Latest on "negro"

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 27, 2014, at 12:26 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 4/26/2014 11:54 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock wrote:
>> I thought it was just that as we become accustomed to words, they
>> become more objectifying? So, we change the approved terminology
>> from time to time in an effort to keep the meaning clean?
>> --
>> Kate
>
> I wonder if this has been argued, or discussed, by anyone who has
> written on the historical evolution of the terms that were used to
> refer to African-Americans (either by others or by themselves)?

So this would be an instance of the "euphemism treadmill" (named by Pinker, but described in much the same terms by Cicero)?

LH
>
> One author who examines the history is Patrick Rael, in "Black
> Identity & Black Protest in the Antebellum North (Chapel Hill:
> University of North Carolina Press, 2002) and in his Introduction to
> "African-American Activism before the Civil War: The Freedom Struggle
> in the Antebellum North (New York: Routeledge, 2008).
>
> Joel
>
>
>> On Apr 26, 2014, at 8:01 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: Latest on "negro"
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Jonathan Lighter
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>> >
>> >> Nobody explained why "the 'Negro' word" was bad
>> >
>> >
>> > In like manner, nobody has explained why "African-American" is "good" and
>> > not simply ridiculous.
>> >
>> > I've decided to go with what's on my birth certificate: "colored," with
>> > "black" reserved for formal occasions, such as the Census. Like, why not?
>> > I'm even considering punting BE for n[egro]d[ialect], as accurate a
>> > denomination as any other.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > -Wilson
>> > -----
>> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
>> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> > -Mark Twain
>> >
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>>
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>
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