N-word - def. not covered

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/1/2011 04:51 PM, Salikoko Mufwene wrote:
>The racial category of 'Black' is defined differently from one polity to
>another. Your first shock may start when you visit a place such as
>Jamaica, where the category of 'Black' denotes a narrower category,
>excluding those people claimed by the category 'Brown'. I am not sure
>any more whether the Somali count as Nilotic or Semitic, but certainly
>not as as North Africans. However, it is not unusual for people from the
>Horn of Africa not to consider themselves "Black," though they are
>automatically classified as such in North America.

I think that the term "Moor" once included peoples of the Horn of
Africa, present-day Ethiopians, Somalis, etc., and perhaps also
Egyptians.  (My recollection from Curran's book.)  That might support
their considering themselves as North Africans, rather than
sub-Saharan Africans (blacks, Negroes).

>Same shock for
>Mulattoes, who don't count as "Black" in parts of Africa

And also South America?

>but find
>themselves grouped with "Blacks" in North America.

Joel

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