return of "colored"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 10:56 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> At 3/29/2012 08:53 AM, Amy West wrote:
>>I just remarked on a student paper's that "colored" is an old-fashioned
>>term and so should be avoided. But then I had to think about the "C" in
>>NAACP: is it not marked there?
>
> IIRC, there has been much warm discussion within the NAACP about the
> C and whether to change it.  I think some argued against changing a
> name with a long history.

In the early '90s, Arsenio Hall pointed out the problem of replacing
"Colored People" with "African Americans" in the name of the group --
you get the unfortunate acronym NAAAA.

--bgz


--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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