Posted on 05/24/2013 9:14:06 PM PDT by grundle
In the annals of political correctness run amok in American schools, this story — if true — is easily an all-timer.
A junior-high school Spanish teacher has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro.”
The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish, reports the New York Post. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.”
A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. It’s not clear if Smith directed the term at the student. Whatever the case, he reported the incident to school officials.
But, wait. It gets better. Smith, a native of the West Indies, is black. And to top it all off, P.S. 211 is bilingual.
What is Spanish for “Colored?”
I told them to stop, or they'd get their asses beat.
By some black dude who DIDN'T think it was "cool".
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
The multi-color crayon in spanish will now be referred to as ‘african american shade.’
For the love of Pete...
My linguistic Australian scoffed at how ‘sensitive’ people were here... she learned quick.
The permutations of what is, and is not, offensive when referring to ethnicity like that is myriad. And what makes it funny is that it is, ultimately, the actions of that particular ethnic background that eventually turn each euphemism into an offensive term, so then the ever-pandering left has to find a new one.
The truth is.. most blacks are not black they are brown..
Calling them black is an ERROR... some are even Tan..
That word is not Spanish - and also is not the vernacular in the Caribbean, where most Spanish-speaking blacks live.
Uhmmmm K.
How the hell else do you say black in Espanol?
What about negrata or negrito?
I remember when they thought calling them black was an insult, they wanted to be called Negro at that time.
Perhaps the operative phrase in this story is “The non-tenured, 65 year old...”. She had to be fired before was there long enough to get a pension.
Mulato
“Negrito” was the term applied to the small, bushmen-like peoples living near the Clark AFC bombing range in the Philippines.
More info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negrito
Correction: most American blacks are various shades of brown. But in parts of Africa blacks are actually black, even blue-black.
My Turkish friends in school used a word that translates as “stovepipe”...
Thanks grundle.
Oh, great. Now we can’t use the M-palabra without offending someone. ;-p
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
“The mind is a terrible thing. And it must be stopped in our time. Before I kill someone.”
— comedian Bob Nelson as “the football (foo-baw) player” — possibly one of the BEST comedy sketches ever done...
Interesting.
The Urban Dictionary definitely prefers negrata to negrito. In negrito's case, note the down-votes on definition 4. Also, none of the four UD definitions is the anthropological one (but, of course, this is the Urban Dictionary).
Google translates negrito to "pickaninny" and negrata to "nigger".
So, I conclude, negrata is the winner.
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