican American" identity"." Chicano Movement leaders were influenced by and collaborated with Black Power leaders and activists. Chicano youth in "barrios" rejected cultural assimilation into whiteness and embraced their identity and worldview as a form of empowerment and resistance.