Posted on 11/04/2005 6:05:14 AM PST by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at drudgereport.com ...
I am 1/16 Chaktaw, 1/2 Mexican and the rest made up of Irish, Welsh, German and Portugese thrown in too, but I was born in New Mexico.
Just call me a mongrel.
Of course, I am just going by what I have read from that period, I defer to anyone who actually lived during that time. In 1955, what was the more commonly used term, white or Caucasian?
They have recently changed it to just, "The College Fund."
On the other hand the NAA(L)CP, still doesn't have a problem with the term "colored."
There used to be resturant Called "Sambo's" in my hometown where we would turn around on our nightly main drag, but I think its a "Denny's" now.
I'm thinking of a George Carlin skit.
My wife is hispanic, my mother-in-law calls my father-in-law "Negro" (Nay-gro) sometimes. My parents have a friend that has the nickname "Blacky". He's not black, that's just what they call him for no particular reason.
I had a black employee who refused to go with a bunch of us to a restaurant called "Sambo's". I explained to her that Black Sambo was chased around a tree by a tiger and tigers are only found in India. Thus, Black Sambo was from India and not an African American and it was not demeaning to her. She went to the restaurant.
If CBS News wasn't so niggardly with compensation for their news anchors, they may be able to get better people.
Is that doctored??
No, there's nothing wrong with "Negro" except that over time the word developed an implied negative to many - sort of like the word "liberal".
Really? I stand corrected. I'm surprised I did not see anything on it...news junkie that I am.
only problem is, our national language is English -- therefore, black.
That word is really outdated and condecending.
Several TV cartoons from the 40's, 50's, and 60's are 'banned' too.
http://www.freewebs.com/mightytoons/bannedcartoons.htm
"The Censored Eleven" are eleven cartoons that are considered "racist" or "too politically incorrect" by today's standards. This list was created in 1968 by United Artists (then owners of the A.A.P. library) and is of cartoons withheld from distribution by the current distributor. Ted Turner refused to allow any of them to be transmitted on television or released on home videotape or laser videodisc, so these are extremely rare.
[I recently found a torrent that has the 11 and downloaded them for archival purposes. I remember seeing some of them when I was a youth.]
Also, Song of the South (Disney) is not available in the US, although it is available overseas. And Animal Farm 1954 is seldom seen, as it has a newer version that has been 'edited' to be more appropriate.
It depended on the setting and the context. I was born in 1953 and grew up in the North, in the city of Chicago. I think that in common parlance whites would refer to themselves as "white," simply because that was easier to say than the more scientifically-based "Caucasian." And in common parlance they would refer to blacks as "black," for the same reason--unless they wanted to say something derogatory, in which case they would use "n*gger."
In more formal language--newspapers, e.g., which in those days were more formal than today's USAToday-speak--the term "Negro" would be used, and there was nothing racist about it. It was a neutral term. I'm sure this is Andy Rooney's frame of reference.
In the mid-to-late '60s "Negro" gave way to "black," with the advent of the "Black Power" and "Black is beautiful" movements. Then "Afro-American" came along in the early '70s," and in the last 20 years or so that has morphed into the sesquipedalian "African-American."
I am just curious as to what nomenclature is used in say, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands to compare with the term Afro-American. Then some archeologists say we all originated in the continent of Africa therefore we are all Afro Americans, right? This silliness has got to stop. Race is sometimes an important issue in the diagnosis of disease. Skin, eye and hair color is sometimes important in identification of a victim or criminal. Otherwise, why is it necessary at all?
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