"People of color"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/31/2009 08:53 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>One more language-related observation on Wilson's post:
>
>On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 7:37 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > All non-anti-Semitic - or is that "Semetic"? - blacks are, in general,
>
>(Anti-)semitic, with an "i". Mnemonically, think of "Semite".

I thought Wilson's comments were anti-semiotic.

Joel

>The idea
>behind the name was that the "races" of mankind were descended from
>Noah's sons (Genesis 9:18-27). ... Time out to check OED.... OMG:
>
>  -----
>     A person belonging to the race of mankind which includes most of
>the peoples mentioned in Gen. x. as descended from Shem son of Noah,
>as the Hebrews, Arabs, Assyrians, and Aramæans. Also, a person
>speaking a Semitic language as his native tongue.
>  -----
>
>No disclaimer, no "supposed". Isn't it past time to rewrite this and
>throw that racial presupposition out onto the dustbin of history?!
>
>m a m
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org