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.
So why was the name Afro-American ditched? That was a great name. LOL!
It just goes to show you how leftism has coopted the language in an Orwellian fashion. And like another poster stated, these racist group(s) have changed what they want to be called at least 5 times during my lifetime as well. They can't even make up their own mind. None of which were ever insults at all.
my wife and I were talking about that word the other day. It is definitely old-fashioned, but it isn't exactly racist. The funny thing is, etymologically the opposite word is 'albino'.
Imagine the frenetic task of leftists continually updating and editting MLK speeches in order to keep them politically correct. It does conjure up images of Winston Smith stuffing papers down the memory hole. ;-)
To be fair, black people were never allowed to define themselves until recently. This is a recent development.
Don't waste your breathe arguing with the politically correct.
Negro was used by masters to separate the "Negros" from the "humans"(whites). Read the diaries of the time. The "Negro" was essentially a beast. You never see whites back then refer to themselves as Caucasians or European Americans. They were always "white".
Even today, we don't call ourselves Caucasians in normal speech. When white people use the term "negro", it's basically a way to introduce themselves as "rednecks".
WTF??? In reference to “these racist group(s) have changed what they want to be called at least 5 times during my lifetime as well. They can't even make up their own mind. None of which were ever insults at all.”
Especial saying none were insults is an understatement big time, maybe you were in a cave from slavery until yesterday, but the terms black people have a problem with are those that are derogatory (must I clarify them for you?) . . . what do you mean we can’t make up are mind. If you are in Detroit, or some other heavily black populated area you know how to act and how to address someone or the streets will talk!
You won’t outright address one of your black counterparts in a way that may possibly offend them because you know better. That goes for all people despite color or background. So all black people identifying with one common name is irrelevant, what is relevant is the need for respect and not to cross lines.
welcome to FR... I'm not impressed with Crouch's essay. He's full of himself.
Yet another example of the irrationality of liberalism. I refer to their concept of "group mentality" wherein every member of one "group" thinks and acts the same. Because some white people have purposely used certain terms to berate another group, then all are guilty of the same infraction.
I routinely protest such spurious references to "groups" whenever I can. Nothing will gain my utmost respect faster than someone who is also ignoring any cosmetic differences. Now, dumbness, that is another thing entirely.
I really, really, really dislike ever having to check myself off as 'causasian'. I don't feel any particular affinity to the people living in the Caucasus mountains. I especially don't speak Chechen. I don't even think English is a close relative.
I will always act as though it is a colorblind society because I have children and I raise them without reference to anything but differences in appearance. They don't know about race. For instance, "Who is that girl with the braids over there?" or "Go ask the man in the red shirt." Which one? "The one with the darker skin" or "The one with the beard." We are extremely lucky to live in a very mixed neighborhood, and people ALL look so different. I want my kids to grow up thinking that physical differences are almost meaningless.
Plenty of black folks (I refuse to use the term "African American" -- 95+% of the people who embrace that term have never been to The Dark Continent, let alone came from there) are actually ashamed to be Americans; that's where (IMO) the genesis of the term "African American" came from.
They feel the necessity to come up with some other term to distance themselves from "those people," as if being an "American" (and yes, they say it with the tone you'd use to describe something pungently undesirable on the sole of your shoe) were akin to having some sort of disease.
Then again, I guess many people outside our borders view our patriotism as a malady; especially when they feel they can look down their collective noses at us as being rude, uncouth and every other uppity "french" adjective they can come up with.
Just damn.
So what else is new? Crouch, while being a decent conservative thinker, has (at least as long as I can recall) been full of himself.
Oh hehehe okay... glad to see it's not just me.
In the spanish speaking word it is "negro"
only in Amerika! is sanity insane
It is standard liberal practice to display only that part of the whole truth that serves their cause, and to ignore or hide the rest. And, the sad thing is that they are totally blind to their own dishonesty!
Had this article been posted on DU, the rants about "racist", "hateful", "redneck". "nasty conservative", "KKK", etc. would have been endlessly vitriolic -- because no one on that forum would have had the honesty -- or the cojones -- to post the whole truth.
Thank you for your conservative honesty! That's what makes FR the "place" I call "home".
Why must we criticize someone’s preference of how they view themselves. If I want to call myself African American then what is the problem to you. Some of you who oppose this term make it seem like I am downplaying myself for wanting to be addressed as such. Me visiting a place has nothing to do with it. It is MY identity and when I check off on an application it does not say check if you are American, it says (black or from African origin, Caucasian (not Hispanic etc.))
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