[arthurus]

I am 69 years old. I unconsciously went along with the interminable changing of the word for dark-skinned people at least some of whose ancestors came from Africa. One day I realized I was in a quandary over whether to write "black" or "Afro American." It struck me then that if one is to refer to such a person by race then the traditional word is "Negro." I have used it ever since and have tried to purge my language generally of PC crap. I don't use "nigger" even though that is but the southern pronunciation of "N-e-g-r-o" and I am a Southerner because my mother who was of Northern origin insisted "nice" -read "Northern"- people "don't say that," meaning that northerners who she always thought of as more refined than southerners gave the word a Northern pronunciation.

Back in the heyday of the Civil Rights hassles southerners worked hard to learn to say "knee-grow" and about when they got it down to where they could say it without tying their tongues in knots the word was officially banned by the Yankee Language Transformation Office. Then we went through African American and Black and Afro American and black again and Afro-Am and just African and as each term became identified as pejorative it had to change again. I will stick with "Negro."

[Twinkie]

Good for you. I’ll be 69 this month; am a Southerner, still live in the South. - “Negro” is a fine designation which does show respect. - My Southern relatives who tried to use that word, innocently pronounced it incorrectly - & NOT maliciously. - My Daddy & his brothers & sisters lived on a farm when kids; their neighbors were Negro children who were their playmates. - I’m so sick of all this ever-changing PC stuff; I just want to withdraw into my house & stay at home & mind my own business - IF THE RABBLE ROUSERS WILL LET ME !