Latest on "negro"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Bundy's use of the definite article - as though all "Negroes" are the same
- undoubtedly was a factor in revealing him to be, as a Democrat put it
this morning, an "uber-racist." (To me that means Himmler level, but let it
go.)

No one I've heard on TV has had the linguistic discernment to mention
Bundy's use of the "'the'-word." They quite clearly feel or believe or
"know" that "Negro" itself is "offensive."

And don't forget: "persons of color" is respectful, but "colored people" is
offensive. "Colored persons" is, I would think, more offensive yet.


JL


On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Latest on "negro"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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