Posted on 01/14/2010 8:49:20 AM PST by a fool in paradise
...For recent generations, the word is at best archaic and at worst is seen as racist, a holdover from Jim Crow days.
What may make sense to demographers does not wash to many who grew up associating it with segregation.
...Houston Counts, a city-sponsored committee which is partnering with the bureau to promote a complete count, met last week with an angry coalition of people opposed to the word, ultimately deciding not to defend the bureau's use of “Negro” and agreeing to participate in a town hall meeting on the subject tonight.
The upshot of it might be nothing more than a formal statement of protest, possibly endorsed by Houston city government, though activist Quanell X, who pushed for the meeting, is hoping for more.
“We are hoping that President Obama will listen to congressional leaders and pull the word ‘Negro' down because of its offensive connotations,” Quanell said. “I totally agree with those who are hurt and offended by the word, because I am hurt and offended, too. We have evolved beyond the word ‘Negro.'”
...Census officials were long aware of the potential land mine associated with including the word. Notes from a joint advisory committee meeting in 2006 reveal as much, mentioning that a representative from the African American Advisory Committee felt “Negro” was offensive and argued for more detailed black racial identifiers, such as Ethiopian, Jamaican and Haitian...
R. L'Heureux Lewis..."There has never been a consensus on nomenclature.”
...“People came into our meeting angry,” Wallace said, “but I think they came to understand that this is something the city of Houston cannot solve, and that it's far more important to get a complete count. It is $1,400 lost to the community for every person not counted. That's far more significant than anger over a word.”
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
That was last week, this week NEGRO is a term of endearment.
also
Census officials were long aware of the potential land mine associated with including the word. Notes from a joint advisory committee meeting in 2006 reveal as much, mentioning that a representative from the African American Advisory Committee felt “Negro” was offensive and argued for more detailed black racial identifiers, such as Ethiopian, Jamaican and Haitian
So national ancestry can be broken out for black citizens but not for Hispanics (who can come from Europe, North America, Central America, and South America) or white people?
This is Houston? How does one say “black” in Spanish, por favor?
do they have one from in English, another in Spanish, and one in a “Negro dialect”?????
They can change the form in a blink of an eye; but not the description.
It’s a tool to promote racism.
I think that this year’s census will have to be nullified...
Whether it's offensive or not, depends on "what's in the heart" of the person using the term. Is that not the lesson we learned from the Reid flap?
No it isn't, but obsessing over it is.
Negro is not archaic and not offensive to people who consider themselves Americans, first and foremost.
So we ask Al Sharpton his opinion on'racist' and Quanell X is "hoping fo more". We have lost our PC driven, multicultural embracing and nation destroyng mind.
George Orwell was right just off on the timing a little.
Go ahead and put cracker or whitey on the form. We’ll just laugh it off.
hahaha they can’t even agree on what they want to be called.....anyone called complainers in the crowd?
RECOUNT
RECOUNT
RECOUNT
(just getting a head start...)
Should the whites raise hades over Caucasian? I’m all for not listing any color/race on any papers. Doubt that would fly, we must divide the races so that all can be treated different in order to be treated equal. It’s all flippin’ insane!
United Negro College Fund!
Quanell the 10th is seriously one of the funniest things I’ve heard. And it’s exactly how liberals need to be dealt with, through mockery.
I stopped checking the “race” checkoff boxes years ago.
I’ve only been challenged once, and I just told them. I don’t do that.
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