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

[DaveMSmith]

Robert Byrd is his own species

[Taxachusan]

Did you ever wonder why?

Actually I have. I have never understood why white people are prohibited from using the same terminology as what blacks themselves use in their own institutions such as The United Negro College Fund, The National Assoc. for the Advancement of Colored People, and The Congressional Black Caucus. Could you even imagine calling a black person a "Hey panther!" LOL

Pfft, whatever. I say "black" and that's just too bad for anyone who doesn't like it.

[toddlintown]

"He would have been better to go with black.'"

Why? The usage today is "African-American." Of course tomorrow, it might be something else. Negro to black to African-American in 3 decades. Ridiculous.

[Delta 21]

See the slippery slope. We arent talking about black Africans. I feel a headache coming one.



The Hyphen, Webster's Dictionary defines,
Is a symbol used to divide a
compound word or a single word.
So it seems to me that when a man calls himself
An "Afro-American," a "Mexican-American,"
"Italian-American," An "Irish-American," "Jewish-American,"
What he's sayin' is, "I'm a divided American."

Well, we all came from other places,
Different creeds and different races,
To form a nation...to become as one,
Yet look at the harm a line has done -
A simple little line, and yet
As divisive as a line can get.
A crooked cross the Nazis flew,
And the Russian hammer and sickle too-
Time bombs in the lives of Man;
But none of these could ever fan
The fames of hatred faster than
The Hyphen.

The Russian hammer built a wall
That locks men's hearts from freedom's call.
A crooked cross flew overhead
Above twenty million tragic dead-
Among them men from this great nation,
Who died for freedom's preservation.
A hyphen is a line that's small;
It can be a bridge or be a wall.
A bridge can save you lots of time;
A wall you always have to climb.
The road to liberty lies true.
The Hyphen's use is up to you.

Used as a bridge, it can span
All the differences of Man.
Being free in mind and soul
Should be our most important goal.
If you use The Hyphen as a wall,
You'll make your life mean...and small.
An American is a special breed,
Whose people came to her in need.
They came to her that they might find
A world where they'd have peace of mind.
Where men are equal...and something more-
Stand taller than they stood before.

So you be wise in your decision,
And that little line won't cause division.
Let's join hands with one another...
For in this land, each man's your brother.
United we stand...divided we fall.
WE'RE AMERICANS...and that says it all.

John Wayne
American

[Designer]

"..in the navy I know many) who use the term "African-American.."

USMC version; "dark green".

Semper Fi

[houeto]

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

Because you're MUCH more than that. You are an Conservative American!

[AmericaUnite]

That is sooooooooo true!

[antisocial]

"He would have been better to go with "black."

I guess we better start calling it the "United Black College Fund".

[Liberty Valance]

I saw Rooney on Imus this morning. Nobody is commenting on his elitist statements concerning IQ and voting. The jist of it was that the votes should only correspond to the IQ of the voter. Those who's IQ was lower well...their votes are worth less than those with higher IQs. He was trying to insinuate that Kerry should have won the last election. I've got news for that tiresome, whiney old bigot...

You're fired!

Did you ever notice...
that Andy Rooney looks like a cocker spaniel?

[Enterprise]

Andy retirement bump

[Delta 21]

Careful! Your gonna piss of all the folks with club feet.

[R. Scott]

I had friends who were very black, he was from Nicaragua, she was from Panama. They called each other “Nigrito” and “Nigrita” – affectionate terms for a black man and woman.

[TomGuy]

The 'culture' has gone from

1920s colored to
1950s Negro to
1960s Afro American to
1970s African American to
1980s Black to
1990s people of color.

It has gone full circle.

[Charles Henrickson]

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. . . .

But I didn't say that "white" was the counterpart to "Negro" back then. It wasn't. It was "Caucasian." "Negro" and "Caucasian" refer to race, genetics, racial characteristics, that sort of thing, in a neutral way. "White" is the counterpart to "black," and they refer to skin color. Now if we want to keep balanced counterparts, then the equivalent to "African-American" would be "European-American," both of them referring to continents of origin.

[NCC-1701]

Isn't there a wine or champaign with the word Negro in it? If so, looks like a name change is in the future.

[razorback-bert]

Andy Rooney becomes Archie Bunker.

[kayak]

When I was a child growing up in the South the word Negro was used (pronounced nee'-gro) and when it was written it was always capitalized. The capitalization would keep it from being a permitted word in Scrabble.

[zeugma]

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

I prefer to annoy them with "Human" myself.

[robertpaulsen]

"Could be, then again with niger being the latin word for black, that's a possibility also."