When did “black” become the new “n”-word?

Self | 7/22/2025 | Fwdude

[fwdude]

I have recently become aware of a new shift in acceptable language. It happened at the assisted-living apartment where a loved one lives. I was trying to describe a specific maintenance worker who I’ve contacted before and was quickly corrected in the tersest manner by black aids that he was “African American.”

Wasn’t “Black lives matter” just a thing a few hours ago?

---

TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS:

[Sirius Lee]

There’s just no placating the coloreds.

[Highest Authority]

Political correctness is for idiots!

[Vaquero]

That was the polite way for both whites and coloreds back in the 50s - 70s in my recollection.

[Sirius Lee]

"coloreds", I mean "people of color".

I think....

It's all so confusing.

The folks at Black Lives Matter keep changing it up. Even the ones who had scholarships from the Negro College Fund who went on to work for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

[Phoenix8]

I think it’s a subtle way to show you who is boss.

“you will speak the way I want you to” sort of thing.

[alexander_busek]

Afro-Americans? (Then we'd be Euro-Americans, right?)

African Americans? (Then we'd be European Americans, right?)

People of Color? (Then we'd be People of No Color, right?)

Regards,

[ComputerGuy]

I wish I could identify as African. That continent has produced more than its share of mankind’s greatest thinkers.

[Oberon]

There wasn’t any right answer in that situation. You were being played.

[Fireone]

There’s a old joke about that exact subject, which I will not repeat here.

[maddog55]

Whatever would have been an appropriate response or Oh that’s what you’re called now? Or, I had no idea he was from Africa.

[normbal]

Talking to a patient a while back, I said something to the effect of “you being African American” and he blasted me with”I’m not a frakking African -American, I’m BLACK, from Jamaica.”

In Army basic training in 1976 I got to know a couple of guys from the Virgin Islands who made the very same point, but it was said with much scorn and derision.

So, all AA’s are black(ish, up to high taller), but not all black people are AA’s.

BTW - on every census card I’ve ever filled out I have written in “Human” for race, and only ever mark “other” if there’s no fill in the blank option elsewhere.

Screw the divisiveness of the left

[normbal]

Talking to a patient a while back, I said something to the effect of “you being African American” and he blasted me with”I’m not a frakking African -American, I’m BLACK, from Jamaica.”

In Army basic training in 1976 I got to know a couple of guys from the Virgin Islands who made the very same point, but it was said with much scorn and derision.

So, all AA’s are black(ish, up to high taller), but not all black people are AA’s.

BTW - on every census card I’ve ever filled out I have written in “Human” for race, and only ever mark “other” if there’s no fill in the blank option elsewhere.

Screw the divisiveness of the left

[lepton]

Like Elon Musk?

[central_va]

I think the new term is “un-white”.

[I want the USA back]

All those words are a trap for Whitey. It doesn’t matter which word you use - you’re called racist no matter what.

The trap is sprung ONLY for Whiteys. If you say “colored people” because you know that NAACP has “colored people” in it, and you’re White, you’re branded racist. If you say “black” because you know of the Congressional Black Caucus, you’re labeled racist if you’re White.

Anything and everything you say that has any reference to race can get you canceled, arrested, and/or fired. If you’re a Whitey.

[MikelTackNailer]

I will continue using black (as opposed to Black), negro along with caucasion and oriental during discussion on the subject and refuse to see the word “nigger” as a term of endearment among one group while regarded as an insult when any other uses it.

I knew a Vietnam vet who asked a belligerent oriental woman in a store “Are you a gook, a chink or a slope? I wouldn’t want to get it wrong.”

[9YearLurker]

What’s tricky is when people have absorbed that lesson, which has been taught in certain contexts for decades now, but then try to correctly apply the phrase to a black foreigner—and catch themselves mid-utterance.

[NorthMountain]

If “black” is as offensive as “the n-word”, then just say “nigger” and be done with it.

[Theophilus]

My mother taught me in the 70s not to refer to individuals as "black". The only time, I believe, the distinction is useful is as a deliberate discriminator such as: "the unknown suspect was white or black or asian" etc. Because the racial distinction is undeniably useful in IDing an unknown person at large, it should be spared otherwise. Race is nobody's most important characteristic.

The Shimmering Unreality of Race Realism