Latest on "negro"

[Joel S. Berson]

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)?

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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