DRUDGE: Andy Rooney says 'NEGRO' is a perfectly good word

The Drudge Report ^ | November 4, 2005

[new yorker 77]

'I have a problem with the term African American...The word negro is a perfectly good word. There is nothing wrong with that'

Andy Rooney on Imus 11/4/05, MSNBC, 8:45am ET

[Licensed-To-Carry]

It is what blacks called themselves for a generation here. We have gone from Negro to black to African American.

Don't forget "Colored" as in the NAACP.

National Association for the Advancement of "Colored" People.

[Edison]

They still have the "United Negro College Fund" so I guess Rooney is right, it is still a good word.

I think they stopped using it because too many bigots altered the word like, saying "nigra" and such.

[macamadamia]

Andy Rooney on Imus


Rooney and Imus are gay?!!! (I think I'm gonna vomit)

[Ragnorak]

My favorite use of "African American" came from PBS. It was a number of years ago, I had just finished watching questions for Prime Minister and PBS was announcing some of their upcoming programming including one that was going to "explore the lives of African Americans in England."

[cynicom]

Are white people to be offended when they are described in that fashion????

[MortMan]

Personally, I prefer the moniker "All American Mutt". In my case, it's even accurate!

[Old Grumpy]

"Lunatics are called mentally challenged, or Democrats."

That's priceless!

[TX Bluebonnet]

What's the current status of "negroid"? When I was in biology, that was the scientific racial class for black Africans.

[Trueblackman]

I mean I live in America, so why can't I just simply be an American?

[kx9088]

But in Spanish it's pronounced: Nay-gro.

[toddlintown]

Jesse used "Negro" at the Rosa Parks memorial.

[Delta 21]

Thats the new PC-Scrabble. Got warm fuzzy yet?

[BnBlFlag]

Your post #35..............You are so correct. Amen!

[Dan from Michigan]

I always thought "Negro" was a proper term, like "Caucasian".

I'm no Andy Rooney fan, but don't see the hoopla over this.

[LWalk18]

I'm only 52, and in my growing-up years, "Negro" was the preferred, polite, respectful term.

See, that is why I don't care for the word. I wasn't born when Negro was the common word for black, but to me using Negro and White makes the former word sound like an apology, as if being black was some sort of birth defect like a club foot or something. Now that is just my opinion, and if people want to use Negro it is a free country. But I prefer black myself. (African-American is just too wordy, and my family hasn't been in Africa for 350 years).

[R. Scott]

Why not? I often fill out forms that list “Caucasian” as a race choice.

[babble-on]

we've avoided this whole discussion with our kids out of sheer terror of teaching them the "wrong" usage, and they simply refer to some people as having dark skin and some people having light skin.

typical example:

Kid 1:Which teacher is Ms. Smith?

Kid 2: She's a 6th grade teacher, you know her, she's sort of heavy? has dark skin?

Kid 1: Oh yeah.

[Designer]

.."with niger being the latin word for black,"

Then, of course, there's the French version; Nee-jha'-ur.