No, you don't need any lessons. If you are talking to so-called "African-Americans," just say "black." Then you're safe.
Posted on 06/03/2004 5:17:32 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Some people are particularly disturbed by my use of the word Negro as opposed to the latest fashionable label. I am not bothered by such people, but I am disturbed by the reliance on cosmetic identity that has become so important to black people over the last 35 or 40 years.
More than a few people were actually taken in by the obsession with naming that came out of the Nation of Islam, when Malcolm X, chief heckler for Elijah Muhammad, inspired many to begin responding to the word "Negro" as if it were the dirtiest of insults.
The argument was that "Negro" separated black people from their African identity. It did not acknowledge the greatness of Africa, wonderful Africa, that lost paradise where everything was perfect. It did not recognize that black people had not always been slaves - that they were, in fact, a separate nation descended from kings and queens.
Hmm. No one, of course, ever considered that if most of the millions of black Americans really were descended from kings and queens, one would have needed a lot more land than Africa provided to support all that royalty. Millions of kingdoms definitely present a challenge.
It was, at best, cult thinking. But it was also a way of getting people to think of themselves as perpetual victims who were oppressed at every turn. That seems to me the greatest impact of believing that the history connected to the name Negro was all second-class travail and injustice.
Some 40 years ago, Malcolm X said: "You're not an American, you're a victim of Americanism."
That's too crude and simpleminded. But the crude and simpleminded are not unusual when the subject is the Negro. While such statements might sound good on a podium, they miss a great and substantial truth.
Black Americans have had an enormous impact on American history. Almost every important effort to better the position of people in this nation has its roots in the Negro-American story. Consider the history of the labor movement, for one.
Being called something other than Negro will not better the state of the people who now walk around challenging others to call them African-Americans. They think that to be proud and effective, people with dark skins of a certain pedigree need to know they are connected to the grandeur of Africa, the fountain of civilization. Hogwash.
Clearly, knowing that they are Africans has done nothing special for Africans themselves, as we can see in the massacres in Rwanda during the 1990s, the many brutal African dictatorships and the abundance on the continent of backward ideas about women, slavery and a number of other things.
People can call themselves whatever they want. But the challenges facing this nation and its darker ethnic group will not be solved by anything other than deep thinking and hard work. Pride comes from accomplishment. Cosmetic nonsense will not get it.
Speaking of which, are they promoting white people too ? After all, white is a color. How about American Indians ?
No, you don't need any lessons. If you are talking to so-called "African-Americans," just say "black." Then you're safe.
I have been working hard to bring back the use of 'colored people.' I kind of like it, it is diverse and can cover many types of people (Hispanics, Asians, blacks, American Indians) which is helpful since I am on a campus and people worry about this stuff. I absolutely refuse to use 'African-American.' I am not about hyphenated Americans.
'People of color' is the more accepted term, but, shoot, I like 'colored people' (pronounced kullud people) and like to say it often in front of white liberals who won't attack me on my un-PC speech because I'm black.
Thank you cyborg for the welcome note. I just so happened to come by this page on google and so anyhow . . . what is the background of this page (not this thread, overall FR)???
~So called “African American” ;)
They were all clarified in RE: Post 17. WTF are you talking about? You think any of those are insulting terms?
What’s being said has been said before and so I will leave it at that.
But I was browsing through some other threads and came across this class description, maybe some of you should enroll
PSY 490 Counseling Anglo-Saxons - This course will examine the theories and methods of counseling Euro-Americans and the traumas they face as they realize they are the exploiters and terrorizers of the entire world.
Source:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1146958/posts
lol : )
>>you lined your driveway with old tires cut in half and painted white <<
You need to closer to the truth. Those tires are buried 50% of the way into the ground, not cut in half.
She offered them a chance to participate in a focus group regarding mascot ideas, and for their participation, they would receive either $40 cash or a Jaguars wristwatch. I thought that was a great idea and said yes.
She need some statistical data and asked the kids names, birth dates, grade, sex, and race. I rattled off all the info and then when I got to "race", I stated "human". She chuckled aloud for a moment, then asked again, "what is their race?" I replied, there is only ONE race, the HUMAN race. Silence greeted that reply. She asked a third time, and again I gave her the same answer.
Finally she said, "Sir I really need to know what race your kids are for our demographic survey".
I asked her what her race was, and she promptly said "African-American". I told her that my children were a "garden variety of anglo/spanish/malay/filipino and God knows what else", and I bet she didn't have a box for that on her survey.
She chuckled again and said "I guess I am a garden variety mixture as well. I will put down 'other' for your kids, and I won't ask that question to any other participants. Thanks, you really helped me to see how foolish it is to classify people."
I would have told her that African-American is not a race.
I guess she's one of the dimwitted that calls every black person "African-American", even those who have never set foot in Africa or America.
God Bless you! You entirely changed that person for the better.
I think the current "in" word is "Asian." As an Asian, I remember the incredulous stare from one of my liberal professors when I told her that I had no problem with the term "Oriental." Heck, I've been using it since before the word was deemed non-PC.
The only time I feel the need to include some color in a description is when I'm trying to describe someone for whom a search is on. Nothing wrong with giving an accurate description.
Asian runs the gamut from Indian from India to Eskimo, What "IS" Caucasian ?.. Who knows.. White to red to black to brown to yellow and mulatto's of mixes in between confuse the whole issue. The concept of Race must've been invented by a liberal. Liberal logic always gets it wrong or makes mountains out of mole hills. Next time you hear the word race you're observing a brain washed individual no matter the "race" of the mutterer. They really mean culture. The culture of any African and an Aamerican black are miles apart. The culture of a Chinese and an Eskimo are frozen and distinct from each other.
The word race is absolutly "RACIST".. A nebulous term like the english word for love(can mean anything) unless nuanced and manipulated in meaning by other words for conservatives only. Liberals will accept the word love un-nuanced as if it actually means something. Yep, being liberal is a social mental disease and dangerous to you're literary health. CAUTION.. the culture you're family comes from may "SUCK".. and you should race away from it.. you're hue is irrelevant.
Theories like this implied threat PROMOTE racist feelings.
Why does anyone, of any ethnicity, need to use the politically correct 'term de jour' for another person? Common courtesy and respect for the humanity of others regardless of their skin color has NEVER let me down (51 years so far).
I greet everyone I encounter with a "Sir" or "Ma'am" whether I know them or not. It brings out the best in others, as well as myself.
Yeah, that's what I don't get. "Oriental" simply means 'eastern,' which, by the reference of the English speaking world, the Orient is. "Asian," however, encompasses the better part of the hemisphere, and could be Indians, Siberians, Tibetans, etc., etc., etc., even Moscovites. I'm not sure the source of the offensiveness of "Oriental" and the propriety of "Asian." One seems to be a more specific indicator of region, which would seem to be more appropriate to the PC Police, but it's not-- it's the 'naughty' word.
Eh. Who ever said PC doctrine made sense?
It's the most addictive political forum. Be careful :)
agree excellent post...seeing as how the PC gobblygook can get exhausting American does it just fine.
That would be logical. However, on campuses (or campi as Rush calls them), you haven't properly identified someone unless you've recognized their gender identification, whether or not they're a vegetarian and what kind of vegetarian they are, and color.
I like to think of myself as Radiohead, the straight, meat eating, colored gal. : )
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